1. MEDIEVAL MARRIAGE CUSTOMS

2. AGE IS BUT A NUMBER  The groom was usually a lot older than the bride!  More than ¾ of the Medieval population was married before they were 19, so it was very rare to not be married by 24 years of age.  Nobles who married usually had arranged marriages. The bride and groom were decided as young as the age of 10 and wouldn’t meet until their wedding day years later.

3. BENEFITS OF MARRIAGE  Land  Inheritance  Chattels  The family of the bride gave a dowry to the groom-to-be that stayed with him forever.  If one did not have money, they would either remain celibate or marry someone they actually thought was hot.

4. BRIDES CLOTHING  Dresses could be any color.  Women wore garters.  Women wore precious stones to portray things such as personal characteristics, beliefs, and hopes.

5. MORE ON APPEARANCE  On their wedding day, brides wore their hair down.  The groom and bride both wore a band of blue ribbon because it was a symbol of purity.  The entirety of a woman’s face was painted with cosmetics for her wedding day and many lightened their hair by sun-bleaching it.

6. SIMILARITIES TO MARRIAGES OF TODAY  Posted a wedding notice on the door.  Wedding wording very similar to what is used today  Ring exchange  Use of same finger for ring

7. WEDDING TERMINATION  Could only divorce for 3 reasons:  Not of legal age (12 for girls, 14 for boys)  One of them was not Christian  If the woman(only the woman!) was incapable of sexual relations.

8. WORKS CITED  Medieval-weddings.net  http://yourweddingisaboutyou.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ren- bride-dressing.jpg http://yourweddingisaboutyou.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ren- bride-dressing.jpg  http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/wedding.gif http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/wedding.gif  http://www.dfwx.com/medieval_cult.html