Talk about weddings today and what comes to mind first are the wedding dresses, wedding cake, marital vows, parties and celebrations with family and friends. Before we got here, weddings were not as much as wedding dresses, parties and all. Different cultures today have their different wedding norms and formalities. In the Feudal days for instance, weddings did not even have a priest, neither did they have any witnesses. The modifications came as there arose need to concretize the union, making things more formal and binding. Before long, it became vital that a priest blesses the couple and then it was signed in that a priest before some witnesses must conduct the joining of the couple.
The attires and makeup of the bride back in the day also differed significantly from the latest designer wedding dresses or the latest facial makeups and hairdo of today’s brides. It was more or less cruder than whatever is on display today. The bride will have special paintings as makeups on her. Some cultures even insist the lady must bleach her hair while for some others she and her maids must to braid their hair in a special way. Some of these appear crude yet they are still in practice even today.
The kind of family the bride comes from also influences the rites she must undergo during her wedding. For the very rich, the woman will have a hot bath and then special oils and creams rubbed on her. If she came from a poor family, she would not have the hot nice bath but must be perfumed in a bid to suppress the dirt. Her apparel could range from fine silks, silver or gold embroideries to plain and well lit fabrics. For the men, their wedding dresses were very fine materials with furs ad belts.
The colour of the wedding dresses were also as significant as today’s. The bride today usually wears white or cream coloured gowns, which stands for purity. While the significance of purity still stands, the colour then was blue rather than white. For those who did not wear blue gowns they would wear some blue accessory on her; a blue scarf of ribbon.
The Social stratum is very evident in the weddings back in medieval ages. Poor families who might not be able to afford the costly fine apparel might just resort to wearing the nicer looking everyday dresses. They might also not afford the castle setting weddings of those from noble homes. The partying and eating after today’s weddings is also similar to the ancient weddings with friends, families, dancers, singers and musicians all in full attendance.
In conclusion, one thing that has not changed despite the changing times is that most weddings of those from wealthy families were rarely built on love and affection between the couple. The families usually arrange the marriages; the rich rarely marry from poor families. Such tactics rarely result in happy peaceful homes; it never did then and it never does today.
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