Wedding Traditions – No Thanks! – Miss Write

I’ve been reading a lot of new blogs this week and have discovered a lot of new writers, inspiration and ideas. Thanks to Wedding and Wedding Flowers, I have discovered all sorts of weird and wonderful wedding traditions from British and Irish history. 

Did you know…?

The phrase ‘tying the knot’ comes from the ancient Celtic wedding ritual of handfasting, where the bride’s and groom’s hands were tied together.

Unnerving… Start as you mean to go on?!

An old wives’ tale states that if the younger of two sisters marries first, the older sister must dance barefoot at the wedding or risk never getting married herself. 

Not a problem in my family, I’m the eldest!

Early wedding cakes didn’t sound too tasty: flat, round, contained fruit and nuts to symbolise fertility and it was often crumbled over the bride’s head.

How horrible! Not my idea of confetti!

It was said to be bad luck of the bride fell when entering the marital home for the first time, which is why being carried over the threshold is such a tradition. It may also derive from the bygone custom of the bride being ‘stolen’ and carried off by her groom.

Love this one, but the chances of us having our own place when we’re married are quite slim at the moment!

In Ireland, a laying hen was, in the past, tied to the bed on the first night of the honeymoon in the hope that some of its fertility would be passed on to the couple. 

Noisy night, anyone?

Finally, and perhaps the strangest one of all, prior to a change in the law (2012), a wedding was only legal in the UK if it took place between 8am – 6pm. Apparently this was due to a concern that the groom wouldn’t be able to see his bride’s face clearly after dark and could therefore be duped into marrying a stranger. 

What about the bride being duped?! We’re being wed at 4pm, so we’re both safe on that score!

Aside from the last one, I think my fiancé and I will leave those traditions in history’s arms. Sure, we’ve got some traditional stuff planned (I’m a reluctant traditionalist!), but the little things we do in our ceremony are more symbolic than most of the above, and some just aren’t practical. There will be a hen do, a night apart before the big day, and during the ceremony we plan to do a rose exchange in between our two mums to symbolise the joining of the two families. Also, I couldn’t walk down the aisle without my dad!

Will you, or did you, include any of these traditions in your ceremony?

Lou x

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Born To be A Tourist

Black and white image courtesy of Cartoon Stock