From not seeing the bride before the wedding, to scrambling to find your perfect "something blue", superstitions can still influence the decisions we make on our wedding day. But how far would you go to avoid bad luck?
According to Jessica O'Sullivan, editor of One Fab Day, a wedding publication, many couples are still avoiding having their big day on Friday the 13th, which in turn is making that day one of the most affordable days to marry in many hotels and venues.
O'Sullivan joined Jennifer Zamparelli to discuss which wedding superstitions still hold water, and which can be thrown out.
"It's still kind of a contentious date for couples when they're booking. Obviously Saturdays are very popular and Friday would be the next most popular date, except for when it's Friday the 13th", she said, adding that because of this, hotels can offer up to 10% or 15% discount on those days.
"When you're getting married on a Friday, you can have your day two on a Saturday so you get to have this really long, three-day weekend bash. I really don't see why more couples don't do it."
Friday the 13th isn't the only superstition considered by couples, though some are on the way out. Speaking about the tradition of not seeing each other before the day of the wedding, O'Sullivan said that "up until three or four years ago, people would have stuck to that".
"Now what we're seeing is that brides and grooms or couples are actually a first look before the ceremony, because they want to see each other and take their portraits before they actually have the ceremony."
She added that wearing pearls on your wedding day is one of the more debatable superstitions, with some camps saying to do so is bad luck as pearls represent tears, while others say wearing pearls on your big day prevents tears during your marriage.
O'Sullivan noted that pearls are trending in bridal fashion at the moment, with pearl headpieces particularly popular, doing away with the superstition.
There can be no superstition more relevant to Irish couples than whether or not rain on your wedding day is good luck. "In other countries where it doesn't rain as much", O'Sullivan said, "if it does rain on your wedding day it is seen as bad luck. But here we have the Child of Prague, so we don't need to worry about that, because he just keeps the rain away."
As for good luck, finding a spider on your wedding dress is believed to be a good omen, "but I suspect that might be just to reassure the bride who might be freaking out", O'Sullivan said.
"I suspect that the bride and groom not seeing each other, as well, was just some man who didn't want to go through hours and hours of shopping", she added.
The traditions that we've firmly adopted and kept, such as the something old, borrowed, new and blue, O'Sullivan said that brides love keeping those superstitions alive.
"I think it allows them to bring in all these sentimental things, which they love, having all these symbolic bits and pieces."
To listen back to the full interview, click above.
