Dear Bride-to-Be:
Did you know that brides and grooms are thought to be “blessed” on their wedding day? This is a belief with origins in ancient superstitions, so for wedding guests to be “favoured” by the bride and groom with a token or charm was a blessing indeed!
British wedding historian Ann Monsarrat tells of an aristocratic wedding in the sixteenth century when ribbons of the bride’s gown were cut in little pieces and given out to guests for good luck tokens. A custom that followed (to protect the bride's outfit as well as to provide souvenirs) was for friends of the bride to assemble pretty little “knots of ribbon”—in the bride’s chosen colors or perhaps in the colors of the family crest—as “favours” for the wedding guests. It became a sign of status and honor for the guests to wear the charming bouquet of knotted ribbons on their arm or tucked into their hats after the wedding event.
Also, through the centuries and in many cultures, the groom and his attendants wore fanciful ribbon and flower “favours” in their jacket’s buttonhole. Later these were simply called buttonholes or boutonnieres.
Don’t you love hearing origin stories of wedding celebrations to see how customs or rituals that you might take for granted were created? Most customs were created in a very different time and place, but can still hold something dear for your wedding at this moment. Sharing “favours” from the heart is a blessing that's always in fashion!
Love. Listen. Let go.
...with love from Cornelia
[Photograph: circa 1910 image—note groom's elaborate “favour”—courtesy of the Goldstein Museum of Design]
May 10, 2010
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