When you hear the word ‘wedding’, immediately there comes to mind a beautiful bride in a white dress, handsome groom in a tux, a tasteful ceremony and then a feast and party. The origin of the word has luckily for happy couples greatly deviated from its origins. “Wedding” literally meant the purchase of a bride for breeding purposes. Although some brides in the olden days were kidnapped, marriage by purchase was the preferred method of obtaining a wife. The “bride price” could be land, social status, political alliances, or cold hard cash. The Anglo-Saxon word “wed” had a double meaning, one that the groom vowed to marry the woman, and secondly it referred to the bride price (money or barter) to be paid by the groom to the bride’s father. Glad that meaning has gotten lost in our modern-day translation!
