There is lost of tradition and superstitions related to weddings. I wouldn’t be able to mention them all but here are few I found interesting. And what other exciting customs do you know of? I would love to hear about them…
Bouquet
After the wedding reception the bride should throw her bouquet back over her shoulder towards unmarried female guests. The one who catches the bouquet will be the next to get married.
The groom should choose flower from bride’s bouquet for his buttonhole to show his love.
Confetti
Confetti means sweets in Italian and they used to be thrown over the couple as they leave the church to bring prosperity. Nowadays paper confetti is more common. In some traditions rice or small coins (for instance in Poland) are used.
Date
Although now most of the weddings is talking part on weekends, the superstitions say that Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the worst days to get married.
Also month of May is considered to be unlucky.
Dress
Bride should not make her own wedding dress, should not wear the whole outfit together before the day. Groom should not see her in the dress before the wedding.
Flowers
Flowers has been always used as a wedding decoration. Some flowers have their symbolic meaning therefore they should or should not be used for weddings. For instance orange blossom stands for purity, peonies represent shame while roses are symbol of love so they are most suitable for wedding flowers.
People from different cultures may attach different meaning to the same flower, for instance lilies can represent majesty to some and death to others.
Honeymoon
It used to be tradition to the newly married couple to hide from bride’s parents for the cycle of moon and they drank honey wine during this time.
In Scotland it was custom that woman with milk in her breasts to prepare bed of newlyweds to bring fertility. In Ireland a hen was tied to the bed for the same reason.
Surname
It is unlucky for a woman to marry man with surname starting with the same later as hers. (Why someone did not tell me that before? Michael & I we have both initials identical…)
Bride should also not practise writing her new name (if changing) before the wedding.
Threshold
After the wedding the groom carry the bride over the threshold to avoid bad luck if she falls when entering the house or step with the left foot first.
Wedding Cake
Wedding cake accompany almost all weddings and cutting the cake together by bride and groom symbolises their first task together, while feeding each other with the cake symbolises their commitment.
Wedding cake is usually in light colours: white, cream, silver.
In Southern USA it is tradition to have also groom’s cake which can have any colour or shape and is served at the separate table from wedding cake. In UK groom’s cake used to be popular back in Victorian times but it is not common nowadays.
Croquembouche ( croque-en-bouche ) is another cake often served at wedding receptions, baptism and holy communion, it has shape of high cone made of pastry filled with cream.
Wedding Party Favours
Traditionally small gifts are given as a gesture of gratitude to guests for attending the wedding and either given at the end of the party or placed on the tables next to each name.
NOTES
Below couple party favour ideas and bride & groom gifts I find adorable:
- Lego Bride and Groom cake decoration
- Zohula White Wedding Flip Flops
- Mr & Mrs Wooden Collage Wedding Photo Frame
- Haribo Ring Jellies
- Suki Gifts Li’L Peepers Turtles: Bride & Groom Plush
- SUCK UK Heart Hole Punch
But really there’s no such thing as “should” when you’re getting married. You don’t need to do all the traditions if you don’t want to. You’ll still wind up JUST AS MARRIED at the end of the day. I didn’t want to do the bouquet thing because it singles out all the single ladies and nobody wants to do that whole embarrassing thing, so I just didn’t.
I didn’t want to risk having cake smashed in my face, so we didn’t feed each other cake – we just shared a piece of cake together.
Basically, all this tradition can be rooted in stuff you don’t agree with or believe in, and if that’s the case – throw it out the window!
What about the tradition of giving wedding party gifts?
I found the bit about confetti very interesting.
Here in Italy we don’t throw them, and I didn’t know such a tradition even existed (since they are made with whole almonds, they’re pretty big – they hurt :P).
But we do throw rice, sometimes. And small “bomboniere” containing confetti are given out to the couple’s friends and family before or after the wedding :)
Thank you Francesca for sharing this! In Poland people throw even coins over newlyweds and later the couple with help of the children and maids have to collect them :)