Wedding Traditions and Their Crazy Origins

This is my favorite blog thus-far, because out of all traditions, wedding traditions are always going to be there. And most people follow them without regard to what they mean. Here are a few of my favorite wedding traditions and how they began:

• The Bride

The origin of the word bride means "cook." Bride can also refer to the bride as "the horse" in the conversion of ownership from one man to another, hence the giving away right of the father of the bride(explained later).

• The Groom

The origin of the word groom means "boy or youth." It also refers to the caretakers of their master's stables and...HORSES!!! Hello! Women have been referred to as horses and the men as their keepers for years and no one has done a thing about it!

• The Best Man

Back in the day (which was indeed a Wednesday, BTW) men would go into a village not of his own and steal away his bride from her more than reluctant parents. If things got a little crazy, he brought along his best man to be his second. The best man was really the "best" swordsman and fighter the groom knew so he would go along with the groom to give him a little more than the simple moral support required by BMs today. The best man was also expected to guard the door of the newlyweds home in case her family came to get her back or the bride would make a run for it.

• The Bridesmaids

These days, it's an honor to be asked to be a bridesmaid. In weddings where the bride was alright with the marriage, or atleast not being stolen from her family, she instructed her bridesmaids to wear dresses that were similar to hers. This was so that the bridesmaids could act as decoys to the evil spirits or former lovers of the bride and the bridesmaids would surround the bride so that one of them would be stolen away and not the bride herself. Kind of takes the ring out of being one, doesn't it?

• The Rings

The ring finger is still referred to as such because the Romans believed that the "vein of love" to the heart ran through the fourth finger on the left hand, and the wedding rings have remained on those fingers pretty much since the institution of marriage began. The ring represented eternity and the metal of the ring represented the husband's wealth in later years. Before wedding rings were thought up, life expectancies were relatively low and husbands would place rings made of leaves and bendable branches on their wives' wrists and ankles to keep their souls from "leaking out" and leaving them before their time to go. Talk about romantic. Wedding rings were basically for the women until the 20th century when men started wearing them, too, as a sign of mutual ownership and "off the market"-ness.

• Wedding Announcements

Those little invitations will give you some kind of grief, but wedding announcements actually didn't start out as giving the guests time to mark their calendars and RSVP. It was to give them ample time to object to the marriage.

• Giving Away of the Bride

Still a tradition today, it's a father's honor to give his baby girl away. But the tradition actually began as the father giving his daughter away for peace or profit. When it was for peace, the warring families of the bride and groom would need to be present for the wedding; but since they hated each other, they would have to be seated on opposite sides of the church, hence the bride's side and groom's side. Talk about meeting the in-laws!

• The Veil

Now a symbol of virginity and virtue, the veil was actually placed over the bride's face to keep the groom from seeing her before the ceremony so he wouldn't back out of the agreement if she was a "dog." The veil was removed from the bride's face only after the vows had been exchanged. Haha sucker!

• The Wedding Dress

It's so customary now to be "all dressed in white," and it's hard to believe that bride's were married in nothing but white. However, the wedding dress was simply whatever the bride had in her wardrobe that looked the best. It wasn't until after the marriage of Queen Victoria in the 19th century that white dresses became the eptiome of bridal fashion.

• Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Six-Pence in My Shoe

"Something Old" refers to the connection the bride has to her family, mainly her mother or mother-figure in her life. Requires the bride to wear something from her family.

"Something New" represented the transition to her new life, usually something from her new family.

"Something Borrowed" would usually be borrowed from a married couple so that their good luck would follow the new married couple into their marriage.

"Something Blue" was the Jewish custom of the bride's dress border being blue to represent her purity.

"Sixpence in My Shoe" represented the penny that would go in the shoe to wish financial happiness in the marriage.

• The Tossing of the Garter and Bouquet

Back in the day, right after the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom would steal away to a room to consummate their marriage before the reception. Most family members would want proof, so they would (deep breath) stand around the marriage bed and make sure the couple was indeed doing their business right. On the way to the chamber, guests would tear at the bride's dress for good luck. Well, of course, this can really get to some people over time. So the bride would toss her bouquet so the guests so they could get their good luck, and the groom would toss out the garter from the chamber to show the guests that he was indeed about to get down to some consummating and the guests would stop being creepers and watching them do the dirty.

• The Freezing of the Wedding Cake

Usually right after the marriage, the bride was expected to get pregnant. So, instead of going through all that trouble of making another cake, the bride and groom would simply freeze the cake for the arrival of their baby, which usually came a year after their marriage.

Those are my favorites. If you have any more, please post them! I love these!