Did you know that most of today's popular marriage ceremony and reception traditions are actually based on ancient superstition as well as some very practical matters? You can scour the net and find all sorts of traditions based on the silliest of superstition.

Although the exact origin and usefulness of many of these early wedding ceremony traditions are unclear, popular acceptance has allowed them to continue. Besides, many of these wedding traditions are just plain fun!

The one tradition I love the most is the bride carrying flowers down the aisle. Now here's one based in practicality. Did you know that the reason the bride carried flowers was simply to cover up body odor. You see, back in the "good old days" no one took baths very frequently! We can be thankful for indoor plumbing!

According to various sources, some of the early marriages were literally carried out by the Groom and his Groomsmen who would kidnap a woman. Thus the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold.

The Groom and his fellow conspirators would then fight off the female's family of tribesmen with swords held in their right hand while the Groom would hold the captured Bride in his left hand. Thus even today the Bride stands on the left side of the Groom at marriage ceremonies.

After a successful capture, another politically correct practice was for the Groom to hide his new Bride for one month. He did want to be alone with her. Thus it is said that the word "honeymoon" was created to describe this one-month cycle of the moon.

Later, in the more civilized society (or should I just say later..) some marriages were nothing more than trading chips used in bartering land, social status, or political alliances.

The word, "Wedding" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "wedd" that meant a man would marry a woman and pay the Bride's father. How times have changed. Now a man marries a woman and the Bride's father pays. But the word itself has stuck.