Interesting Scottish Wedding Traditions

My good friend and
great musician,
Marc Gunn

The first several months of the year, many brides are making plans for their upcoming weddings in the summer months. In the last post, I shared some traditions about Irish weddings, courtesy of my friend, Reverend David Beronio. You’ll find more traditions at his website.

Here’s what he shares about Scottish weddings:

The groom and his groomsmen often wear Scottish kilts, and traditionally, there are no undergarments worn! (Here's the classic joke, “What does a Scotsman wear beneath his kilt?” Answer: “His shoes!”). The groom may present the bride with an engraved silver teaspoon on their wedding day to symbolize that they will never go hungry. And the traditional sword dance is sometimes performed at their wedding reception. 

Here’s more information about Scottish traditions from the liner notes of my CD, “Haste to the Wedding” (Copyright©2005 Anne Roos):

In traditional Scottish weddings, the groom wears the kilt of his clan, and after the vows have been exchanged, he places a shawl or sash of his clan’s tartan over the shoulders of his bride. This signifies the acceptance and protection of her in the goom’s family clan.

In Scotland, shortbread has been used in wedding celebrations for centuries. An uncut round of shortbread has been broken over the bride’s head at her wedding, showering her with blessings. A safer way to include them would be to wrap individual slices of shortbread in cellophane, tied with neat bows, and provide them as favors at the reception. Either way, including shortbread in the wedding celebration is said to bring good luck and prosperity to all those who partake. (a great recipe for ginger shortbread is found within the pages of my “Haste to the Wedding” liner notes).

“My wife’s a winsome wee thing,

She is a handsome wee thing, 

She is a bonnie wee thing,

This sweet wee wife o’ mine.”

--Robert Burns

Have your own Scottish wedding traditions to add? Feel free to comment....Next time: More Celtic wedding traditions.