A wedding is a civil or religious ceremony at which the beginning of a marriage is celebrated.
In most societies, a number of wedding traditions or customs have emerged around the wedding ceremony, many of which have lost their original symbolic meaning in the modern world. Other wedding traditions are relatively recent. Some elements of the Western wedding ceremony symbolize the bride's departure from her father's control and entry into a new family with her husband. In modern Western weddings, this symbolism is largely vestigial, since husband and wife are of equal power and status. Recently in some cultures, same-sex weddings have begun to be celebrated.
The Western custom of the bride wearing a white wedding dress came to symbolize purity in the Victorian era (despite popular misconception and the hackneyed jokes of situation comedies the white dress did not actually indicate virginity, which was symbolized by a face veil). Within the "white wedding" tradition, a white dress and veil would not have been considered appropriate in the second or third wedding of a widow or divorcee. The specific conventions of Western weddings largely from a Protestant and Catholic viewpoint, are discussed at "White wedding."
Engagement
An engagement is an agreement by a couple to enter into marriage at some future time, usually accompanied by a formal or informal announcement to friends and family. Following this agreement, the couple is said to be "engaged to be married," or simply "engaged." A male partner in an engagement is called a fiancé and a female is called a fiancée (same pronunciation for both; from the French se
fiance, to become engaged). Though some describe engagement as the modern successor to the act and state of betrothal (an "exchange of vows [troth]" to be married), the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and would be often understood as interchangeable, today.
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