A Bride’s Book of Wedding Traditions
by Arlene Hamilton Stewart
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. Andrew will not see the dress, or me in the dress, before the wedding! And 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.