Wedding Ceremony Participants (Bridesmaids: Origin and History)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_ceremony_participants#Origin_and_history
I went to a wedding of a dear friend over the weekend. I was not asked to be a bridesmaid, which would have entailed me buying an expensive purple dress, coordinating such activities as decorating personalized wine glasses for a bachelorette wine-tasting trip to Napa Valley, and standing mute in front of everyone at the ceremony. And smiling.
Instead, I was asked to write something special for the bride and groom to say at the ceremony itself. This arrangement was agreeable to, and appreciated by, all parties involved.
Despite having several moments in which I was tempted to let my true colors show (“Hmm, what rhymes with ‘course?’ I know… DIVORCE!!”), the poem I wrote turned out to be appropriate, optimistic, and damn good, if I do say so myself. And I do. Nothing scandalous at all; I figured I’d compensate by getting hammered at the reception and disgracing my family. Which I did.
On the car ride home, another of my good friends (who happened to be a bridesmaid) mentioned that she’d heard a story about how the bridesmaid tradition came to be: bridesmaids were decoys, dressing in all white like the bride herself, to thwart any attempted kidnappings. I scoffed and said, “Fie. TO THE INTERNETS!” (a 5x daily utterance). Turns out, said story was half right in two different ways: the decoys were meant to distract evil spirits in Roman times, and many cultures have a bridal “kidnapping” tradition. My favorite is the Ukrainian one:
In Ukraine a best man is responsible for guarding the bride during the wedding festivities. When he or the groom steps away, the bride gets “kidnapped” or has a shoe stolen. Then the groom or the best man must pay a ransom in exchange for returning the bride, usually by paying money (which is given to the bride) or by doing something embarrassing.
I’d make a good Ukrainian groom… I have no problem with embarrassing myself.
