Health & Beauty - April 2011
With spring in the air and summer stealthily approaching invitations to weddings will be dropping onto your mat any day now. You have been asked to be a part of someone’s big day and that is fantastically flattering. There are just two decisions that you have to make compared to the three thousand facing the Bride.
One. What to wear? Two, what gift to give?
The tradition of wedding gifts was to give the new couple a good start in their new home. Receiving some candle sticks or a cooking pot would have been a real feather in the cap of a Bride in days gone by.
Today, many new Brides and Grooms may have been in a serious relationship before. Add to that the fact that most people have lived away from the family home and you are talking about a lot of existing good and chattels.
In fact it’s only a short time before the happy couple start having car boot sales at the church to off load the 5 extra toasters and the barely used George Forman Grill to make way for all the new stuff. Take this opportunity to give something really original or frivolous if this is the case.
Other traditions and superstitions that relate to weddings are mostly about good luck, prosperity and fertility.
The tying of shoes to the car, used by the couple to leave the reception, comes from Tudor times. Throwing shoes at the Bride and Groom brought good luck, even more so if one managed to hit either person or the carriage. In Anglo Saxon times the Bride was symbolically struck with a shoe by the Groom to establish his authority. The Bride threw shoes at the Bridesmaids to see who was to marry next. Who was it who said that shoes weren’t important?
‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in her shoe’
This is a rhyme that originated in the Victorian era and we still follow the traditions of the rhyme with a few twists to update them.
Something Old meant that the couple’s old friends would remain their friends. Traditionally a woman friend, one who was happily married, would lend the new Bride a garter to bring happiness to the new marriage.
Something new was to symbolise the couple’s future happiness and prosperity.
Something Borrowed was an opportunity for the Bride’s family to show their love by lending something of great value to be returned afterwards. Again this is linked to good luck.
Something Blue was a sign of fidelity and constancy.
Sixpence in her shoe was to symbolise wealth. Today the Bride will often have penny in her shoe as sixpences are not that easy to find.
The tradition of wearing a garter can take in several parts of the rhyme by making it borrowed, blue and new.
Flowers are used to decorate most weddings with a large part of the budget going to this area. Traditionally the Groom’s buttonhole is made from one of the flowers in the Bride’s bouquet. This goes back to a Knight wearing his Lady’s colours at a jousting tournament.
The wedding cake eats away at another big bite of the budget. The modern day version of the lots of little wheat cakes that were broken over the Bride’s head to bring good luck and fertility is, more often than not, a three tiered cake that is based on the strangely shaped spire of St Bride’s church in London.
When the Bride and Groom cut the cake together and share some of the piece they are signifying sharing their life together. Each guest eating a crumb brings good luck and for a single woman sleeping with a piece of it under a pillow will mean dreaming of her future husband.
Throwing confetti is yet another ancient fertility rite. Confetti is the Italian word for sweets and these were thrown at the couple emerging from the church along with handfuls of grain or nuts represent life giving seeds. I know the obsession with fertility seems dangerously out of control but producing children to work in your fields was vitally important.
Get me to the church on Time well, timing is of course important but even more important was getting to the church and walking there was potentially lucky as you could spot good omens on the way, such as a rainbow, a lamb, a toad, a black cat or a chimney sweep.
Bad omens include seeing an open grave, a pig, a hare or a lizard running across the road!
The weather on the way to the church also held deep meaning such as wind and rain representing a stormy marriage and snow representing fertility and wealth. Sun shining on the Bride was good luck.
Crossing the threshold being carried by the Groom meant the Bride was unlikely to slip or trip when entering their new home which was unlucky. This is also linked to Anglo Saxons carrying off a woman to be his Bride, which was very manly.
Bridesmaids were actually decoys. Having the Bride surrounded by richly dressed women was meant to confuse the evil spirits hanging around waiting to bring bad luck.
A Wedding involves a lot of standing up in fabulous shoes that you are not used to. We also shake hands, applaud and hold glasses of champagne to raising a toast, which means that work must begin almost immediately on manicure/pedicures. It is absolutely no good hoping for a miracle, regular maintenance is the only way to have beautiful feet and hands ready for public display.
If your outfit shows off your arms then serious dry body brushing and polishing is needed. If your outfit is leg baring and you are not wearing tights then you may need to address the mine field of fake tanning and again some good scrubs to leave the skin smooth and showing off its best fresh skin cells! I recommend a wash off fake tan to avoid the orange streaky look. Trial this well in advance I beg you. Facials should be done at least a week before to avoid the possibilities of breakouts.
Obviously as a guest, your workload of preparation will pale in comparison to that of the Bride who is waking at the dead of night in a cold sweat muttering about seating plans.
Your job as a guest is to look great, smile a lot and join in as many traditions and rituals as you can. Throw some rice, eat some cake and duck when the Bride starts throwing shoes at you.
Happy Trails, Readers, Happy Trails.
First Published April 2011 By The Dart
