Floral Design class + Wedding/Event Planning course update//FUN FACTS

This past week was full of fun facts and pretty spring blossoms!
Since Easter is tomorrow, we created our first all around arrangement within a colorful Easter basket for Floral Design class this week. We used daisies, carnations (which have been in all of our designs so far), alstroemeria, ming fern, and wax flower.
I really enjoyed creating this arrangement and guess what? We even got out of class on time! This never happens by the way, but hopefully we can keep this momentum up. For the bow, we were supposed to place one on each side but I cheated and just plopped it on top. Ha!
Here's the arrangement from this week.

A fun fact I learned in floral class this week was that you can put a bit of clear lemon lime soda in a vase of flowers to help expand their life. The sugar in the soda will help nourish the flowers and the carbonation will help keep the vase clean. Cool right?

I also completed lesson 3 of my first unit of Wedding and Event Planning. This lesson was my favorite so far because of all the interesting customs and traditions of weddings within several different cultures.

Here are some fun facts I learned about the traditions we still carry out today in weddings:
*The tradition of a bridal bouquet originated in ancient Rome with the belief that fragrant florals and herbs would ward off evil spirits.
*The wedding cake originally symbolized fertility. Same with the tossing of rice.
*The kiss at the end of the ceremony symbolizes an exchange of spirits, uniting the couple in both body and spirit.
*The reason why we have bridesmaids started within some cultures that the idea of hiding the bride among similarly dressed women would confuse any evil spirits. This also applied to groomsmen.
*Having the groom stand on the bride's right side started in ancient times when men armed themselves with swords. If any danger came to the couple, the groom would easily be able to draw his weapon with his right hand. This is the same reason why we place a knife to the right of our dinner plate when we set a table.

I also learned of some pretty interesting customs from many other countries including:
*In the Chinese culture, the bride and groom will have a drink with each table as they visit the guests. (I can imagine the photos by the end of the night!)
*In the German culture, on the night before the wedding, it is tradition for the guests to break pottery and play pranks on the bride and groom. Also, during a German ceremony, the groom will kneel on the hem of the bride's dress to symbolize his control over her and the bride will rise and step on the groom's foot to assert her power within the marriage.
*In the Scottish culture, when a couple first decides to wed, they will notify the baker who will create a dense wedding cake for them. Then, brandy is poured over it once a week up until the wedding day.
*Russian newlyweds will tie a doll on their wedding "getaway car" if they want their first born to be a girl or tie a bear to the car if they want to have a boy.

There was SO much more that I learned and as you can see, it was a lot of fun! I love how ancient custom still plays a role in why we do things today during weddings. Whether or not they still have the same meaning, there is a reason why each tradition started in the first place and it's quite fascinating! Even for the most "non-traditional" bride, there is always something that companies a wedding which rooted from ancient meaning.

Are there any intriguing wedding traditions or customs that you've learned about?