“Two lusty lads, well drest and strong,
Step’d out to lead the bride along:
And two young maids of equal size,
As soon the bridegroom’s hands surprise.”
The bridegroom’s men were anciently called Bride Knights, which was an appropriate name at the period when they actually fulfilled that office.
Bride cake is of ancient origin: it is a relic of the Roman period, when the marriage ceremony consisted principally of the contracting parties partaking of a cake made of flour, salt, and water, in the presence of the Pontifex Maximus, or High Priest, and ten witnesses. The form of the cake has varied in different ages. Ben Jonson refers to it in the Tale of a Tub, iii., 8:
“The maids and her half-valentine have ply’d her,
With courtise of the Bride cake and the bowl,
As she is laid awhile.”
As feasting was connected with nearly all religious ceremonies, and as each feast speedily appropriated its particular article of food, the bride cake became inseparably associated with the bridal feast. Anciently, small cakes were made for weddings, and distributed amongst the guests; the ingredients of these doubtless changed from age to age, but there is little doubt the cake was always a sweet one which, in the early days, would be sweetened with honey with spices in it, and, after their introduction, currants. In the seventeenth century it was usual for the bride and bridegroom to kiss over the cake, and many are the superstitions connected with it.
It was formerly the custom for the brides to go to church with their hair hanging loose behind. Anne Boleyn’s was thus dishevelled when she went to the altar with Henry VIII. Webster refers to this practice in The White Devil:
“And let them dangle loose as a bride’s hair.”
Nuptial garlands or wreaths are of great antiquity; they were equally used by both the Jews and the Heathens. The Roman custom was for the bride to have a chaplet of flowers or herbs upon her head, whilst among the Anglo-Saxons, after the benediction in the church, both the bride and bridegroom were crowned with flowers. In the Eastern church the chaplets used at marriages were first blessed by the priest. Wreaths made of ears of corn were frequently worn by brides in the time of Henry VIII., and myrtle was also much used for this purpose. In many churches it was usual to keep a crown of metal for the use of brides, and for which they would pay a fee. In the churchwardens’ accounts of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, for the year 1540, is the following entry:—“Paid to Alice Lewis, a goldsmith’s wife, of London, for a serclett to marry Maydens in, the 26th day of September, £3 10s. 0d.”
Marriage by proxy was probably practised by the heathen Romans, and even so late as the middle ages was not at all uncommon, although then it had become confined principally to the aristocracy, and later on few instances are to be met with, except in the case of Royalty. Henry VIII. married Anne of Cleves by proxy. So also James II., when Duke of York, in 1673, was married by proxy to Mary of Modena. The church always looked with great disfavour on this form of marriage, and for this reason the parties were generally re-married on the arrival of the bride in her husband’s country, or at the home of the bridegroom.
Amongst the ancient Northern nations a knot appears to have been considered as the symbol of love, faith, and friendship, pointing out, as it were, the indissoluble tie of affection and duty; hence it is that knots or bows of ribbon came to be used as wedding favours, a particular form of which came to be known as the True Lovers’ Knot. The peasantry of France wore the bridal favour on the arm, whereas in England it was formerly worn in the hat, and consisted of ribbons of various colours; in later years white ribbon alone was used. Curiously enough Rosemary was not only carried at funerals, but was also worn at weddings, and appears to have been considered as an insignia of a wedding guest: on these occasions the sprigs of Rosemary were frequently gilded, or dipped in scented water. Bay leaves were also used for a similar purpose, but not so generally as the Rosemary.