French weddings are found to be a lot more traditional in the small villages of France. In the earlier days, the bride’s best dress was made into a wedding gown by adding lace and beads to it. However, the customary white dress soon took over, as it symbolized the innocence and purity of the bride. Earlier on, blue was a symbol of purity.
It is French tradition that the ‘wedding armoire’, also known as the ‘hope chest’, carries the bride’s ‘trousseau’, which literally means bundle. The trousseau is a bundle of her linens, silks etc. This hope chest is hand-carved by the future bride’s father and is given to her while she is still an adolescent. She then collects the favourite clothes from her wardrobe in this chest, to take to a new home, as a souvenir of her prosperous and happy childhood.
The wedding itself is carried out traditionally only in villages today. The groom calls upon his future wife on the wedding day. They walk to the venue of the wedding together, and on their way, the kids in the crowd hold out white ribbons to block the bride’s way, and it is custom that she cuts each of them.
The wedding is carried out as per normal customs. A square silk cloth, called a ‘carre’, which means square, is held over the bride and groom as they receive the final blessings of the priest. The same ‘carre’ is later used for the baptism of their child.
As the newlyweds walk out of the chapel, the people shower them with rice, as rice is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. At the wedding reception, the couple toast to each other in an engraved, two-handled cup ‘la coupe de mariage’ meaning the wedding cup.
A toast and a party finish off the ceremony with greeting and blessing from family and friends!
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