Curious wedding facts

Credit … rbaltd.org.uk/blog/funfacts

• The largest wedding attendance was a Jewish wedding in Jerusalem in 1993 where 30,000 people attended.
• The most expensive wedding was the one held in a purpose-built stadium in Dubai for a Shiek’s son. The wedding cost over £22 million.
• The longest wedding dress train was found in Germany, it measured over 515 feet.
• Tuck a sugar cube into your glove — according to Greek culture, the sugar will sweeten your union.
• Rain on your wedding day is actually considered good luck, according to Hindu tradition!
• For good luck, Egyptian women pinch the bride on her wedding day. Ouch!
• Peas are thrown at Czech newlyweds instead of rice.
• A Swedish bride puts a silver coin from her father and a gold coin from her mother in each shoe to ensure that she’ll never do without.
• A Finnish bride traditionally went door-to-door collecting gifts in a pillowcase, accompanied by an older married man who represented long marriage.
• Moroccan women take a milk bath to purify themselves before their wedding ceremony.
• In Holland, a pine tree can be planted outside the newlyweds’ home as a symbol of fertility and luck.
• Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger led directly to the heart.
• Diamonds set in gold or silver became popular as betrothal rings among wealthy Venetians toward the end of the fifteenth century.
• Snake rings dotted with ruby eyes were popular wedding bands in Victorian England – the coils winding into a circle symbolized eternity.
• Queen Victoria started the Western world’s white wedding dress trend in 1840 – before then, brides simply wore their best dress.
• In Japan, white was always the color of choice for bridal ensembles -long before Queen Victoria popularized it in the Western world.
• In Asia, wearing robes with embroidered cranes symbolizes fidelity for the length of a marriage.
• In Korea, brides don bright hues of red and yellow to take their vows.
• Ancient Greeks and Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits. Brides have worn veils ever since.
• The “something blue” in a bridal ensemble symbolizes purity, fidelity, and love.
• The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke a loaf of bread over a bride’s head for fertility’s sake.
• The custom of tiered cakes emerged from a game where the bride and groom attempted to kiss over an ever-higher cake without knocking it over.
• Queen Victoria’s wedding cake weighed a whopping 300 pounds.
• Stag parties were first held by ancient Spartan soldiers, who kissed their bachelor days goodbye with a raucous party.