How 12 wedding traditions came to be that many brides still insist on keeping on the big day

Every wedding is different. The bride and groom always add a unique touch to the celebration and try to transfer a little of their own personality, whether through the decor, the menu or the location chosen for the ceremony. However, there are certain traditional elements that are repeated in different weddings, even when people are unaware of the reasons why they are part of this type of ceremony. However, all these traditions have an origin and explanation, which often goes back several years.

Like us, from Incredible.club🇧🇷 we love a good dose of romanticism, we were curious to know where some of the customs that are still repeated at weddings came from.

In some countries like Spain, the Philippines and certain nations in Latin America, there is a custom according to which the bride and groom must exchange 13 coins, usually plated in gold and silver. It is believed that such coins were a kind of dowry formerly given by the groom to the bride’s father. They were also used as a representation of the groom’s commitment and his ability to care for and meet the future wife’s material needs. Currently, these coins symbolize the union of the couple and the mutual care that both must have with each other.

In addition to making the bride’s look more beautiful, the bouquet ensures a touch of femininity and romanticism. It is estimated that such a custom has arisen at the time of Ancient Rome. In the beginning, bouquets were made of aromatic herbs and spices, as well as flowers that symbolized fertility, happiness and fidelity.

It has been said that brides in the old days did not take a daily shower, and that bouquets had the function of disguising bad odors. This belief, however, has already been refuted, and today we know that floral arrangements did not have this function. Today, they are symbols of distinction and elegance.

The ancient custom began as a way of blessing and wishing the new couple fertility. It was a kind of ritual through which relatives and other guests showed the newlyweds that they wished them a prosperous marriage.

Nowadays, many people prefer that, when leaving the wedding, they throw soap bubbles as a more ecological alternative that generates less waste.

In European weddings of the Middle Ages, the habit of having bridesmaids emerged. However, they were not as we know them today. At the time, the lady used to be a girl from the bride’s direct family, preferably around 12 years old, who opened the procession of the future wife towards the altar.

Currently, bridesmaids tend to be adult women who accompany the bride on her big day, helping her with the dress and other needs during the preparation and preparations for the celebrations, being in charge of opening the bride’s entrance to the ceremony site. .

Elaborate wedding cakes as we know them today are not a new tradition. In ancient times, at Roman weddings, the groom broke bread over the bride’s head as a symbol of good luck and blessings not only for the couple, but also for their children.

The origin of the figure of the best man at weddings goes back centuries, in Scotland, and his function was very different from the current one.

It was the best man who helped the groom to “steal” the bride from the place where she lived so that she could marry her beloved. During and before the wedding, the best man defended the groom before the bride’s family, who were intent on getting her back. While the ceremony was taking place, the best man stood beside the groom to prevent any intruders from approaching down the aisle and trying to stop the wedding.

Currently, this practice no longer happens, and the best man simply remains to the right of the groom in order to accompany him.

When we hear about the honeymoon, we imagine that trip that the happy couple will take somewhere in order to celebrate their marriage.

However, in ancient and medieval Europe, the honeymoon referred to a kind of ritual in which the couple, during the ceremony, had to drink a drink prepared with honey. That mixture was believed to have a great effect on increasing fertility.

Subsequently, newlyweds needed to ingest the drink during an entire lunar cycle to increase the chances of conceiving and having a male baby in the first pregnancy.

In the past, the father would walk his daughter down the aisle to demonstrate that he was handing over his daughter’s “property” to her future husband. Fortunately, that meaning has changed a lot, and is now considered a gesture of unity between families and a symbol of respect and love for that marriage.

In movies, we usually see the groom carrying the bride in his arms until he walks through the front door. This tradition, however, is nothing new.

In Rome, such a custom represented a public act. It wasn’t just the groom who carried the bride into the new house, but a group of people who came together to carry her. At that moment, the bride should adopt an air of “modesty”, as if she had no intention of moving away from her family to start life in a new home.

Likewise, there was a belief that the bride could not trip when going through the door, as this would not be a good sign for the couple. Thus, the man needed to take the bride in his arms and enter the house on the right foot to ensure the success of his marriage.

Wedding rings represent the commitment between two lovers. The Romans began using the accessory with the aim of sealing letters or instruments, presenting each other with those rings during the conclusion of contracts. The habit began to be replicated in wedding ceremonies, in which the groom gave his ring to his wife as a sign of future care for household affairs.

Today, the bridal veil is seen as a feminine touch added to the bride’s costume, but the accessory’s history is quite old. In the past, the bridal veil represented the separation between the woman’s previous condition and her “debut” in a new status.

The tradition of the white dress was started by Queen Victoria on her wedding to Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Before Victorian times, women could marry in any color they wanted, except for black and red. After being launched by Queen Victoria, the trend became widely disseminated, and brides began to wear similar dresses, clearly inspired by the choice of the monarch.

If you could organize your wedding exactly the way you dreamed, what would the ceremony look like? Which traditions would you follow and which ones would you prefer to give up?