Did you ever wonder where some wedding traditions came from? Or why we do certain things? Here are a few facts you may or may not know about wedding traditions. More facts are added often, so visit back to learn more!

Random Wedding Facts

Las Vegas is the top wedding destination with over 100,000 weddings a year, followed by Hawaii at 25,000 weddings a year.

In America, T.V. soap opera weddings attract more viewers than a presidential address.

On average, 7,000 couples marry each day in the United States

In the United States, June is the most popular month for weddings, followed by August.

Over 74% of first-time brides receive a diamond engagement ring, with the diamond symbolizing pure and eternal love.

An average wedding in the United States has 175 guests

“Matrimony” is from the Latin matrimonium, from matrem (“mother”) + monium (“action, state, condition”).

Seventeen tons of gold are made into wedding rings each year in the US.

On her wedding day, Grace Kelly wore a dress with a bodice made from beautiful 125-year-old lace.

Richard and Carole Roble, a pair of New Yorkers, have taken their vows 55 times, all in different locations and at least once in each of the fifty states.

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Tradition!

In Christian ceremonies the bride stands on the grooms left. This was started when it may have been necessary for the groom to reach for his sword with his right hand in order to keep someone from riding up and stealing his bride during the
 wedding.

The custom of tiered wedding cakes emerged from a game where the bride and groom would attempt to kiss over cakes stacked higher and higher on top of each other without knocking them over.

Stag parties were first held by ancient Spartan soldiers, who kissed their bachelor days goodbye with a raucous party.

The Catholic tradition of “”posting the banns”” to announce a marriage originated as a  way to ensure the bride and groom were not related.

A wedding between two American slaves could not include the words “until death do us part” because plantation masters had the power to part husbands and wives.

Before the church declared marriage a sacrament, couples often sought sacred places in nature to wed, such as a hilltop or cliff, where the earth supposedly meets heaven.

In many cultures, the groom historically often kidnapped the bride, and the groom’s friends would help him, leading to the modern-day groomsmen

The Roman goddess Juno rules over marriage, the hearth and childbirth, hence the popularity of June weddings.

Flower girls traditionally threw flower petals in the bride’s path to lead her to a sweet, plentiful future.

The wedding ring has traditionally been worn on the third finger of the left hand because it was believed that a vein in this finger runs directly to the heart.

The Puritans banned wedding rings because they saw them as “frivolous” pieces of jewelry and symbolic relics of the Pope’s control.

Guests in ancient times would tear off part of the bride’s gown as tokens of good luck, leading to the tradition of the bride throwing both her garter and her bouquet

During Biblical times, shoes were seen as a badge of authority because they lifted a person off the ground, differentiating them from barefoot slaves and serfs. They were used to seal a bargain and fathers would give his son-in-law a pair on the wedding day as symbol of transferring authority.

Brides carry or wear “something old” on their wedding day to symbolize continuity with the past.

The color Aquamarine represents marital harmony and is said to ensure a long, happy marriage

The “something blue” in a bridal ensemble symbolizes purity, fidelity, and love

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Legends and Superstitions

An old wives’ tale: If the younger of two sisters marries first, the older sister must dance barefoot at the wedding or risk never landing a husband.

Legend says single women will dream of their future husbands if they sleep with a slice of groom’s cake under their pillows.

Green is typically not worn at Scottish weddings because it is the color of fairies and an omen of revenge. It is considered unlucky to even eat green vegetables at a wedding

The superstition that the bridegroom must not see his bride before the wedding stems from the days when marriages were arranged and the groom might never have seen the bride. There was the chance that if he saw her, he might bolt.

“Three times a bridesmaid, never a bride” dates to about the sixteenth century. It was believed that if young maiden who had been a bridesmaid three times was unable to catch the eye of unmarried males, then she never would. But, if she served seven times as a bridesmaid, the spell was broken and the woman was thought to be a sure bet for marriage.

The English believe a spider found in a wedding dress means good luck.

Saturday is the unluckiest wedding day, according to English folklore.

In English tradition, Wednesday is considered the “best day” to marry, although Monday is for wealth and Tuesday is for health.

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Pretty Things

The practice of giving or exchanging engagement rings began in 1477 when Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, gave Mary of Burgandy a diamond ring as an engagement present.

A pearl engagement ring is said to be bad luck because its shape echoes that of a tear.

Diamonds set in gold or silver became popular as betrothal rings among wealthy Venetians toward the end of the fifteenth century.

In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.

Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) declared that a waiting period should be observed between betrothal and marriage, which led to separate engagement and wedding rings.

The Greeks thought diamonds (adamas) were tears of the gods, and the Romans thought “diamas” were splinters from heavenly stars

Snake rings  dotted with ruby eyes were popular wedding bands in Victorian England –  the coils winding into a circle symbolized eternity.

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Records

The longest ever engagement was between Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez who were engaged for 67 years

The most money spent for a wedding singer was the wedding of Multimillionaire Peter Shalson and wife Pauline who paid £2 million to get Elton John to sing a song at their wedding.

The longest wedding dress train ever made was 7,829 feet, 6 inches made by designer Carl Blake in Austin Texas in December 2009. However, it was made just for show and was never actually worn in a wedding. The longest train ever worn was in August 2009 by Chinese bride Lin Rong. Her train was 7,173 feet, 4 inches long and was handmade by her groom’s family.

Most expensive wedding ever? The marriage of Sheik Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum’s son to Princess Salama in Dubai in May 1981. The price tag? $44 million.

The most expensive celebrity engagement ring WAS Liza Minnelli’s 3.5 carat teardrop-shaped diamond from David Gest, however it may have just been topped by Kim Kardashian’s 20.5 carat ring, rumored to have cost $2million.

The oldest bride to marry was Australian Minnie Munro who at 102 years married an 82 year old.

The largest wedding attendance was a Jewish wedding in Jerusalem in 1993 where 30,000 people attended.

The longest ever recorded marriage was Daniel and Susan Bakeman. They were married on August 29, 1772 when he was 12 and she was 14. At Susan’s death at 105 in 1863 (Daniel died just shy of 110 in 1869), Their marriage had lasted 91 years and 12 days.

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Those Darn Spirits!

The tradition of tying tin cans to the back of the newlywed’s vehicle originated long ago when items which would produce noise were tied to the back of the couple’s carriage to scare away evil spirits.

For ancient Greeks and Romans, the bride’s bouquet was a pungent mix of garlic and herbs or grains. The garlic was supposed to ward off evil spirits and the herbs or grains were to insure a fruitful union.

The groom carries the bride across the threshold to bravely protect her from evil spirits lurking below.

Double weddings are traditionally considered to be bad luck because it is too much happiness for evil demons to ignore.

Ancient Greeks and Romans thought a veil hid a bride from evil spirits. Brides have worn veils ever since.

Middle Eastern brides paint henna on their hands and feet to protect themselves from the evil eye.

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World Wide Weddings

Rain on your wedding day is actually considered good luck, according to Hindu tradition!

Peas are thrown at Czech newlyweds instead of rice

Many cultures believed that a couple exchanged spirits with their breath and part of their souls were exchanged during the kiss at the end of the wedding ceremony

In South Africa, the parents of both bride and groom traditionally carried fire from their hearths to light a new fire in the newlyweds’ hearth.

In Jewish weddings, if the bride is the last marriageable daughter in her family, her mother is crowned with a wreath of leaves (krenzel) and family and friends dance around her.

In Siberia, it is believed that it is a sin to remain single and that the soul of a bachelor becomes a dzheretinnik (heretic) that remains on the earth to scare the living

Because eyebrows are considered intensely alluring in the Orient, historically the bride’s eyebrows were shaved entirely, rendering her powerless to attract a man.

Hawaiian brides for good luck wear seven strands of pikaki flowers

Greek brides believed that tucking a lump of sugar into the wedding gown would bring sweetness throughout married life.

The Fijians believe that the god Nangganangga, who watches over married couples, will not let a bachelor enter Fijian paradise and will turn him to ash if he dies before he is married

Because white is the color of mourning in Eastern cultures, white wedding dresses are uncommon.

In Belgium it is tradition for the bride to carry an embroidered handkerchief with her name on it when she gets married. It is then framed and hung in the family home until the next family bride adds her name and carries it down the aisle.

In Ethiopia, women from certain tribes place plates in their lower lip in order to entice a rich groom. The larger the protruding lip, the more a groom will pay.

In Egypt, women will pinch the bride to bring good luck to those who pinched her.

Because ducks mate for life, a Korean groom will ask a happily married friend to make him two small wooden ducks for his new household, or include live ducks in the ceremony.

Bedouin girls will often begin to sew their wedding dresses when they turn nine years old and so that they will finish their gown before they marry at the age of fourteen or fifteen

A Swedish bride puts a silver coin from her father and a gold coin from her mother in each shoe to ensure that she will never do without.

In England, before literacy rates were high, invitations to weddings were shouted by “bidders” who were old men hired to announce the details of the wedding.

A Finnish bride traditionally went door-to-door collecting gifts in a pillowcase, accompanied by an older married man who represented long marriage.

In many cultures around the world — including Celtic, Hindu and Egyptian weddings — the hands of a bride and groom are literally tied together to demonstrate the couple’s commitment to each other and their new bond as a married couple (giving us the popular phrase “tying the knot”).

In Korea, brides don bright hues of red and yellow to take their vows.

In Denmark, brides and grooms traditionally cross-dressed to confuse evil spirits!

In Asia, wearing robes with embroidered cranes symbolizes fidelity for the length of a marriage.

In Holland, a pine tree is planted outside the newlyweds’ home as a symbol of fertility and luck.

Moroccan women take a milk bath to purify themselves before their wedding ceremony.

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Royal Wedding Facts  (In honor of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton)

Queen Victoria made white the bridal color of choice when she wore it to wed Prince Albert in 1840.

Queen Elizabeth II had 12 wedding cakes. The one she cut at her wedding was nine feet tall and weighed 500 pounds.

The 25-foot train on Princess Diana’s wedding dress (Which was encrusted with 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequins and pearls) remains the longest in British Royal History

Queen Victoria’s wedding cake was three yards wide and weighed 300 pounds.

Princess Victoria established the tradition of playing Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” during her wedding processional in 1858.

Queen Elizabeth II is the first British monarch to have celebrated a Diamond (60th) Wedding Anniversary.

For her wedding, Queen Victoria did not wear a diamond encrusted tiara like many previous monarchs, instead opting for a wreath of fragrant orange blossoms, the symbol of fertility (Which apparently worked like a charm, as the Queen had nine children).