Western European Wedding Traditions

Wedding traditions in Western Europe are as varied as the countries that make up the region – from Ireland to Italy, from Portugal to Switzerland and everything in between, the wonderful, colorful wedding traditions of Western Europe span almost a quarter of our world.

The engagement ring – one of the oldest of the Western European wedding traditions.

One of the ancient traditions of Western Europe which is still going strong today is the idea of the engagement ring. It was way back in 860 A.D. that Pope Nicholas I proclaimed that not only was an engagement ring required to seal the agreement to be married, but that the engagement ring must be made of gold. The making of the ring out of gold signified that the groom was willing to make a financial sacrifice for his new bride-to-be. 

It would be another 617 years before the tradition of adding a diamond to an engagement ring would be started. It was in the year 1477 that King Maximilian presented the lovely Mary of Burgundy with a diamond engagement ring, and from that day to this a diamond has been a girl’s best friend.

It was in Italy, the land of love, that gold wedding rings first became popular, and it was also in Italy that the tradition of the wedding cake was first begun when, in the first century B.C., a cake or bread was broken over the bride’s head to insure fertility.

The tradition of the Best Man began in medieval Germany.

It was in ancient Germany that the Western European tradition of a Best Man began. In olden days it was sometimes necessary for a man to kidnap his bride from a neighboring village and he needed his strongest friend (his Best Man) to help with the kidnapping and to stand by him at the wedding ceremony to fight off any relatives that might try to take her back.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

But it was in England that many of our most enduring Western European wedding traditions got their beginning. The ancient nursery rhyme about something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue is now an important part of most Western European weddings, even though many brides and grooms no longer know the significance of the rhyme. 

Something old is symbolic of continuity. The old item was often a piece of lace or a grandmother’s scarf or an old piece of jewelry. Something new signifies hope for the future, and can be anything from a piece of clothing to the wedding band itself. Something borrowed is symbolic of future happiness and is often provided by a happily married friend of the bride. And finally, something blue. In ancient times blue was the color of purity and often both the bride and the groom wore a band of blue cloth around the bottom of their wedding attire. 

It was the knights of yore who gave us the Western European tradition of the groom wearing a single flower. It was customary for a knight to wear a flower or a colorful handkerchief belonging to their lady fair when they entered a tournament. The tradition later evolved to the groom wearing a flower from his bride’s wedding bouquet.

The white wedding gown was not a symbol of purity, but rather a symbol of joy.

What wedding today would be complete without the white wedding gown? Prior to the 16th century, however, this most important Western European Wedding tradition was not common. It wasn’t until Ann of Brittany popularized the white wedding dress in 1499 that the tradition became part of Western European wedding culture. 

During the Tudor period in England it became customary for the wedding party to throw old shoes at the bride and groom’s carriage; if the carriage was struck by a shoe it was considered a symbol of good fortune to follow. From this old Western European wedding custom was born the tradition of typing shoes to the back of the broom and bride’s car.

And finally it is time for the groom to carry his new bride across the threshold.

And finally, what wedding tradition would be complete with the groom carrying his new bride over the threshold of their home? This Western European tradition began with two beliefs. The first one was that if the bride were to trip or stumble as she entered her new home (as she crossed her new threshold for the first time) bad luck would plague the marriage. The second belief was that evil spirits inhabited the threshold of a new couple’s home and that if the bride stepped on the threshold the evil spirits would enter through her feet and the marriage would be doomed. 

The romantic answer, of course, was for the groom to carry his new bride across the threshold.

Western European wedding traditions have come down to us from many countries and many cultures to blend together seamlessly into the romantic wedding traditions that we know and cherish today.