Bridehood

For many women, bridehood is one of the most exciting times of one’s life. Bridehood is a ceremony and a celebration, a symbolic act that means the end of a woman’s singleness and the start of life in union with their significant other through a ritual called wedding.

In Western culture, a bridal party typically includes flower girls, ring bearers, bridesmaids or maids of honor (who help the bride deal with bridehood), and the groom who becomes the bride’s husband after the wedding.

Though wedding ceremonies vary from culture to culture, in Western weddings this means exchanging of vows, rings, prayers, and signing the register. The wedding ceremony is typically followed by a wedding reception wherein the bride and the groom are joined by family and friends in fun and festivity. During the wedding reception, more wedding rituals such as cake cutting, first dances, toasts, speeches, and garter removal are joyously undertaken by the bride and the groom. No bridehood is also complete without a bouquet toss, which traditionally means passing of good luck and now means that the person who catches the bouquet is the next person to marry.

Finally, the reception ends, with a shower of rice grains or confetti for good luck, in a send-off of the bride and the groom to their honeymoon.