A Bride’s Book of Wedding Traditions

The book catalogs some of the roots of our current wedding traditions. Many traditions date back to ancient times — for example, using the fourth finger on the left hand as the wedding ring finger originated in ancient Egypt. The other traditions date back to marriage by capture, marriage as a means of property transfer, marriage as a means to produce heirs, or superstitions about evil spirits.

I want to avoid any of the fertility traditions — there will be no baby’s breath at my wedding! However, the superstition traditions are more than welcome. I’m not superstitious, but it’s still fun to buy into a little of the hype. I’ll certainly be wearing “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue”! Though I won’t go so far as making my bridesmaids dress exactly like me (to confuse evil spirits).

Unfortunately, I was often left wanting more explanations on the traditions — the short paragraph or two was often not enough.