The Rain Notebook

I’m so fascinated by the French culture and Paris that I love doing research. In the midst of doing this I found some very interesting french wedding traditions, so of course I had to share.

During the reception, the couple often uses a toasting cup called a
“Coupe de Marriage.” In fact, the origin of giving a toast began in
France when a small piece of toast was dropped into the couple’s wine
to ensure a healthy life. Hence the reference to lifting your glass in
a “toast.”

It’s an old French custom for the couple to drink their reception
toasts from an engraved, two-handled cup called the “coupe de mariage.” They then save the cup to pass on to their children.

During the reign of Louis XVI, brides handed over their old fans to
bridesmaids as favors. The fans were decorated with mythological
paintings. You probably don’t have a stock of fans in your closet, but
you can adapt this tradition by giving new fans as gifts, or some more
modern, mythologically decorated vanity items, like hand-held mirrors
or ornate miniature boxes.

The traditional bridal trousseau originated in France and was derived
from the word “trousse,” or “bundle.” The bundle refers to the clothes
and other possessions that a bride would take with her from her
family’s home to the one she’d share with her husband.

In many smaller French towns, the groom will meet his betrothed at her
home on the day of the wedding and escort her to the ceremony. Across the road, children stretch white ribbons which the bride cuts as they
proceed towards the chapel. In Brittany beggars plaited a hedgerow
briar across the newlyweds until bribed to remove .All these symbolic
obstacles are created for the wedding couple to overcome together and
thus to signify their common path in a new life.

At the church, the bride and groom are seated upon two red velvet
chairs beneath a silk canopy, or “carre.” In a church filled with
incense and flowers, the couple stand beneath a silk canopy. A
predecessor of the veil was termed “carre’,” which were held over the
head of the bride and bridegroom in French weddings as the couple
received the priest’s final blessing. They were designed to protect the
couple from evil influences. Sometimes laurel leaves are scattered
across their paths when they exit the church, or small coins are tossed
for the towns’ children to gather.

A fairly boisterous French wedding tradition involves continuing the
celebrating into the wee hours of the night. After the reception,
friends gather outside the newlyweds’ window and bang together pots and
pans. These raucous revelers are then invited inside for a few more
drinks in the couple’s honor before they are finally allowed to spend
their first night together as husband and wife… The bride and groom
were expected to appear in their wedding clothes and provide treats for
their tormentors. This has led to tying a cowbell under the bed or
tying cans to the car, still scaring away spirits.

Today’s wedding cakes are in adaptation of French pastry to English
customs. Originally, large, thin biscuits were broken over the head of
an English bride. By Elizabethan times, these biscuits had changed into
small, square cakes. The French influence added icing.
Long ago in France, it was the custom for villagers to throw buns into
a pile in preparation for the wedding feast. A clever baker decided to
take some bun-like pastries stuffed with cream and fastened them as a
pyramid, like the mound of buns, creating a tall cone of caramel-coated
cream puffs called croque-en-bouche (“crisp in the mouth”). The cone
may be topped with caged doves, which are released to symbolize the
newlyweds’ departure from their families.

(lol Oh Hell no!)

During the Middle Ages, wedding guests would bring small cakes and
stacked in a pile, as high as possible, in the center of a table. If
the bride and groom could kiss over them without knocking them over, it
was thought to symbolize a lifetime of prosperity. The traditional
French wedding celebration cake, known as croquembouche or today’s
common term, “la pièce montée” was invented by a French chef at the end
of 17th century. The cake is made of small, creme-filled pastry puffs
piled in a pyramid and covered in a caramel glaze and spun sugar.

The tradition of garter is originated from the ancient Jewish society
where fidelity was symbolized by the ribbon worn by the bride on her
wedding day. Tossing of the bride’s garter became popular in 14th
century. In France, it was a best man who was in charge of stealing it
off from the bride or the groom who would take off garter and sell it
into small pieces to wedding guests. Or it is said to be the bride who
would throw her garter to the guests before sometimes unruly drunken
mob tearing it off from her.

What is in common, though, a belief that pieces of brides attires would
bring good luck to whoever caught it. There is no such tradition in the
Maritime Provinces. Today the bridal bouquet toss gets to less trouble
for her instead.