Wedding Traditions

Below are 16 wedding traditions.

Bride/Bride's Parents: Ceremony rental fee/flowers/decor, brides wedding dress and her accessories, bridal party/flower girl bouquet, photography/videography, engagement party, reception, invitations and transportation for bridal party.
Groom/Groom's Parents: marriage license/officiant fee, grooms tux, bride bouquet/boutonniers/corsages, honeymoon, rehearsal, rings.
Wedding party: own wedding attire, shoes and associated accessories, bridal party hosts bridal party/bachelorette party and groom's party hosts the bachelor party,
*times have changed and there is flexibility with all*
Bride "Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue"
This is is to represent the bride remembering her old life, her new life as man and woman in joy, wealth and success, borrowed from a married woman to share in a similar happiness, and blue for loyalty.
White Wedding Dress
White represents mourning in ancient times because the bride is leaving her family to join another.
Veil
This symbolizes innocense and modesty and the lifting of the veil is also symbolic. If the male lifted the veil, it showed his dominance and if the bride, then she was independant.

Bridal Party and Best Man
The bridal party's roles as legend has it is to ward off spirits. They dressed similar to the bride to confuse anyone from kidnapping and ward off any other suitors. The Best Man was present to help fight for the women. Children added innocence.
Mother of the Bride
Old school thought is the the Mother of the Bride should coordinate/compliment with the wedding party. When her dress is selected, it is polite to contact the groom's mother as a head's up.
Ceremonial Kiss
The kiss is to seal the life long commitment to each other.
Ring placement
The wedding ring placed on the left third finger is said to have a vein that goes directly to the heart and that is why it is placed there.
Colors Significance-for themes or for flowers
Flowers in a bouquet are significant as they symbolize fertility, brought new life and purity. Here are some colors for you to consider:
White-purity, Ivory-soft spoken and elegant, Champagne-refined rich, Lavendar-dainty and love at first site, Pink-happiness and fun, Red-passion, Coral-warmth and energy, Yellow-friendship and joy, Peach-gratitute and appreciation, Blue-impossible and unattainable, Black-new beginnings, Silver-wealth and glamour, Gray-modern and sleek, Chocolate/brown-modern, Green-sensibility and inventive.
Wedding Cake
Many couples will share their first piece of cake together to share the special bond in fertility and the sweetness in the cake represents the sweetness in the new union.
The other wedding cake tradition is to save the top portion of the wedding cake for a year and share it together to remember your "special day" ( a year later). There are special instructions for the "right" way to freeze your cake,
1) remove any cake toppers
2) freeze cake for a couple hours
3) remove and seal in aluminum foil, seal in air tight plastic bag
4) place in air tight box (perhaps cookie tin can?)
5) this is 3 air tight ways to protect your cake and ready to eat in a year!
6) One year later, thaw out in your fridge, Congratulations!

Garter and bouquet toss
Good fortune for the groom and passing good fortune from the bride to others
Carried over the threshold
Legend has it that the bride must not trip when entering her new home so the groom carried her in to avoid back luck.
Honeymoon
Celebrating and enjoying the sweetness of the wedding
Other traditions
There are many other Asian, Jewish, Muslim, and European customs that are beautiful. Since there are many mixed weddings there are a blended weddings that combine rituals and traditions.