Think of a bride, and for nearly everyone all over the world, the picture is the same, a snowy dress, floating veil and trailing bouquet, the traditional wedding we all know. But the white wedding, with all the frills, is not so very old; like many other good things, it's Victorian. They put together all the ingredients we now think of as quite indispensable to a white wedding.
Weddings have always been considered a good excuse for a party, and the elaborate iced and marzipanned cakes, which are the centrepiece of the Receptions of today, didn't evolve until the 17th Century. Long before this date, the Anglo-Saxons went to Church only to have their weddings blessed, with later on, the Priests moving on to taking over the whole ceremony, and turning a business agreement into a full religious rite.
Mediaeval weddings were magnificent affairs, with strutting Knights and Household Clergy travelling hundreds of miles to take part in the feasting and jousting, and enormous banquets were given. As was recorded at Westminster on St Clement's Day, 1243: -"Thirty thousand dishes were got ready for those who sat down to the wedding 'dinner'".
Later on, following Henry VIII's break with Rome, only Anglican marriages were recognized, and, in the England of Elizabeth I, Catholic Priests were not supposed to exist at all. Most Catholics overcame this difficulty by being married in secrecy by Catholic Priests who had gone under cover. Between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I when Catholic Mary came on the throne, the whole thing was thrown into reverse, with the Church on the look-out for those who refused to follow the old rites of the Church of Rome - "Whether there be any that refuseth to kysse the Prieste at any lyke ceremony observed of Matrimony." (The "kysse of the Priest" was the Benedictional Kiss in the Catholic wedding Service - the 'Sacerdotal PAX'. After the Priest had kissed the new bride, sometimes one of the assistant Priests would then kiss all the guests.
As to the Bride's dress, a favourite of the 'twenties' was Silver Lamé. In 1973, the daughter of a Welsh poet chose to wear one of her father's Bardic crowns at her wedding. At another wedding, the bride carried a Rosary given to her sister by Pope John XXII. Often, until quite recently, a silver sixpence in the Bride's shoe as a good luck token, was very much in fashion.
As for gifts, nowadays often money, travel tickets and even Insurance Policies are given. Occasionally, weddings are cancelled or postponed at the very last moment, due to illness or even sudden death of a very close relative of either the bride or groom. If a complete cancellation is necessary, all the gifts are then returned.
Very few proposals are nowadays made on bended knee, but this was very usual in times gone by. Saturday has long been the most popular day to be married, presumably because that is a day on which most Guests can attend.
Finally, it may be pleasant to think of the newly married couple, entwining their little fingers and drinking Champagne from one glass.
Rosemary Goulding
Editor's remarks:
Today weddings can take place in any licensed building, hotels, restaurants, ships, leisure centres and many other places apart from churches. This has meant a considerable decrease in the number of church weddings. Soon children can be "named" at civil ceremonies instead of the traditional "Christening" or "Holy Baptism" in church! MF.
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