Scottish Wedding Customs
Preparation
Choosing The Day
The time chosen for the marriage was important. June has always been the most popular and May was a month to be avoided as the proverb 'Marry in May and rue the day.' The moon was also an important consideration, it was a good omen if it was increasing in size, while a waning moon is a bad omen for the bride's future happiness:A growing moon and a flowing tide
Fortune smiles on a happy bride.
The marriage day was usually a weekday, rarely a Saturday and never on the Sabbath. The choices have been put into verse are contradictory, as the following will show:
Monday for health / Monday for wealth
Tuesday for wealth / Tuesday for health
Wednesday best day at all / Wednesday no luck at all
Thursday for curses
Friday for crosses / Friday for losses
Saturday no luck at all / Saturday best day of all
The Biddin and The Banns
When the date of the marriage was fixed, it was and still is necessary to put in the banns or 'the notification to the minister to proclaim banns of marriage. This was variously called 'the Contrack night' or 'the beuckin night'. The bridegroom, if at all possible, presented himself at the home of the bride along with a few friends. Accompanied by the brides father or other relative, the young man went to the session clerk to give in the name, for proclamation or as it was called 'to lay down the pawns'.An intended marriage would be announced informally by the local children singing the following:
Braw news is come to town
Braw news is carried
Braw news is come to town
Jennys to be married
First she got the kail pot
Syne she got the ladle
Syne she got a dainty wean
And syne she got a cradle
The Wedding Sark
The 'Wedding Sark' was a gift from bride to bridegroom of the wedding shirt. The groom in turn was to pay for her wedding dress.The Providan
Before the marriage took place the young women were busy getting the future bride's 'providen' ready for her future home. One or more days were given to the 'Thiggan' of wool from her friends and neighbours.The Feet Washing
On the night before the wedding, or sometimes the Contrack night, friends and family would gather at one of the parents houses to celebrate the upcomming marriage. The food was plain, perhaps some dried fish and tatties, and there was much teasing and merriment. Part of the night's entertainment was the 'feet washing,' where the bride's shoes and stockings were removed and her feet washed, when clean her feet were then smeared in soot or shoe blackening. The victim always struggled but in the end always succumbed. To this day young men on their stag nights are often given a similar treatment.
The Wedding Invites or 'The Biddin'
'The Biddin' was when virtually the whole community were given a spoken invitation to attend the wedding. This was done by the best man and maid, and the worst man and the worst maid.The Wedding Clothes
After 'The Biddin' the wedding clothes were chosen, the bride was more likely to choose a coloured dress than the now traditional white one. Popular in past times was a Paisley Shawl or a Paisley patterned dress.The bride was usually dressed by her maids and every article of dress must be new. The bridal dress was on no account be worn before it was required. Something borrowed must be worn; a ring was accounted of the most virtue.
So goes the saying: 'Something old something new, something borrowed something blue'.
Signs and Omens
There were many signs and omens and customs which had to be attended to before marriage. On no account must the bride and groom meet on the marriage day till they meet on the bride-stool. Such a meeting would have brought on a series of calamities.