History of black wedding dresses

While most of us in the West tend to think of the black wedding dress as something new, a gothic fashion statement, or a way to buck tradition, the black wedding dress has a rich cultural history. Its origins can be traced back 3,000 years ago to the Zhou Dynasty in China. In the West, black lace wedding dresses were traditional for Roman Catholic brides in Spain and many brides in the West wore black because it was a color that didn’t show stains and the dress could be worn following the wedding as their good dress. 

Black wedding dress in Chinese history

During the Zhou dynasty(1046BC——256BC), wedding dresses worn by Chinese brides were modest, solemn, black, and worn over light red underwear. The bride’s hair was worn up and held in place with a band and hairpin.

 

Today in China, wedding dresses differ by region. Northern Chinese traditional brides most often wear a dress that is mostly red and decorated with elaborate gold and silver designs. In Southern China, traditional brides prefer a two-piece red dress ornately decorated with a gold dragon and phoenix. Modern couples have stepped away from these traditional dresses to a more simplified wedding dress.

Spanish brides wore black

In Spain, Roman Catholic brides wore black, historically, too. The custom outfitted the bride in a black lace gown, with a black lace veil (mantilla) draped over her head and shoulders. This veil symbolized her vow to love her husband until death. 

 

History of the black wedding dress in the West

White wedding gowns became popular in the Victorian era, following Queen Victoria’s wedding. Before the white dress, most brides in Western Europe wore a variety of colors, but black wedding dresses were a popular choice. Not because it was the most fashionable, but because they were most practical. Wedding dresses were expensive and most women couldn’t afford a special dress to where one time. Instead, they selected a black dress because the dark color didn’t show stains, and the dress could be worn following the wedding.

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Today, some brides who choose to wear black think they are bucking tradition, and while they are, they are also returning to tradition. As the saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun.

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Photo credits: Photo by Murat IŞIK Photo by Bormann Chen

 

Bride’s Pye a strange wedding tradition

Looking back at 16th century Yorkshire, pies were the common tradition. Rather than cakes, the Bride’s Pye (Bride’s Pie) was considered an essential dish for marriage celebrations. Like many wedding traditions its importance was tied to superstitions and thought to be necessary for the couple’s future happiness. Wait until you see what was expected of the bride in this tradition!

 

What bride’s pye symbolized

The bride and groom were presented with Bride’s Pye when they arrived at their new home. While this sounds like a nice way to welcome the couple to their new life together, in practice, the pie wasn’t only for eating. The bride only ate one piece and the rest was smashed over her head, and she wore the smashed pie for the rest of the day! Why? It symbolized her devotion to her husband.

Once the groom smashed the pie on his bride’s head, he threw the plate over his head and watched it break into pieces. The more pieces, the more years of happiness and fortune they could look forward to. Etiquette also required the bridegroom to wait on his bride. 

And so, the bride’s pye was considered essential to the couple’s future happiness. This reminds me of the wedding tradition of the barley loaf which came before the bride’s pye. The loaf was broken over the bride’s head for good luck, and the people gathered crumbs for their own good fortune. In the case of the Bride’s Pye, it was considered rude if any attending the celebration didn’t take part.

How big was a bride’s pye?

A lot of work went into the making a bride’s pye. It was always round, with a thick decorated crust. Most often it was a mincemeat or mutton pie made with sweetbreads but I’ve also read a recipe that included a fat laying hen, full of eggs, probably intended as an emblem of fertility To get an idea of the size of this dish, consider this 1808 recipe from The experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffaid.

• Boil two calf's feet, pick the meat from the bones and chop it very fine.

• Shred small one pound of beef suet and a pound of apples

• Wash and pick one pound of currants very small, dry them before the fire

• Stone and chop a quarter of a pound of jar raisins

• A quarter of an ounce of cinnamon

• A quarter of an ounce of mace or nutmeg

• Two ounces of candied citron

• Two ounces of candied lemon cut thin

• A glass of brandy and one of Champagne

Put them in a China dish with a rich puff paste over it, roll another lid, and cut it in leaves, flowers, figures, and put a glass ring in it.

 

 

Ring inside the pie

One last thing worth mentioning about the Bride’s Pye tradition is that it had a glass ring cooked into it. The lady who found the ring in her serving of pie was thought to be the next to marry.

The bride’s pye tradition carried into the seventeenth century but then evolved into a bride cake, the precursor to the modern wedding cake. And while the smashing of the cake on the bride's head seems a strange tradition, when I think of how couples often smash wedding cake in each others' faces I guess our customs can be just as strange. I wonder if that's where smashing the cake originated.

 

3 Victorian wedding cake traditions

In Victorian times, the wedding ceremony look very much like weddings today. Most often, it took place at the bride's parish church decorated with flower. Wedding bells rang out announcing the union, and the newlyweds signed the parish register. Queen Victoria started a new wedding cake tradition when she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. The cake consisted of three tiers of English plum cake and it was big. While only 14 inches tall, is measured almost 10 feet across, and weighed 300 pounds. At this time the more refined and whiter sugars were still quite expensive. Only wealthy families could afford to decorate with pure white frosting and exhibited the wealth and the social status of the family. When Queen Victoria used white icing on her wedding cake it gained a new title, royal icing.

 

Aside from all the similarities, in Victorian times they celebrated weddings with three different cakes:

• groom’s cake
• the bride’s cake
• the wedding cake

They also celebrated a tradition known as the cake pull. 

 

Traditional groom’s cake

The groom's cake tradition originated in Victorian England. The earliest groom's cakes were dark, heavy fruitcakes made by the groomsmen and eaten by the groomsmen on the wedding day, with at least a portion saved to be sliced, boxed, and handed out to the single women in attendance. Those women slept with the cake under their pillows to help them dream of their future husbands.

Traditional bride’s cake

The bride’s cake was usually a simple pound cake with white icing which symbolized her virginity. This cake was served to the bridesmaids.

 

Wedding cake pull

The wedding cake pull originally known as the ribbon pull is a quaint bridesmaids' ritual dating back to the Victorian era. Back then it took place at the wedding reception; today it is usually part of the bridal shower. The bride attached tiny silver charms of fortune to ribbon (similar to the pudding cake charms once hidden in plum pudding at Christmas), and placed them under the wedding cake or between layers. Just before cutting the cake, her single friends were invited to pull one of the ribbons to learn their fortune. Historically, there were charms, each with their own meaning.

 

Wedding cake pull charms:

• Ring: indicates the next to get married
• Horseshoe or four-leaf clover: good luck
• Telephone: offering good news*
• Anchor: encouraging hope
• Heart: impending love
• Thimble or the button: the old maid
• The penny: poverty

 

*For those who might wonder about the phone charm in the Victorian era, I thought that I might mention that on January 14, 1878 Queen Victoria made the first publicly-witnessed long-distance phone call in the United Kingdom. 

 

Image credit:  Image by Dorothe from Pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meaning behind the Greek Orthodox wedding crowns

There’s no lack of traditions when it comes to Greek weddings. In fact, tradition is core to how and why things are done. But be aware there are Greek wedding traditions and Greek Orthodox traditions. Sometimes they may seem the same, but for those who are part of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, they don’t have much say in their wedding plan because they have to follow the Greek Orthodox liturgy. Among these Greek Orthodox rituals is a custom that goes back to the 11^th century–the Greek orthodox wedding crown. This ancient Greek cultural ritual is considered one of the most important among the Greek Orthodox wedding traditions.

 

Greek Orthodox wedding crowns

Traditionally these martial crowns also known as Stefana (crown in Greek) were crafted from flowers, foliage, or even precious metals. Then and now they represent signs of wisdom, justice, integrity, glory, and honor. Today’s Greek Orthodox wedding crowns are available in a number of styles and during the ceremony they are presented on the Stefana tray along with sugar coated almonds (koufeta). 

 

Greek Stefana crowns ritual

Within the Greek Orthodox wedding proceedings, the crowning ceremony typically takes place after the betrothal (ring exchange). No vows are spoken by the couple to one another because their commitment is to God to care for and love each other unconditionally. For this reason, instead of facing each other, they face the altar (representing God). Instead of vows, the Stefana crowns placed on the heads of the bride and groom during the wedding ceremony mean they are married. 

 

The Stefana crown ritual starts with the priest blessing the crowns in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then he places one crown on the bride and the other on the groom. This crowning symbolizes that they are the King and Queen of their household which they will oversee with love and faith. Then, the Koumbaros (the best man or wedding sponsor) swaps the crowns back and forth between the bride and groom three times as the couple walks around the altar three times to signify their marital journey through life together. Finally, the crowns are tied together with a ribbon to symbolize the couple's union. The crowns represent wisdom, justice, integrity, glory and honor. Finally, the priest blesses the couple before removing the crowns.

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Photo credits: Stefana Margaret, Stefana Margaret