Jennifer’s Occasions is a full service Southeast Texas wedding planner.
They love everything about Southeast Texas weddings – including the history of our common wedding traditions.
Owner Jennifer Carelock recently shared some of that history with SETXweddings.com*.
For Southeast Texas brides interested in incorporating these traditions into their Golden Triangle weddings, it can be fun to know where the traditions come from.
The overwhelming majority of Southeast Texas brides choose white wedding dresses.
Where did the tradition start?
England’s Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert in 1840, and she launched the white wedding dress tradition.
Queen Victoria also started the tradition of buying/creating a special dress just for your wedding.
Before Queen Victoria, brides wore the nicest dress in their closet.
Traditionally, royal brides wore silver gowns. Queen Victoria decided to go against tradition and wear a white satin gown, thus unintentionally kick-starting the tradition of the white wedding dress that remains with Southeast Texas brides today.
Whether our SETX brides choose a white dress, a purple dress, or camo, know it’s Queen Victoria you’re following – or rebelling against!
Bridesmaids historically played a more serious role than throwing your Southeast Texas bachelorette parties and providing moral support for their Golden Triangle brides.
According to Roman Law, ten witnesses had to be present at the wedding to outsmart evil spirits.
The bridesmaids would dress just like the bride, so that the evil spirits would not know who the bride was and couldn’t harm her.
Bet you would have thought twice about being a bridesmaid then.
Today being a bridesmaid is less dangerous, but a good Southeast Texas bridesmaid still protects her bride from a boring bachelorette party, so take your role seriously!
Similar to the bridesmaids, the original role of the wedding veil was to cover the bride’s face so the evil spirit couldn’t see her. If an evil spirit couldn’t see the bride, it couldn’t curse her – or her marriage.
Today a Southeast Texas wedding veil is more of an extension of the Bride’s sense of style. Beaumont wedding designer AV Custom Designs and More specializes in veils, shoes, and jewelry that reflect their brides personal style.
Today’s brides don’t fear evil spirits, but they do want to look their best!
For many Southeast Texas brides, a wedding veil is part of their vision for their Golden Triangle wedding.
AV Custom Designs and More
Some wedding historians believed that the removal of the garter by groom was symbolic of deflowering.
Others believe the tradition started in superstition.
During the Middle Ages, the groomsmen and other men would rush the bride to get the garter (off her leg under her dress). It was considered a prize, a good luck charm.
A little… barbaric.
I’m so glad that today only the Southeast Texas groom has the job of removing the garter.
Wedding traditions are less serious than they once were.
Today Southeast Texas brides choose the ones they like and discard the ones they don’t.
Perhaps some of the history will help you choose which elements to include in your SETX wedding.
Thank-you to Southeast Texas wedding planner Jennifer’s Occasions for researching these traditions for our Southeast Texas brides.
Would you like to work with a premier Southeast Texas wedding planner?
Contact Jennifer’s Occasions today: jennifercarelock@gmail.com
Find out more on the Jennifer’s Occasions website.
*Information researched by Jennifer’s Occasions using MSN.
