[Mithalwen]

No I cut and pasted someone elses typing and corrected the typos I noticed....

Lal is right in saying green is peceived as unlucky for a wedding dress. Folwren - I would be interested to have refs for the biblical brides - it is not something I ever noticed - and it seems strange since in the Middle East where it originated it is the colour of death I wonder if it is a cultural rather than literal translation.

White is the colour of innocence but also of sterility. The virgin Mary is usually given blue garments in art because of its symbolism. However I think it is a bit of a side alley to apply modern Christian custom too much to the Lord of the Rings since that was not it's culture , more profitable perhaps to look at what information the book gives us. There isn't a lot basically but what there is seems closer to earlier marriage customs for people of relatively high status - in many case of course there were originally no rites and marriage was established by living as husband and wife (I did some research into for background for a Rohan rpg).

However in more formal situations ther were three parts to marriage - the public exchange of vows (troth plighting - more formal and binding than a modern engagement), the marriage contract arranged between the man and the bride's father, and the handing over of the bride to her husband. Now Aragorn and Arwen plighted their troth on Cerin Amroth (privately?) but it became public knowledge and Elrond's proviso re Aragorn becoming king could be seen as a contract laying out of the conditions for marriage. When these are met the bride is taken to the groom and her hand laid in his. With Faramir and Eowyn, their private agreement is made public by her closest male relative in lieu of her father, there is a public troth plighting and later she will go to Gondor ( implied in her pledge to return after Theoden is buried).

With modern weddings the troth plighting (cf the "Book of Common Prayer" marriage service) the contract and the handing over of the bride from father to husband (symbolically at least) happen on the same day if the religious service fulfils the legal requirements. In the UK church weddings usually do though other religions may need a separate civil ceremony and in France only civil ceremonies are legal and often take place on a different day to any religious service.