Fun Facts About Wedding Day

• Published by Editorial Staff
• Posted on March 15, 2013
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There seems to be a never ending line of tradition and rules to follow for your wedding day. Sometimes we follow tradition and have truly no idea where it came from .Why do we continue the tradition if we have no idea where it come from or why it is done in such a particular way anyways.

The very widely accepted idea of the wedding ring is worn on the fourth finger on the left hand is the perfect example of following tradition. There are many different stories as to why many cultures do this actually but a consistent belief. Is that the fourth finger on your left hand has a vain called the vena amoris was believed to be directly connected to the heart which was deciphered as a symbol of love.

This tale was created by the Romans hundreds of years ago and unfortunately is not true. There are equal veins through each of your fingers. None directly connected to the heart. The wedding ring finger tradition apparently has no real reason.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe. An English nursery rhyme to be sure the wedding day sends her off with everything she needs for her marriage to be a success.

Something old represents connection to the bride’s past and family. Something new of course represents luck and optimism on this new journey. Something borrowed is supposed to come from a happily married couple so their good fortune carries over to the newly-weds. Something blue is to be a small token upon the wedding dress or jewelry. The color blue, particularly sapphire represents fidelity and loyalty. Prior to the 19th century blue was a popularly chosen color for a wedding dress. And last but not least a sixpence in her shoe is to grant financial security. Since the sixpence is no longer minted a different coin is usually substituted. Unless a keepsake sixpence is bought from a company that creates them.

This tradition seems like a good idea, usually wedding days take a great amount of luck to get through unscathed. Therefore having all kinds of good luck tokens seem to be logical.

Another commonly practiced wedding tradition that’s history is usually unknown is the veil and bridesmaids. The veil is worn to cover the brides face so evil spirits will not realize she is the bride. Which is also why there are bridesmaids, they were to surround the bride and confuse the spirits to who the actual bride was and leave.

The throwing of rice is somewhat transformed to blowing bubbles. The tradition was the attendees would throw rice to wish the couple prosperity and happiness. Since rice is apparently too difficult to clean up this tradition has been changed to different things such as bird see, which the birds will just eat so no clean up necessary, or blowing bubbles which is quite popular. It seems to be a tradition that is partially followed kind of like the wedding car or the bouquet toss.

The wedding carriage is supposed to be drawn by gray horses in order to signify fertility. The car is also supposed to travel for a short distance before going back to the church after the bride is set. Wedding cars are to be decorated with tin cans and flowers, not so much peanut butter and condoms.

The bouquet toss is still widely practiced but not in a traditional form. The tradition goes that the bride is to throw the bouquet whoever catches it will be the next to get married. She must take a small slice of wedding cake home and place it under her pillow so she can dream about her upcoming marriage and husband to be.

There are many traditions that are not followed today for one reason or another. Things such as; the bridal bouquet use to contain herbs and spices instead of flowers to ward off evil spirits, bride being carried over the threshold is also a thing of the past, surprisingly asking the father of the bride before asking the bride herself has drastically decreased in practice as well. The fathers of the brides are getting off a little easier there is a dramatic decrease in fathers picking up the tab for their daughters nuptials. The bride no longer changes into her “going away suit” either. The most surprising of all diminishing wedding traditions would have to be the lack of immediate honeymoons after the wedding.

Whether you choose tradition of contemporary nuptials, do it your way. Plan the things you want and are important to you. Maybe now that there has been some light shed on the traditions some can be chosen for the right reasons or disregarded because the make no sense.

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