Customs, Rituals & Traditions: Something Old, Something New…
Each week I will examine a wedding custom, ritual or tradition that has been passed from generation to generation. We’ll look at it’s origin and how it has influenced the lives of our ancestors and hot it impacts us today. We’ll also look at how we create our own customs and how these new traditions are a reaction to and a reflection of our changing world.
Where did the wedding custom of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” come from?
The next line of this old saying actually hints at its origin. The complete phrase is:
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.
A sixpence is a coin that was minted in Britain from 1551 to 1967. It was made of silver and worth six pennies. So this wedding tradition is definitely English, and many sources say that it began in the Victorian era.
Each item in this poem represents a good-luck token for the bride. If she carries all of them on her wedding day, her marriage will be happy. “Something old” symbolizes continuity with the bride’s family and the past. “Something new” means optimism and hope for the bride’s new life ahead. “Something borrowed” is usually an item from a happily married friend or family member, whose good fortune in marriage is supposed to carry over to the new bride. The borrowed item also reminds the bride that she can depend on her friends and family.
As for the colorful item, blue has been connected to weddings for centuries. In ancient Rome, brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity. Christianity has long dressed the Virgin Mary in blue, so purity was associated with the color. Before the late 19th century, blue was a popular color for wedding gowns, as evidenced in proverbs like, “Marry in blue, lover be true.”
And finally, a silver sixpence in the bride’s shoe represents wealth and financial security. It may date back to a Scottish custom of a groom putting a silver coin under his foot for good luck. For optimum fortune, the sixpence should be in the left shoe. These days, a dime or a copper penny is sometimes substituted, and many companies sell keepsake sixpences for weddings.
Please share with the readers the items you collected for your Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue tradition on your your wedding day.
We have all heard the expressions “tied the knot” or “giving one’s hand in marriage”. But have you ever wondered where those sayings came from? And no, it’s not in the same category as the “ball and chain”! It’s in reference to the ancient tradition of handfasting. This lens gives an overview of the ancient tradition of handfasting in Wedding ceremonies.
I blog about everything wedding: venues, style, vendors, traditions and more! What I haven’t blogged about, however, is the actual wedding ceremony.
For many years now I have been searching for a good volunteering gig that satisfied my desire to give back to the community but was also a good fit for me. I finally found it! Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I had the pleasure of volunteering my time in the 
is so famous for. Because of this background, I am Seattle’s only planner who specializes in Asian-Pacific weddings, specifically Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian and Samoan wedding customs. I have presented to a group of peers through Wedding Network USA here in the Seattle area to teach fellow wedding vendors about Asian wedding customs. I absolutely love the richness and traditions of multi-cultural weddings, and feel so incredibly lucky to be so comfortable and familiar with these customs and traditions on the couples’ wedding day. Many other planners have to learn these traditions, and still don’t know the ‘why’ behind it. I not only know the cultural reasons behind why traditions are done, I know how to handle them, and have them be an important feature within the couples’ wedding day.
I am so inspired by my beloved city of Seattle! I was born here, have lived here almost my entire life and can’t think of another place I would rather be. Let’s face it, we would all like to be laying on a beach in sunny Hawaii during the cold winter months. But Seattle’s climate is so manageable, and there is so much to do here: Why not make Seattle your destination wedding location?
Don’t forget about the wedding toasts! You don’t want to come up empty-handed and blurt out something like Steve (Will Ferrrell) in “A Night at the Roxbury” at his rehearsal dinner:
