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Wedding Here are 50 wedding facts to ponder as you plan your big day...

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SparklyGirl*

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Thought you ladies would enjoy some of these facts.....some are just crazy! So let's make a little game about it...tell which fact is your favorite and which one you think is ridiculous!
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Me First!!!

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Favorite: 28. On her wedding day, Grace Kelly wore a dress with a bodice made from beautiful 125-year-old lace.
How awesome would that be? How old and just cool. im going to pass on my dress so that the lace on it will be 125 years old and someone can wear it! lol (i do want to pass my wedding dress down though)

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Ridiculous: 34. In Denmark, brides and grooms traditionally cross-dressed to confuse evil spirits!
If that were to happen now a days....
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WoW!
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I just dont have words. lets just say that they would not want pro pics done! That means the groom would have to wear the garter and the bride would have to throw it!



GOOD LUCK AND BAD LUCK
1. Hey, brides, tuck a sugar cube into your glove -- according to Greek culture, the sugar will sweeten your union.
2. The English believe a spider found in a wedding dress means good luck. Yikes!
3. In English tradition, Wednesday is considered the "best day" to marry, although Monday is for wealth and Tuesday is for health.
4. The groom carries the bride across the threshold to bravely protect her from evil spirits lurking below.
5. Saturday is the unluckiest wedding day, according to English folklore. Funny -- it's the most popular day of the week to marry!
6. Ancient Romans studied pig entrails to determine the luckiest time to marry.
7. Rain on your wedding day is actually considered good luck, according to Hindu tradition!
8. For good luck, Egyptian women pinch the bride on her wedding day. Ouch!
9. Middle Eastern brides paint henna on their hands and feet to protect themselves from the evil eye.
10. Peas are thrown at Czech newlyweds instead of rice.
11. 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.
12.A Finnish bride traditionally went door-to-door collecting gifts in a pillowcase, accompanied by an older married man who represented long marriage.
13. Moroccan women take a milk bath to purify themselves before their wedding ceremony.
14.In Holland, a pine tree is planted outside the newlyweds' home as a symbol of fertility and luck.
IT'S GOT A RING TO IT
15. 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.
16. About 70% of all brides sport the traditional diamond on the fourth finger of their left hand.
17. Priscilla Presley's engagement ring was a whopping 3 1/2-carat rock surrounded by a detachable row of smaller diamonds.
18. Diamonds set in gold or silver became popular as betrothal rings among wealthy Venetians toward the end of the fifteenth century.
19. In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.
20. A pearl engagement ring is said to be bad luck because its shape echoes that of a tear.
21. One of history's earliest engagement rings was given to Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. She was two years old at the time.
22. Seventeen tons of gold are made into wedding rings each year in the United States!
23. Snake rings dotted with ruby eyes were popular wedding bands in Victorian England -- the coils winding into a circle symbolized eternity.
24. Aquamarine represents marital harmony and is said to ensure a long, happy marriage.
FASHIONABLE LORE
25. Queen Victoria started the Western world's white wedding dress trend in 1840 -- before then, brides simply wore their best dress.
26. In Asia, wearing robes with embroidered cranes symbolizes fidelity for the length of a marriage.
27. Ancient Greeks and Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits. Brides have worn veils ever since.
28. On her wedding day, Grace Kelly wore a dress with a bodice made from beautiful 125-year-old lace.
29. Of course, Jackie Kennedy's bridesmaids were far from frumpy. She chose pink silk faille and red satin gowns created by African-American designer Ann Lowe (also the creator of Jackie's dress).
30. In Japan, white was always the color of choice for bridal ensembles -- long before Queen Victoria popularized it in the Western world.
31. 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.
32. In Korea, brides don bright hues of red and yellow to take their vows.
33. Brides carry or wear "something old" on their wedding day to symbolize continuity with the past.
34. In Denmark, brides and grooms traditionally cross-dressed to confuse evil spirits!
35. The "something blue" in a bridal ensemble symbolizes purity, fidelity, and love.
FOOD AND FAMILY
36. In Egypt, the bride's family traditionally does all the cooking for a week after the wedding, so the couple can…relax.
37. 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.
38. 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.
39. 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.
40. Queen Victoria's wedding cake weighed a whopping 300 pounds. 41. Legend says single women will dream of their future husbands if they sleep with a slice of groom's cake under their pillows.
42. 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.
SHOW OFF AT A COCKTAIL PARTY
43. "Tie the knot" comes from Roman times, when the bride wore a girdle tied in knots that the groom later untied.
44. The Roman goddess Juno rules over marriage, the hearth, and childbirth, hence the popularity of June weddings.
45. Princess Victoria established the tradition of playing Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" during her wedding processional in 1858.
46. The bride stands to the groom's left during a Christian ceremony, because in bygone days the groom needed his right hand free to fight off other suitors.
47. On average, 7,000 couples marry each day in the United States.
48. Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve are the two busiest "marriage" days in Las Vegas -- elopement central!
49. The Catholic tradition of "posting the banns" to announce a marriage originated as a way to ensure the bride and groom were not related.
50. Stag parties were first held by ancient Spartan soldiers, who kissed their bachelor days goodbye with a raucous party.

 

I also found these to be interesting....


A collection of wedding trivia and unusual wedding facts from around the web.


Average Age
In 2000, the average bride was 24 years old and the average groom was 28.
Bridesmaids Curse
Thrice a bridesmaid, never a bride is an old charm that can be broken by being a bridesmaid seven times.
Dressing Matters
The tradition of bridesmaids dressing the same as each other and in similar style to the bride comes from ancient days when it was believed that evil spirits have a more difficult time distinguishing which one is the bride and putting a hex on her.
Engagement Length
The average engagement period is 16 months, which is up from 11 months in 1990.
Engagement Rings
74% of all brides receive a diamond engagement ring. Of those, 60% are involved in picking out their ring, while 3% actually pick it themselves.
Engagement Rings
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.
Formal or Casual
80% of brides plan formal weddings.
Internet Wedding Planning
8% of all Internet users are engaged to be married.

Number of U.S. Weddings
The number of marriages in the U.S. has averaged 2.25 - 2.4 million every year for the past 20 years.
Oldest Bridal Tradition
The veil dates back to ancient Rome, when it was flame-yellow, always worn over the face, and called a flammeum. Wow, i want to see what that looks like!
Remarriage
For the past 20 years, 2.25 to 2.40 million weddings have taken place each year in the United States; a third of them are remarriages.
Second Weddings
In almost half of U.S. weddings either the bride or groom has been married previously. wow, kind of sad if you think about it.
Strange But True
In Pennsylvania, Ministers are forbidden from performing marriages when either the bride or groom is drunk.
The Kiss
The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time under the eyes of half the village!
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wow, talk about a wedding program!
The Wedding Party
The most frequent number of bridesmaids is 4 (including the maid of honor). 62% of weddings have a flower girl, while 56% have a ring bearer.
Wearing White
Queen Victoria made white the bridal color of choice when she wore it to wed Prince Albert in 1840.
Wedding Costs
The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.
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Wedding Costs - 2nd Time Around
The average second wedding costs $12,000, but couples spend nearly double first time couples on their honeymoons.

Wedding Guests
In the United States, an average of 189 guests attend each wedding.
Wedding Industry
Weddings comprise a $25.3 Billion dollar industry.
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Wedding Location
In the United States, 85% of all weddings take place within a church or synagogue.
Wedding Month
August is the top month for weddings, with an average of 10.2% taking place. June comes in a close second with 9.9%.
Wedding Planning
37% of all brides plan their weddings for 7 to 12 months.
 
We got married on a Wednesday.
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Date: 9/18/2008 12:08:46 PM
Wedding Costs

The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.
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Not in the NY area - you and your 186 guests would be partying at the nearest Taco Bell. . .
 
42. 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.

This one amused me - my younger sister got married in July 2000. I wore this amazing pair of 4" stilettos to the wedding that a shoe designer friend of mine designed and made for me. They were possibly the most uncomfortable things I have ever worn - but looked incredible.

Anyway, I was defeated halfway through the evening and ended up dancing barefoot.

8 years and 25 days later I landed my husband!
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Date: 9/18/2008 7:00:07 PM
Author: buttercup80
Date: 9/18/2008 12:08:46 PM

Wedding Costs


The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.
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Not in the NY area - you and your 186 guests would be partying at the nearest Taco Bell. . .

If I recall correctly from my research last year, the average wedding is around $28,000, while the average couple makes about $42,000 per year. (Not sure my math is right, but it made the wedding roughly equal 7 months' salary.)

Also, I just want to say there could be a little more cultural sensitivity about the traditional cross dressing. If that was your culture, of course you'd want pictures. It would just be what you do (for instance, there are probably people in India that are shocked looking at American bridal gowns for the first time since white is the colour of mourning. What a statement to make at your wedding, people must think, to publicly show you are in mourning). Sorry, as an anthropology major it's hard to see anything but the fact that there is a cultural barrier here, and I want to come with my big bat a-swingin' and knock it down.
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Date: 9/18/2008 9:31:31 PM
Author: princesss
Date: 9/18/2008 7:00:07 PM

Author: buttercup80

Date: 9/18/2008 12:08:46 PM


Wedding Costs



The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.
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Not in the NY area - you and your 186 guests would be partying at the nearest Taco Bell. . .


If I recall correctly from my research last year, the average wedding is around $28,000, while the average couple makes about $42,000 per year. (Not sure my math is right, but it made the wedding roughly equal 7 months'' salary.)


Also, I just want to say there could be a little more cultural sensitivity about the traditional cross dressing. If that was your culture, of course you''d want pictures. It would just be what you do (for instance, there are probably people in India that are shocked looking at American bridal gowns for the first time since white is the colour of mourning. What a statement to make at your wedding, people must think, to publicly show you are in mourning). Sorry, as an anthropology major it''s hard to see anything but the fact that there is a cultural barrier here, and I want to come with my big bat a-swingin'' and knock it down.
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from an anthropological standpoint, i think sparklygirl makes an interesting point--bridal fashions have changed. a man wearing an old school sleeved wedding dress, for example, is a little different than a man wearing a strappy silk number my monique llhullier!
 
I agree...I just don''t think that was the point that was being made.
 
Oh no I completely agree with the traditional long sleeve dress thing that different cultures wear. I think it is nice that cultures still do that..When I read that statement I thought of a strappy little number and some stilettos not the traditional garb that some cultures wear. Sorry for the confusion! I completely agree with cultures doing there thing when it comes to wedding garb but if a man from the US dressed in a dress.. i was saying that that would be very noticable and i am sure people would do a double take.
 
Date: 9/19/2008 7:22:27 AM
Author: SparklyGirl*
Oh no I completely agree with the traditional long sleeve dress thing that different cultures wear. I think it is nice that cultures still do that..When I read that statement I thought of a strappy little number and some stilettos not the traditional garb that some cultures wear. Sorry for the confusion! I completely agree with cultures doing there thing when it comes to wedding garb but if a man from the US dressed in a dress.. i was saying that that would be very noticable and i am sure people would do a double take.

I definitely agree that if somebody from the States did that it would turn a few heads...then again, I have some guy friends that could wear one of those dresses way better than I could (stupid cellulite!).
 
Date: 9/18/2008 7:00:07 PM
Author: buttercup80

Date: 9/18/2008 12:08:46 PM

Wedding Costs

The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.
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Not in the NY area - you and your 186 guests would be partying at the nearest Taco Bell. . .
Haha. So true. That''s the first thing I thought when I saw the statistic (well, minus the Taco Bell part ... )
 
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