Tag Archive for: history

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Wedding History – Why Do We Throw Confetti at Weddings?

There are plenty of ways to welcome the bride and groom to their new life as a married couple. Besides standing up and giving them a round of applause, one of the most popular ways to recognize the union is by throwing confetti. However, how did this practice come about? and why do we thow confetti at weddings? Or failing that rose petals, or bubbles or even leaves?

Why Do We Throw Confetti at Weddings? – History

This practice was actually something that began in Italian weddings two centuries ago. Nobles used to throw candies and flowers during the parades while dames threw eggshells filled with essences and perfumes. In Italian “confetti” is actually not what you throw at celebrations; the term itself refers to candy-coated almonds that you hand to guests as party favours – Also known as dragée or comfit. The thing you throw is called “coriandoli.” The English language simply adapted the term despite being a misnomer. 

The throwing of confetti relates somewhat to the act of throwing rice at a wedding. This is a tradition that is still being practised to this day for couples that want a family. It is a symbol of fertility and luck for the couple as parents. 

The first paper confetti was produced for the Carnivale di Milano with the intention of celebrating joyous occasions. The British then adapted this and introduced it to a wedding in 1875. 

Throwing confetti is laced in a rich history of taking inspiration from one culture and adapting it to a new one. Wedding traditions from various cultures around the world have overlapped and combined and intertwined to such a degree that it’s not unheard of to see confetti in weddings around the world. 

Why Do We Throw Confetti at Weddings?

It’s Fun!

Confetti was meant to bring life to celebrations and memorable festivities, so why can’t it be at a wedding? The bright colours of confetti celebrate joy and can make the ceremony more beautiful. 

Some of it will get on your hair, the veil, the dress, and the suit, but that is not really something to worry about. Seeing your spouse’s suit or dress covered in it can bring a big smile to your face, which is always a great thing when you leave the aisle together as newlyweds.

Bridal exit from their ceremony

It Makes Great Wedding Photographs

It’s okay to think about how the photos will turn out. Confetti brings a great visual element to your photos, bringing in bright specs of vibrant colours into the frame. Many liken the confetti to petals falling from the sky, especially when beautiful colours are chosen.

Getting good shots with confetti in the air will be tricky. It’s probably not something that your friend with no photography experience can capture on their phone. To make sure that these come out right and perhaps even more stunning than you would ever imagine, you need a professional photographer to do the job for you on the day of the ceremony.

Bridal exit

Confetti is however not great for the Earth as it’s often made of plastic, or coloured paper that will not biodegrade well – so many wedding venues will actually charge a cleanup fee in order to allow the use of confetti or not allow it at all! Some environmentally friendly alternatives include rose petals, gumleaves that have been hole punched, bubbles, or if at night time, sparklers!

National wine center wedding Exit under sparklers

Whatever reason you want to have confetti at your wedding is valid. It’s a fun idea that is laced in many great customs that anyone can adopt to make their wedding day special. It’s a celebration of love and great joy, so go ahead and incorporate it into the ceremony if you want to. The wedding photos after will be filled with amazing colours as you walk up the aisle as newlyweds.

Make your memories last with the best wedding photos to remember them by. For the best wedding photography services in Adelaide, get in touch with Sven Studios. We capture moments as they happen, bringing the joy of weddings through our photos. Contact us now!

We also have a whole heap of other wedding custom origin stories along with the answer to why do we throw confetti at weddings?, so feel free to get in touch for a bit of a chat! We love talking wedding!

 

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The Surprising Origins of the Wedding Bouquet Toss

Origins of the Wedding Bouquet Toss

One of the highlights of a wedding is the bouquet toss. Just like the cake cutting, the first dance, and the best man’s speech, it has become a staple in a wedding programme. The bouquet toss makes for some great wedding photos, but it has an interesting story behind it as well!

Why do weddings have a bouquet toss today?

The origins of the wedding bouquet toss dates back quite a way, and like many wedding traditions tends to hide some of the more ‘sultry’ parts of what a wedding represents.

In Medieval Europe, people considered bridal dresses lucky. Once a ceremony is over, the bride gets to keep the dress and never wears it again. Before this happens, some women who wanted to share in the good luck would chase the bride and try to tear pieces from the dress. By the time the bride manages to get away and join the groom, there would be barely anything left of her attire!

Naturally, weddings that took place in a church, (as most were) tended to view this tradition of deflocking a bride as she exited the church as a little repugnant, so eventually, brides started throwing other things, like her garter and bouquet.

Flowers became a popular item to throw since they represent fertility as well. The recipient of the bouquet is supposed to have romantic good luck from catching the item—they inherit the bride’s fortune in finding someone to wed.

It’s turned out well that the custom developed this way; wedding dresses tend to be expensive, and few women would want to see theirs destroyed. Also, many brides choose to keep their wedding dresses as keepsakes or heirlooms to their children.

Hanging Thorngrove Manor wedding dress

Bouquet tosses in today’s ceremonies

Today, the bouquet toss is a fun moment in the wedding ceremony, it tends to be a distracting end to more tearjerking or sentimental formalities to lead into the party! It involves the bride gathering the single ladies in attendance, who will gather a few paces behind her and try to catch the bouquet she throws. It’s an opportunity for the wedding photographer to take dynamic shots. In some weddings, the single men get in on the fun as well with the garter toss.

Sometimes, the bride requests one of her bridesmaids’ bouquet for the toss so she can preserve the flowers in hers, or have a specially made ‘toss bouquet’ for the occasion. Occasionally, brides might throw one made of artificial flowers, or paper so that everyone can keep their bouquets as mementos. Some bouquets can be heavy too, so throwing one into a drunken mass of people can be a recipie for disaster.

Bouquet toss

Are you ready to throw your bouquet?

If you want to keep this tradition in your programme, make sure you tell your wedding planner or maid of honour. They should inform the MC when to announce bouquet toss, and time it for when people are no longer eating or milling about outside after the meal. Furthermore, it’s vital to keep your wedding photographer aware of the flow of activities so that they can prepare their equipment for each part.

You should also know how to transition the program from the toss into another activity; it will look awkward to move abruptly from the bouquet toss into something else! Since the bridesmaids and single ladies are already front and centre, perhaps you could have them participate in a game, to extend the fun. You could also open the dance floor at this point so everyone can end the evening on a high note.

Bouquet toss

Today, throwing the bouquet is a fun tradition sure to deliver some laughs, especially among the single women. Be sure to incorporate this activity into the ceremony by prepping the DJ, master of ceremonies, and the photographer properly. Finally, make sure you get a photographer who can capture the event and give you something to look back on fondly.

Everything at a wedding has a tradition steeped in history, and the origins of the wedding bouquet toss is no exception. It can be a bit of fun researching this kind of thing if you’ve ever wondered why we do certain things at times like a wedding!

bouquet

Weddings are among the most memorable events in a person’s life, and SvenStudios can help you immortalise yours. We work out of Adelaide, specialising in wedding photography all around Australia! Get on an obligation-free video or in-person meeting to discuss your wedding today!

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Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

Have you ever wondered what the meaning and the origin behind this famous bridal poem  was? Well as a wedding photographer, I too was intrigued, as I am with any aspect of the wedding tradition and I did a little research. It’s a poem that’s synonymous with modern weddings, it’s a tradition that is still fiercely followed to this day, despite it’s meaning mostly being lost upon many of the brides I’ve talked to about it.

If I see a bride getting these items ready, I generally try to take a photo of the set before they are worn for posterity’s sake, so I figured it might be interesting to find out why the tradition exists in the first place.  Turns out the poem is actually simply a rhyming list of varying other traditions that were in place prior to the poem for various different ways to grant good luck to the bride and her marriage.

Something blue

The poem dates back to Victorian times, and as I wrote earlier, links a number of older traditions that brides adhere to for good luck. All 4 traditions of something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue are purely superstitious in nature with the minor exception that the ‘something blue’ part could relate to the religious colours of the Virgin Mary.

However in Victorian times, brides would choose the colour blue to symbolise faithfulness and loyalty, and was actually the preferred colour of wedding dresses at the time, but that’s another story.

‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’

Something old

Incorporating something old into a bride’s attire was meant to symbolise her connection to her roots, her family and where she grew up. Carrying this with her into her future so that she may draw from her family’s strength in whatever the future has in store for her. Many brides choose to wear a piece of antique family jewelry or a piece of clothing handed down through the generations. In modern times this idea that the ‘something old’ has some connection to family is often forgotten in lieu of some old possession, often shoes or even underwear.

Something new

Just as the ‘something old’ was supposed to link her with her past, the ‘something new’ part of the poem was supposed to symbolise the new life she will have wedded to her new husband. One marketing technique bridal boutiques use when selling their customers wedding gowns is that the ‘something new’ should represent good fortune and success in the bride’s new life, and therefore should be the most expensive thing she’s wearing. Quite often though, aside from the wedding dress the ‘new’ item is the engagement ring, or her shoes.

Bridal jewellery

Something borrowed

Getting ‘something borrowed’ in modern times is often misunderstood as simply ‘borrowing’ something from anyone, be it perfume or some earrings. Often brides accidentally get it right however by borrowing something from their mother or Matron of honour as traditionally the ‘borrowed’ item should be something borrowed from an already happily wedded wife so as to bring a little bit of the good luck she has had in her life into this new marriage. The borrowed item is also there to remind the bride that friends and family are there to support her.

Something blue

Having something blue in the Victorian era symbolised faithfulness, loyalty and purity. All the things the white wedding dress these days represents. The colour blue however relates to the colour of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Christian faith, thereby being the only tradition in the list directly related to organised religion, the rest being a secular tradition. That said however, the colour blue represents these things purely by the nature of its hue, just as red represents danger and gold, wealth.

Bridal Affects

And a silver sixpence in my shoe

An often forgotten part of the poem ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in my shoe’ is the last of the five traditions which was to place a silver sixpence in the bride’s shoe to ensure wealth in the future. Obviously we no longer use sixpences anywhere outside of the UK, and therefore have largely forgotten this part of the rhyme, but it was there and it may be something you brides out there might like to consider if you’re following the rhyme 🙂

In addition to the bride carrying Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in her shoe; nestled all over her body would be bunches of herbs to ward off bad spirits. This tradition has been almost completely replaced by the carrying of a bridal bouquet, which has it’s own sets of traditions associated with it.

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Why are wedding gowns white? A History

Elegant bride in white lace wedding dress holding a bouquet in a softly lit room.

Why are wedding gowns white?

It is perhaps the most iconic scene from any wedding day, the white wedding dress adorning the beaming bride. But why are wedding gowns white? And why do brides wear white? There is a huge number reasons, not in the least the fact that white is the brightest of colours, further enhancing the bride’s visibility on her big day, but it’s a tradition that has evolved over hundreds of years for a variety of reasons.

Alru Farm wedding bride

Why are wedding gowns white? A bit of history.

To be perfectly pedantic, the traditional colour of a modern white dress isn’t actually white, it’s more “Candlelight,” “Ivory,” “Ecru” or “Frost” when putting my graphic designer hat on.. But to the common layman, they all look like a white wedding dress, right? Anyway, the answer to the question of why are wedding dresses white all has to do with the popularity of some people who happened to wear white on their wedding day, and as a species who like to copy our idols, the fashion caught on and became tradition.

Victoria Albert Wedding

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria of England who reigned from 1837-1901 was the first to make white wedding dresses fashionable by wearing a pale gown trimmed in orange blossoms for her 1840 wedding to her first cousin, Prince Albert. Naturally, because she was the queen and the center of all things high society at the time, whatever she wore, everyone tried to copy.

Kind of like how it is now with everything Kate Middleton, or any red carpet celebrity wears being reported on. As a bit of a side note here, Anne of Brittany also made white wedding dresses popular all the way back in 1499, believing that white was a symbol of virginity – despite being married once before. Royal brides also chose white as it was the most difficult solour to achieve using the washing methods of the day.

Before modern wedding gowns were made to be white by Queen Victoria’s wedding, it was quite common for wedding gowns to be any colour. In biblical times, blue (not white) represented purity, and the bride and groom would wear a blue band around the bottom of their wedding attire, contributing to the poem of ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE’.

Blue wedding dress

The Traditional Colour used to be Blue!

Generally though, before Queen Victoria made it a tradition to wear a white wedding gown as a bride, the most common item of clothing a bride would wear was simply what her favourite, or best garment she had available to her and could be any color, even black. To convince her groom that she came from a wealthy family, brides would also pile on layers of fur, silk and velvet.

This was partly due to the fact that the more layers of clothing one wore meant the less body odor people were able to smell, being that bathing was not something people did often in those days.

Newlyweds share a tender moment under a veil, bathed in soft sunlight, during an outdoor wedding.

In Modern times

Today though, the answer to the question of ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ seems to be primarily because in modern society the colour symbolises innocence, purity and certainly makes the bride stand out in a crowd, like the princess she’s made out to be on her wedding day. It may also be just ‘because’, as that’s what everyone else does right? It’s tradition! 🙂

Everything on a wedding day has some sort of roots in tradition, some going back thousands of years – others being quite a modern occurance. The fact is that the answer to the question ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ is simply because people today associate this with brides and this hasn’t changed since 1840. Perhaps in another 200 years, wedding dresses may be purple? Who knows?

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‘Tying the Knot’ – History

‘Tying the Knot’ or to ‘tie the knot’ is a saying synonymous with getting married to day, but where does it come from? It’s funny thinking about these types of saying we use on a daily basis, not really knowing where they originate from, but gleefully use them without thinking about what they really mean. In the case of ‘Tying the Knot’ however it’s no where near as dark as the origin of the tradition of having a Best Man, it’s actually quite nice 🙂 I was thinking about the origin of the saying as I have just become engaged myself, and we announced it on Facebook using an image we produced together of a tied knot in between our hands.

Tying the knot

Origin of the saying ‘Tying the knot’

In the US, the saying ‘let’s get hitched’ refers to the practice of ‘hitching’ up your horse as you go to town, or tying a knot in a rope to keep your horse from trotting away. In the same vein the idea was that ‘getting hitched’ was tying a knot between the two newly weds, or in some people’s minds, tying a lady down like a horse so she wouldn’t get away. Because of this, the saying ‘Tying the knot’ is commonly, incorrectly attributed to this practice.

The term ‘Tie the Knot’ came from an earlier time, during the Renaissance in a ceremony called “Handfasting”. ‘Handfast’ and its variations are defined in the Oxford English dictionary as “to make a contract (of marriage) between parties by joining of hands.” Kind of like a handshake. This could also be interpreted today as a proposal of marriage for a specific period of time, traditionally a year and a day. the notion of marriage by the way has not always been an eternal one, with marriages in the past being made for  “a year and a day,” “a lifetime”, “for all of eternity” or “for as long as love shall last” depending on your vows.

Handfasting

The old way in Great Britain for couples to pledge their betrothal was for them to join hands, his right to her right, his left to her left, so from above they looked like an infinity symbol. ‘Handfastings’, which is an ancient word for ‘wedding’ were traditional before weddings became a legal function of governments or formal religions in the early 1500’s. The very word ‘Handfasting’ derived its origin from the custom of tying the the bride and groom’s hands and wrists together. In this period of time, it’s actually quite interesting to note that during the traditional period of time for a wedding of ‘a year and a day’ or 13 moon cycles, the bride was referred to as a Virgin, or ‘a woman not owned by a man’. It was after this period of time that, if the marriage survived that long, longer vows could be taken.

So there you go! Another wedding history tidbit from my research of the history of the modern wedding!