Wedding Shoeperstition!

Shoes bring good fortune to marriage!

When it comes to bridal accessories, shoes feature in all sorts of weird marriage traditions. They are believed to bring good fortune, symbolise fertility, possession & authority.

It was considered lucky to get married in an old pair of shoes thankfully brides nowadays prefer a new pair.

In Tudor times guests were encouraged to throw their shoes at the bride & groom it was even better good luck if they managed to hit the happy couple or their carriage.

Our current tradition of tossing the bridal bouquet stems from a past tradition which involved the bride throwing her own shoes at the bridesmaids’, who ever caught them was believed to be the next to marry.

A more civilized tradition was where all the bridesmaids’ signed the bottom of the brides’ shoes. The bridesmaid whose name had worn off the most by the end of the reception was the next to marry.

This next tradition would certainly encourage the  ‘mother in law’ jokes it involved the grooms mother to throw a shoe over her new daughter-in-law as she leaves the ceremony, this was to ensure that they would always be friends.

Shoes were also believed to symbolise fertility, possession & authority. In some countries the shoes were placed at the head of the bed on the husbands’ side to encourage fertility.

Leather shoes would protect the newlyweds from evil spirits similarly the noisy clatter of shoes & cans attached to the car bumper was to ward off evil spirits.

Shoes were used to symbolise the completion of a bargain. The brides’ father would give the groom his daughters’ old shoes thus transferring the responsibility from father to son- in law.

In Anglo Saxon times the bride was symbolically struck on the head by the groom with his shoe to establish his authority.

In France the groom would rest his foot on top of the brides shoe throughout the wedding ceremony – to stamp his authority & possession on the union

Cakes are often decorated with shoe charms likewise confetti may include boot shapes.

Don’t forget to put a six pence or coin in the left shoe, a symbol a wealth of happiness & hopefully money.

Finally for good luck you have to let your cat eat out of your left shoe for a week before the wedding—it could be worse!