Incorporating wedding traditions in your wedding day is a wonderful and fun way of celebrating and recognising the historical importance of marriage whilst doing it in a more modern way.
Here are many examples of some traditions that are still popular throughout the United Kingdom today. Many of the traditions date back many hundreds of years and consequently their origins are not fully known although most have their roots in ancient superstitious beliefs. So, if you read other explanations elsewhere, don't be surprised since there are many about and they may well be the true meaning.
The full wording of this popular bridal attire rhyme, which dates all the way back to the Victorian times, is 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in your shoe.' Something old refers to wearing something that represents a connection with the bride's family and her old life before marriage. Usually, the bride wears a piece of family jewellery or maybe her mother's or grandmother's wedding dress in some cases.
Wearing something new represents good fortune and success in the bride's new life. The bride's wedding dress is usually chosen, if purchased new, but it can be any other new item of the bride's wedding attire, such as jewellery.
Wearing something borrowed, which has already been worn by a bride that is extremely happy in marriage at her wedding, is meant to bring good luck to the marriage. Something borrowed could be any item of bridal clothing, a handkerchief or an item of jewellery.
Wearing something blue dates right back to biblical times when the colour blue was considered to represent purity and fidelity. Over time this has evolved through the years from wearing blue clothing to wearing a blue band around the bottom of the bride's dress and in more recent years where the bride wears a blue or blue-trimmed garter around the top of her leg underneath her dress.
There aren’t just the British traditions though for example Germans have traditions such as throwing rice over the Groom and Bride when leaving the marriage ceremony it is thought that the number of grains that fall and stay in the Brides hair indicates the number of children they will have in the years to come.
This is a widely used tradition even in these modern years it is still used by many different people before getting married. Even if the people aren’t superstitious it is still a tradition that is followed on.