Traditions

I’ve always found something sweet and supremely charming about a tradition. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘tradition’ as “the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction.”
That last part of NOT being written down makes all traditions a little more difficult to confirm exact meaning or reasoning behind, however upon some thorough research, I was able to find some of the classic and a few obscure wedding tradition meaning & reasoning.

Here are a few of my favorites!

Something Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue:
We’ve all heard this rhyme used when someone gets married, but what the heck does it mean? Wearing “something old” represents the bride’s past, while the “something new” symbolizes the couple’s happy future. The bride should get her “something borrowed” from someone who is happily married in the hope that some of that person’s good fortune rubs off on her. “Something blue” denotes fidelity and love.

Rain on the Big Day:
Some cultures believe it symbolizes a cleansing from the past and preparing the couple for the future.

Southern folklore says that to prevent rain on your big day, you should bury a bottle of bourbon upside down at the wedding site one month before and dig it up after the ceremony to enjoy with family & friends.

Flowers:
Once upon a time, the bridal bouquet was not an aesthetic accent, but a necessary accessory. In the Middle Ages, brides would carry herbs with pungent scents, like dill and garlic, to ward off evil spirits and to mask the unpleasant scent of body odor. Keep in mind, they didn’t bathe very often back then. Can you imagine there NOT being flowers at a wedding now?!

Cake:
The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where guests broke a loaf of bread over the bride’s head for fertility’s sake.

When Queen Victoria opted to crown her wedding cake with mini sculptures of herself and Prince Albert in 1840, the bride-and-groom cake topper was born. By the 1920’s, the trend had crossed the pond to the United States, gaining popularity in the 1950’s when couple figurines came to symbolize marital stability.

After a couple has cut into their wedding cake, the top tier is often set aside and placed in a freezer for safekeeping until their first anniversary when they may savor the saved cake. However, according to Martha Stewart Weddings, tradition once held that the cake should be retrieved and eaten in celebration of the birth or christening of the couple’s first child, as that event was generally expected to occur within the first year of marriage.

Weekday Weddings:
The 1903 edition of the White House Book of Etiquette made a point to advise young women selecting their wedding date of the rhyme: “Mondays are for wealth, Tuesday for health…Saturday no luck at all.” The point being, a young lady with any proper upbringing would know better than to schedule her wedding on a weekend.
Times have certainly changed though. Today it is more common to hold a wedding on a weekend- Saturday especially, with weekdays being looked down upon. The shift seems to have come partially to better accommodate guests who need to travel long distances for the ceremony.

Jet-setting Honeymoons:
Travel post-wedding was not always the norm. Ancient Norse bridal couples went into hiding after the wedding, during which a family member would bring them a cup of honey wine for 30 days — or one moon — which is how the term “honeymoon” originated. Kind of the exact opposite of the way most couples spend up to 14 days post-nuptial exchange.

One statement I found while researching however has really stuck with me:
“Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” 
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

If something with in a “tradition” doesn’t sit right in your gut – YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT! There is nothing that says anything is ‘required’ when it comes to a wedding. The only thing does have to be present, is the LOVE between the two being wed. The entire day is a display of that one major thing and as long as there’s that, it will be a long and happy marriage!

Xoxo,
Kate