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Including Family Heirlooms in Your Wedding

Weddings are very sentimental for most women, and they are full of tradition. A wonderful way to make your wedding even more meaningful is to include family heirlooms. These unique pieces handed down through your family provide a special connection to your family heritage.

Even the most modern bride can find a way to include a family heirloom in her wedding. The item can be almost anything, from pearl bridal jewelry, to a lace handkerchief, to a pair of toasting glasses. Often the item is something that your parents or grandparents used in their wedding, but it does not have to be.

Mixing the old and the new is a great way to add a personal touch to your wedding. For instance, perhaps you would like to wear your grandmother’s strand of pearls on your wedding day – update them by combining the classic style with modern crystal and pearl bridal jewelry, such as a fabulous pair of drop earrings. Often brides who wear their mother’s wedding gown will do something similar, such as having the vintage dress recut to a more modern silhouette.

A very special thing that the bride or groom can do is to present a family heirloom to their future spouse as a wedding gift. The bride could give her husband-to-be her father’s silver pocketwatch, or the groom could make a gift of a piece of family jewelry. It is a wonderful way to show loved one that you are happy to have him or her as part of your family.

Your ceremony is the perfect place to feature a special family momento. Some brides are fortunate enough to have an antique silver bouquet holder. Others will have a personal item, such as a grandparent’s rosary interwoven with the flowers of the bride’s bouquet. Cherished family candleholders would be a wonderful touch for the unity candle.

Use your imagination when seeking family heirlooms to use in your wedding. They do not even have to be objects; anything that reminds you of your family could work. What about using your grandmother’s favorite recipe or dancing to your parents’ wedding song? Be creative in your choices. Including special family traditions in your wedding will make it even more beautiful and memorable.

The Tale of Tossing the Wedding Garter

We’re a bit lean on entries this week so we thought we’d offer you some insight on the tradition of the wedding garter. You’ll either impress someone with your knowledge or get one of those “too much information” looks. We did find some lovely images of custom made garters (source below).

Today, the bride wears two garters; one as a keepsake garter and the other for the throw away. Both garters are worn on the right leg just above the knee. Before the removal of the garter, the bride first throws her bouquet to the single women.

After the garter is removed, he then throws it to the single male guests. The male guest then takes the garter and places it on the leg of the single female guest who has caught the bouquet (or that’s what tradition says).

The keepsake garter is meant to be removed later in private during the honeymoon night.

The garter tradition originated back to the 14th century. In parts of Europe the guests of the bride and groom believed having a piece of the bride’s clothing was thought to bring good luck. They would actually destroy the brides dress by ripping off pieces of fabric. Obviously, this tradition did not sit well with the bride, so she began throwing various items to the guests – the garter being one of them. It became customary for the bride to toss the garter to the men. But this also caused a great problem for the bride….sometimes the men would get drunk, become impatient and try to remove the garter ahead of time. Therefore, the custom derived at having the groom remove and toss the garter to the men. With this change, the bride began to toss the bridal boutique to the unwed girls who were eligible for marriage.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue … Did you ever wonder where the custom “Something Blue” derived from? Wearing something blue dates back to biblical times when the color blue was considered to represent purity, faithfulness and fidelity. Back then the bride would wear a piece of blue clothing or a blue band around the bottom of her dress. The ancient Roman maidens also wore blue on the borders of their robes to symbolize their love, fidelity and modesty, while the Christians associated it with the purity of the Virgin Mary.

Images from DiFrancia Bridal Collection