A lot of the customs we observe today in modern weddings echo those from the past. In the Middle Ages, weddings where family affairs involving the local community. The bride was the property of her father, so he had to agree to give her away to her new husband in exchange for her value in money, property or goods, including precious stones. A forerunner to engagement rings perhaps. Both partners had to state their consent to be married, but witnesses and clergy were not always necessary at a marriage ceremony. If you said you were married, that was all you needed to do in the eyes of the law. It was not official church policy until the Council of Trent in mid sixteenth century that a priest was responsible for performing the wedding and the ceremony moved from the house of the bride to the church.

For a long time, brides would wear their best dress at the wedding. Later, blue was the common colour for the dress, symbolising purity. This may be where the 'something blue' tradition dates back to. White dresses only became popular in the 1840s when Queen Victoria got married in a white gown. Bridesmaids used to wear dresses much like the bride's gown, while ushers dressed in clothing that was similar to the groom's attire. This tradition was said to ward off evil spirits who might attempt to harm the newly-weds, by confusing them as to which two people were bride and groom.