Wedding Traditions and Customs

What are the most popular wedding customs and goodwill traditions?
We gathered a bunch of Hungarian and widely-known international customs and traditions together.

Bride's dress
The traditional white colour of the bridal dress symbolises purity, virginity, life, light and festivity.
According to an old belief the groom cannot see the bride's dress before the wedding nor during getting dressed on the wedding day, because it brings misfortune.

"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue"
The tradition of wearing an old, a new, a borrowed and a blue item during the wedding comes from England and dates back to the Victorian era. Although wearing these items is supposed to symbolise good luck for the bride, they are also just a fun tradition that gives the bride an opportunity to express her admiration for a few special people in her life on her special day. "Something Old" is the symbol of continuity, it represents the link with the bride's own family. Brides may choose to wear a piece of antique family jewellery, a handkerchief, a scarf or a piece of lace which belonged to a relative, particularly to the bride's mother or grandmother. "Something New" represents the bride's hopes for a bright future in her new married life, it conveys the message that you and your husband are creating a new union that will endure forever. The wedding gown is often chosen as the new item but it could be anything that is purchased new for the wedding such as the wedding shoes. "Something Borrowed" is to represent love and friendship, that friends and family will be there on the special day and in the future when help is needed. It expresses that you have to take care of love and friendship just like you look after the borrowed things. A good way to incorporate a borrowed item into your wedding day attire is to borrow a friend's piece of jewellery, for example a neclace. "Something Blue" in ancient times is the symbol of faithfulness, purity and loyalty, a blue item is usually the garter or a small blue bow on it.

Wedding Ring
If during the ring exchange ceremony the ring gets stuck at the first finger joint, it will be the wife who will wear the pants, if the ring slips easily the husband will dominate.

Line from the Guests
The guests form two lines in the entrance of the church and the couple must walk through them,
the custom symbolise the defeating of the difficulties altogether.

Throwing Blossoms or Rice
Symbol of fertility. Usually a little girl throw blossoms before the couple on their way to the altar,
so that their marriage would be free from cares and rich in children. Throwing of rice on the couple has always been symbolic of wishing prosperity and good luck. In the Orient, throwing rice means, "May you always have a full pantry." Wheat and other grains are sometimes thrown in addition to rice, thereby also wishing prosperity and lack of want.

Tossing the Bride's Bouquet
After the wedding ceremony the bride stands turning her back to the maidens and attempts to throw the bouquet to one of her friends or favourites, with the hope that this maiden would catch her flowers and become lucky enough to wed soon. Nowadays it is not the bride's bouquet, but a tossing bouquet that is prepared specially for this occasion.

Tossing the Garter
Just like tossing the bride's bouquet, throwing the bride's garter is also a symbol of a future wedding, in this case the single male guests should catch the garter.

"Just Married" Sign and Tins
The tradition comes from the US, the guests decorate the car of the newlyweds with "Just married" signs, tins and balloons so that the tins would make great noise to dispel the demons and poverty.

Kidnapping the Bride
The origin of this old Hungarian tradition is that if the bride was kidnapped during the ceremony it was believed that the groom would not have deserved to marry her, as he could not even take care of her. Nowadays this is only a good joke: the kidnapper takes the bride for a while away from the restaurant to a pub or some other location and the groom has to find them and until that time he has to preserve the bride's bouquet. If he cannot even take care of the bouquet and loses it, he must pay for the costs arose during kidnapping (drinks, taxi, etc.). If he keeps the bouquet it is the kidnapper who pays for the costs.

Wedding Cake
It is also a symbol of fertility: the larger and more decorated is the wedding cake, the sweetest will be the couple's life together topped with lots of children. Cutting the cake together symbolise their connection and unity. According to the custom, whose hand is above the others, it will be him or her who will wear the pants.

Bride's Dance
As the old Hungarian custom goes, at midnight the bride takes off her white bride's gown and puts a red dress on. Formerly the brides wore an apron and small shawl as well; nowadays they choose an elegant red cocktail dress or they remain in the white bridal dress. One of the groomsmen takes a pot to collect the money, while another groomsman (or bridesmaid) hits the dish-covers and shouts "The bride is for sale". If the guests throw money to the pot they can dance with the bride. When the groom (or rather the bride) has enough of the dance, the groom takes the pot and lifts her bride and runs away with the money and his wife.

Carrying the Bride Across the Threshold
During the days of "Marriage by Capture", the bride was certainly not going to go peacefully into the bridegroom's abode, thus, she was dragged or carried across the threshold. In even earlier times, it was believed that family demons followed the woman and to keep her family demons from going into the groom's home, she was carried across the threshold upon her entering for the first time.

Salt and Bread
When entering the new flat it is a must to have salt and bread at home so that the newlyweds would never starve.