Incorporate Your Swedish Heritage in Your Perfect Wedding – Why Brides Wear Tiaras
If you’d planned on wearing a tiara at your wedding it’s a good idea to know where the tradition came from. This history is Swedish, but my guess is, it’s fairly standard story for Christian countries.
Virgin brides wore a crown on their heads to identify with Mary, mother of Jesus. Not only did Mary come to her marriage a virgin, she was thought to reward those who did the same with fertility. Since the goal of young women was to have a lot of children to insure the health and well-being of the family and village, Mary’s well wishes were important.
Each church owned a wedding crown and the priest decided whether or not the bride could wear the crown. There were certainly times that money changed hands to save reputations! The Swedish Wedding Crowns are round, with a very small base and high spreading points. Churches still have the crowns for their couples to borrow. (Presumably, they ask fewer questions about the purity of the bride.)
In earlier times, the virginity of the brides was considered highly important because the families wanted to insure that the succession of the lands was kept in the family. It seems, however if you read history at all, that couples were at least as sexually active as they are today, maybe even more, especially among the common folk. So, I’m sure many weddings were rushed a bit so that wedding crowns could be worn!
So along with the white dress (much newer symbol of, first, virginity and, now, being a bride) the crown was an integral party of the wedding. Another tradition around these tiny crowns is that the groomsmen were to dance vigorously around the bride in hopes of dislodging the crown and winning themselves good luck. The bride’s and groom’s happiness is seen as a symbol of luck for the whole village.
What a lovely tradition to use a crown that has been used by so many as they made their promises to one another. Part of the power of wedding ceremonies and wedding vows is that they bind you to all the couples who have had wedding ceremonies and made wedding vows. You join your hopes with theirs for happy and healthy ever after marriages.
Bottom Line?: Give your relationship the chance it deserves to succeed wildly, against all odds! After all, you deserve it. Your relationship deserves it! There’s a lot more info to help you create the wedding ceremony of your dreams, the wedding vows of your heart and the marriage of a lifetime over on my website: http://annkeelerevans.org. And to help you create the wedding vows that will become the blueprint for your incredible, happily and healthily ever-after marriage, I’d like to invite you to sign up to receive 2 free wedding vow templates: http://annkeelerevans.org/weddings/free. Go on! I dare you, be happy together!
The Rev. Ann Keeler Evans, The Wedding Priestess – helping you move from “I do” to happily and healthily ever after!
