Wedding traditions

What does it all mean?

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Have you ever wondered where some of the more popular wedding traditions have come from? What the thinking is, or was, behind them. These traditions have evolved over last hundreds or thousands of years since people began to join in matrimony.

Whichever tradition you look at they all focus one the underlying theme of love or good luck and convey the messages of happiness, prosperity and unity.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

It is traditional for the bride to have ’something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue’. This is an old Victorian popular rhyme. The ’something old’ represents the bond to the bride’s past, her family and the old life she is leaving behind; the ’something new’ represents the couple’s new life together and their future hope for happiness and prosperity; the ’something borrowed’ is meant to be from an already happily married woman and will impart similar happiness to the bride; and the “something blue” signifies fidelity and constancy.

The White Wedding Dress

The wearing of the color white dates back to Victorian times when Queen Victoria once changed the royal tradition of wearing a silver gown, instead she chose to wear white. Before this time the bride would simply wear her best gown, rather than a special dress . The colour white also symbolizes purity and virginity. Another theory often mentioned is that the color white was also thought to ward off evil spirits in days gone by.

The throwing of confetti / white rice

The throwing of rice over the happy couple is also an ancient tradition. Rice is a ‘life giving’ seed so it is believed that by throwing it over the couple they will be bestowed with fertility and have many children.

Wedding Cake

Sharing the first piece of wedding cake comes from the Romans. They believed that eating the wedding cake together forms a special bond between the couple. The wheat which was used to bake the cake was symbolic of fertility, while the sweetness of the cake was thought to bring sweetness to all areas of the couple’s new life together.

The Kiss

Again during Roman times the kiss ’sealed’ the couple’s agreement to join into a life-long commitment to one another. The ceremonial kiss that concludes the wedding ceremony represents the couple sharing and joining their souls together for eternity.

The button-hole and flowers

The wedding tradition of the groom wearing a boutonniere or button-hole originates from medieval times as a knight would wear the colors of his lady as a statement of his love.

In addition to adorning the bride with flowers to promote good luck and good health the flowers allow the bride to express her own feelings for the groom. Orange blossoms signify purity, Daisies signify loyalty, violets portray modesty and of course red roses signify true love.

If you know of any other reasons why we do what we do, please comment below!

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