13 Wedding Traditions for Luck, Love, and Happiness

St. Patrick's Day is this week, bringing the "Luck of the Irish" to our minds. There are many wedding traditions that you may be incorporating into your Knoxville wedding, many of which were created to bring good luck to a newly married couple. In case you were curious as to where some of these superstitions came from, or what they mean, Country Jewell came up with a list for you explaining a few of them. 

Something old, new, borrowed, & blue

These are the four things that a bride is supposed to collect and carry with her on her wedding day. 

• Old = This is symbolic of the bride's past, her family, and tradition.
• New = This is for future happiness and good fortune.
• Borrowed = This should come from a happily married person in the hopes that their good fortune will rub off on you.
• Blue = This symbolizes both fidelity and love.

Wedding bells

The Irish would keep evil spirits away and ensure a harmonious family life for the couple by ringing bells. Some brides choose to carry small bells in their bouquet.

Spiders

According to English lore, you shouldn't panic if you find a spider on your wedding dress. This means good luck.

Sugar cubes

A tradition from Greece is that putting a sugar cube on the bride will sweeten her marriage. Many brides used to put a sugar cube inside of their glove on the wedding day.

Rain on your wedding day

Even though most brides pray for clear skies on their wedding day, it is actually considered a good omen if it rains. Hindu tradition believes that the rain brings along with it fertility and cleansing for the couple.

Burying a bottle of bourbon

If you don't need "good luck rain" on your wedding day, southern folklore says that you should bury a bottle of bourbon upside down at the wedding location one month before the wedding day. This is supposed to prevent any rain on that particular day. 

Pinching the bride

Egyptian women believe it is good luck to pinch the bride on her wedding day. We're actually not sure if this luck is for them or for the bride! 

Knives as wedding gifts

Receiving knives as a gift was once thought to be bad luck for the couple, symbolizing a broken relationship. If you really want them on your registry but are superstitious, give the person gifting them a penny. Then you are technically buying the knives rather than getting them as a gift. 

Coins in your shoes

Swedish brides believed that they would "never do without" by placing a silver coin from their father and a gold coin from their mother in each shoe.

Wearing a veil

Originally, a veil was worn by a bride to disguise her from the evil spirits that were jealous of her happiness.

Carrying the bride over the threshold

In medieval Europe, many believed that the a bride was extremely vulnerable to evil spirits through the soles of her feet. The groom carried her over the threshold of their new home to avoid bringing any evil spirits inside with them. 

Throwing shoes

Way back in medieval times, good luck would be given to the wedding couple if the men threw their shoes at the newlyweds. Today we take a much safer approach to this tradition and tie shoes to the back of the getaway car instead.

Throwing the bouquet and garter

This is another tradition with roots in medieval times. It was once thought to be lucky to get a fragment of the bride's dress as a souvenir. Guests would follow the couple to the wedding chamber and try to rip pieces of fabric right off of the bride. Women began throwing their bridal bouquet to distract the crowd so a getaway could be made. Once they were safely inside the wedding chamber, the groom would crack the door and throw out the bride's garter to appease the crowd waiting outside. In other cultures, throwing the garter out of the bedroom was a sign that the marriage had been consummated. 

Even if you are not a superstitious person, sometimes it's fun to bring in a little bit of tradition when you are planning your wedding. Some of these old customs may fit perfectly into your Country Jewell wedding. Use what you like, and disregard the rest. The only way to assure that you will have a good marriage is to love and respect each other, and work to make each other happy every day for the rest of your lives. In that, our rustic Knoxville wedding venue wishes you the best of luck!  

A delightfully quaint Knoxville wedding

& event venue.

6550 Hickory Valley Road

Heiskell, TN 37754

865-494-0552

Visit our website:  www.CountryJewell.com

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