About Wedding Traditions & Meanings

Monday, January 21, 2019

Wedding traditions for the groom


When it comes to the groom’s traditional wedding duties, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Popping the question and placing the ring on the finger of the love of his life. But what this blog post is going to look at is the actual wedding day and wedding traditions for the groom.


Things for the groom to do on wedding day

While this shouldn't have to be said, one of the most important things for the groom to do on his wedding day is to show up for the ceremony on time. With that said, according to traditions listed in Emily Post the groom's traditional responsibilities include:

  • Hand the wedding officiant the fee (donation) or make arrangements for the best man to do so
  • Stand in the receiving line (if there is one) or join the bride in greeting all the guests at the reception
  • Make a toast and respond to toasts at the reception
  • Dance the first dance with the bride
  • Dance with his mother
  • Dance with the maid/matron of honor
  • Cut the wedding cake with the bride



Superstition based traditions for the groom

Along with the traditional responsibilities there's one wedding day tradition for the groom that's steeped in superstition. The groom carrying the bride across the threshold. This tradition is very old and can be traced back to Roman times. The original belief was that the groom carried the bride over the threshold to protect her from evil spirits lurking within the new home. Along with this, it was thought that if she tripped as she entered the doorway it would bring the couple bad luck. Thus, being carried over the threshold took care of it all.

New wedding tradition

All traditions start somewhere, and while this one is new enough that I’m not sure it constitutes as a tradition now, but I think it has the potential of becoming a popular one.

Writing a love letter: The groom writing a love letter to his bride for her to read before the ceremony. I’ve seen videos of the bride reading such a letter trying not to spoil her wedding makeup. And it is worth saying here, that the bride should write one to her groom. 
Love letters make such a perfect keepsake.


Photo credits: pexels.com, wikimedia