Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[Byron130]

I've found lots of ancestors recently in South Yorkshire that were married in the mid to late 1700s and very early 1800s in the All Saints Parish Church of Rotherham (now known as Rotherham Minster) could anyone tell me how long these wedding ceremonies would have lasted and would they be anything like the church weddings of today? Many of these ancestors were also burried there so I'm assuming it was a fairly common place to get married and burried.

I'm just trying to imagine the clothing worn and what sort of celebrations they would have enjoyed, I assume no honeymoons were had in those days so would there have been any other additional celebrations? Also, how long would a courtship have been before marriage?

Any help for a glimpse into these 1700 wedding rituals would be very much appreciated.

Many Thanks
Byron130

[storyteller]

Here's an article I found about the history of marriage cermonies through the years, seems most of our modern day ceremonies started in Victorian times.

[font="arial"][b] Tossing the Bouquet and Garter
Wedding Favors[/b][/font] [font="arial"] Ancient traditions involving wedding "tokens" are many and varied. Anything associated with the bride was considered not only lucky, but magical as well. During the early Middle Ages, rare was the bride that made it to her new home with her garments intact. After the feast, the couple was carried by their friends and family to the nuptial chamber and taken inside by their closest companions. It should be noted that by this time, everyone involved was roaring drunk. While the attendants undressed and prepared the couple, everyone else stood outside the closed door shouting encouragement and singing bawdy songs. When the couple was naked and laid out on their marriage bed, the attendants sat on the edge of the bed with their backs turned to the bride and groom and threw stockings over their shoulders. Whoever threw the stocking that hung on the bride or groom’s nose would be the next to marry.[/font] [font="arial"] The wedding garter and the husband’s removal of it represented the bride’s virginity and the symbolic relinquishing of that status. In the 14th century, the bride had gotten tired of drunken male guests growing impatient and trying to remove it themselves. It was a lot less trouble just to throw the bouquet at them. It wasn’t until late in the 19th century that the bouquet and garter toss became segregated affairs and nowhere is the event as rowdy and injury causing as the United States.[/font] [font="arial"] During the Renaissance, taking a piece of the bride’s wedding attire was lucky for the guests, disastrous for the bride. It was during this time that Italian brides began tacking flowers or bows to their gowns to give the guests something to take without leaving the bride in rags. This later evolved into the giving of wedding favors. For centuries, the brides of Italy have given little bags of confetti, candy covered almonds to their guests, representing the bitter and the sweet of married life. Known today as Jordan almonds, they still grace many a reception table world-wide. Today’s wedding favors are as diverse as the weddings, running the gambit between personalized chocolates and matchbooks to saplings and wildflower seeds.[/font] [font="arial"][b]
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[storyteller]

[Byron130]

Thank you so much for this, it's WAY more information than I thought I could get.
It's fascinating to know where and how the traditions of today came from.

I really appreciate your help,
many thanx

Byron [:D]