Bride
In Western countries, brides typically wear white wedding dresses, a tradition started by Queen Victoria.
Today, Western brides may wear white, cream, or ivory dresses, regardless of their number of marriages.
Red, on the other hand, represents vibrancy and health and is commonly worn by brides in many Asian cultures.
Regardless of colour in most Asian cultures bridal clothes are highly decorative, often covered with embroidery, beading or gold.
In addition to the gown, brides often wear a veil and carry a bouquet of flowers, a small heirloom such as a lucky coin, a prayer book, or other token.
In Western countries, a bride may wear "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue"; a bridal purse (or money bag) is also common.
The bride-cake had its origin in the Roman confarreatio, an upper-class form of marriage, the essential features of whose ceremony were the eating by the couple of a cake made of salt, water and spelt flour, and the holding by the bride of three wheat-ears, a symbol of plenty.
In time the wheat-grains came to be cooked into thin dry biscuits, which were broken over the bride's head, as is the custom in Scotland today, an oatmeal cake being used.
In Elizabeth I's reign these biscuits began to take the form of small rectangular cakes made of eggs, milk, sugar, currants and spices.
At last these cakes became amalgamated into a large one that took on its full glories of almond paste and ornaments during Charles II's time.
But even today in rural parishes, e.g. north Notts, wheat is thrown over the bridal couple with the cry "Bread for life and pudding for ever," expressive of a wish that the newly wed may be always affluent.
[9] The custom of breaking this wine-cup, after the bridal couple had drained its contents, is common to both the Greek Christians and members of the Jewish faith.
Bride-favours, anciently called bride-lace, were at first pieces of gold, silk or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly worn at weddings.
The bride-wain, the wagon in which the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor deserving couple, who drove a "wain" round the village, collecting small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping.
