Medieval Weddings - Back To The Roots

Many of the wedding traditions still in practice actually date back as far as medieval times. For example, one of the crowning moments of medieval weddings ceremonies was the exchange of rings between the married couple. Performing this formal act in front of a priest has since then symbolized the mans request for the woman to become his wife. In a way then, almost every wedding held today could be said to have medieval influences.

The main difference between the engagements in the medieval era compared to our modern times, is that groom is asked to give a betrothal "deposit" in terms of money or properties to the family of the women that he is going to marry. Should the man decide to bolt out of the commitment to marry the woman, he has to pay a penalty - a form of insurance, if you will. The penalty could amount to four times the sum of money or properties given as "betrothal deposit".  In contemporary society, we no longer practice the betrothal "deposit" and both parties can now dump each other unceremoniously before the wedding if they want to.

Better or worse - I'll leave that up to you.

After the engagement, according to medieval tradition, rings was exchanged for the second time at the actual ceremony, thus setting the tradition that has prevailed to this very day. The exchanging of rings is without a doubt one of the pivotal points of any wedding held today. In fact, almost regardless of other stylistic nuances bestowed upon a wedding, it is not considered complete without the exchange of rings.

The Maid Of Honor

Another traditional practice that can be traced to medieval weddings is the presence of the made of honor. The practice of having a maid of honor during weddings started in England during the medieval times. In the past, the maid of honor's assignment was seeing to the needs of the bride one week before the wedding. She was in charge of preparing the bouquet and the wedding decorations as well. Since the task of administering to the needs of the bride and making sure that the wedding decorations are in place, the maid of honor usually has host bridesmaids to help her fulfil her duties.

Formally, the contemporary maid of honor still is supposed to see to it that the bride has everything she needs. But since weddings are usually arranged by professionals these days, the task isn't quite as heavy a workload today as it once was.

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