Most brides will look back on their wedding day and see similar things; the white dress, the bridal bouquet, cutting the cake and having the first dance. Regardless of how individual the day is planned to be and is, these superstitions and traditions find their way into the planning somehow. Here’s what they really mean, and how they rose to wed fame.
The White Wedding
Most brides will either choose white or choose to avoid it. Both of these decisions pay homage to the idea that white is the traditional wedding colour and ignoring it will bring bad luck. The white dress is actually thought to come from the 19th century when Queen Victoria wore white on her wedding day. This and the fact that white has always been a pure colour created the tradition that is still going strong today.
Something Old, Something New
The rhyme ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’ dates back many centuries to when superstitions were valid causes for concern. As far back as the Victorian era, women carried these four things to remember their past (the ‘old’) and their new future (the ‘new’) as well as borrowing luck from their married friends and wearing blue to show purity.
Throwing The Bouquet
Interestingly, brides were not always held in such high esteem with their guests. Back in the 1300s, guests would try to remove pieces of the bride’s outfit to ‘steal’ some of her luck. The tossing of the flowers and the garter became the alternative to ruining the wedding dress and became cemented in history as a popular wedding tradition.
There are many other traditions, from freezing a piece of the cake to pulling ribbons from the cake. All of these have developed from meanings and customs popular many years ago, although many of them are employed today simply to pay homage to the traditional act and meaning of marriage.