Wedding Customs

According to our Software I've photographed 507 weddings in the past 23 years, but mainly in the past 11 years!

I am a big Trivia buff and I liked to tell my brides about the customs that I know about. Like why the bride wears a veil and has her dad walk her down the isle?

From what I researched years ago, its because of the days of Prearranged weddings. (Like still happen in the middle east) Families of wealth wanted their children to marry money. So when they had a child, a girl or boy, they would look around at their friends with wealth and try to find a child the same age of the opposite sex to marry. This kept the money in the family (and the peasants out of the bloodline.)

The reason women wore veils was because they wanted to conceal the identity of the bride. They did not want the groom to see the bride because if he saw her before the wedding and she was not all that attractive, then he would not BE AT THE WEDDING!!! It wasn't BAD LUCK. It was BAD LOOKS!
The reason her dad walked her down the isle was because she could not SEE To walk. The veils were solid, like the Burma's women wear in the middle east today.
They were completely concealed by the veil and she couldn't even see to walk down the aisle. Plus her dad knew who the groom was and he was leading her to him. The veil was not lifted until the vows were taken and both had made their covenants to each other. Then the groom lifted the veil to see his betrothed was. Hopefully she was pretty, and vice versa!

So glad that we Americans have the freedom to choose who we marry. This practice is still happening in different parts of the world. Including Dowries, where a brides family has to pay a grooms family to marry their daughter. Very common in India.

Here are some other customs we do today and where they came from.

The Groom’s Cake- A deeply-rooted Southern custom, not something you see much up North.

According to superstition, any single woman at a wedding should go home with a slice of groom’s cake and sleep with it under her pillow. That night, she’ll dream of her future husband. Whether or not this holds true, it seems that the groom’s cake is making a comeback, and not just in the South.

Tying the Knot- This comes from the days of the Roman empire when the Bride wore a girdle that was tied in knots. The Groom untied the knots before they, well… you know.

Diamond Engagement Ring- Italians started this tradition, they believed the diamond was created from the flames of love.

Garter- Brides originally tossed a garter, rather than a bouquet, at a wedding reception. In the 14Th century, this custom changed after Brides became tired of fighting off the drunken men who tried to remove the garter themselves!

The Ring Finger- Prior to the 5th century, the ring finger was actually the index finger. Later, it was believed that the third finger contained the vena amoris, “vein of love” that led directly to the heart.

Tossing the Bouquet- Guests used to try to rip pieces of the bride’s dress and flowers in order to keep some of her good luck. To escape, the bride would toss her bouquet and run away. Today the bouquet is tossed to single women with the idea that whoever catches it will be the next to marry.

The Best Man- ”Marriage By Capture” this goes back to when men would kidnap or capture the woman they wanted to make their bride. This obviously was not a one man job, and of course the future groom would only choose the “best man” he knew to come long for such an important task.

The Groom’s Boutonniere- This goes back to medieval times when a knight wore his lady’s “colors,” proudly displayed for all to see.