Why carry a bouquet of flowers?

So in the early years, people believed rubbing garlic on your body would prevent diseases. and cure souls. Brides were no different, especially because it was said to help with fertility, something a bride should have in her mind.

The problem was that garlic, as much as it helped scaring evil spirits away, did not have a pleasant odor.

Someone along the way had the idea to embroider wedding gowns, wheat and ivy and have brides carry a bouquet of flowers with strong aromas so that they could be a little ore sweet smelling.

Cool fact is that when dresses were embroidered with wheat or ivy, brides took it after the wedding and planted it, so they could give bits of it to their daughters when it was their turn to marry.

Why wear a veil and train?

So this is my favorite finding so far.

Really romantic lol

The veil: Originally it was called a “flammeum” and looked like flames, yup, orange, brown and red & covered brides from head to toes.

Romans believed it would scare away evil spirits by making brides look as if they were “on fire”.

What's funny is that grooms would see them this way walking down the aisle, until the ceremony began and they were able to see their bride’s face, sometimes for the very first time.

The train: The train was also added by the Romans, whom had quite the concern of their brides running away. The long trains on the wedding gowns were said to make their fleeing practically impossible for they were heave, long and everyone would know they were to marry that day.

Why use engagement rings plus a wedding band?

Ok, so when Joel proposed, he gave me beautiful engagement ring and with it came a wedding band. This made me wonder why brides typically wear two rings? Do we really need two super expensive rings?

As I suspected, it is all a tramp from jewelers that own this idea of style,luxury and “tradition”. The book says you do NOT need to wear or have both. The wedding ring is the important one. The engagement ring is typically just there to look pretty, flashy, and “stylish”. Apparently in the old days, the engagement ring was used as a sort of exchange of property, because you know, marrying a woman meant you owned her. Does this mean women would become slaves to man only for a ring?

I can not help feel Joel was ripped out of thousand of dollars for an engagement ring… but Oh well, it is pretty :)

Nothing that says “I love you” more than wasting a ridiculous amount of money on a blood diamond  that will mark a man’s “property”, right?

What’s with the white dress?

So I have been looking around at different styles of wedding gowns, I have seen some pretty amazing ones in light pink, ivory and even red or black. But everyone knows that a bride is expected to wear white, but why?

Findings:

So another disappointment.

I always thought this was because white represented purity, virginity, or innocence...But apparently before the 1840s, brides just wore any nice dress they had or could afford, that is UNTIL British Queen Victoria married in 1840 with white gown. 
She set a trend that still goes on today and is probably never going to die off. It is said there was no specific reason for that color, just that she liked it. 
After her wedding, brides started wanting to dress in white, (just like the queen) and the trend became popular because white was “cool” to begin with.
What made this color so cool? >>Well the fact that it was expensive to develop on gown fabrics and it was difficult to keep clean made it unaffordable to commoners. So for a long while, only the elite could have white gowns.

In conclusion, it was a trend set my materialistic brides that wanted to show that they could afford a dress just like the Queen’s.

The meaning of  purity, virginity and  innocence were attributed along the way.

Here is a rhyme printed in the Farmer’s Almanac (which was a big deal) in the mid 1800s after Queen Victoria’s wedding.

“Married in White, you have chosen right

Married in Grey, you will go far away

Married in Black, you will wish yourself back

Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead

Married in Green, ashamed to be seem

Married in Blue, you will always be true

Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl

Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow

Married in Brown, you will live in the town

Married in Pink, your spirit will sink

...Ok so red is out of the question for me.