The wedding is a ceremony that is surrounded by tradition and folklore, but why do we do what we do, and what lies behind the customs of marriage? What color should a wedding dress be? What is the origin of the wedding cake? Why do we throw confetti? What is so special about Gretna Green? What is so lucky about a shoe? Why a wedding breakfast, and is the pre-nuptial contract a new idea? <br><br>In Britain today the celebration of a marriage in the 'traditional' manner is a mixture of something old, something new and something borrowed from other traditions. It is bound up with church and secular legislation, and with custom and superstition.<br><br><i>Discovering the Folklore and Traditions of Marriage</i> looks at the ways that marriages are celebrated in multicultural Britain - and how these traditions are similar to or different from those around the world - and how the practices of the past are observed, and sometimes altered, for contemporary times.