General Information:

• Verbal Folklore, Material folklore (occasionally)
• Language: English
• Region of Origin: Unknown, 21st century
• Informant: Kathryn Keenan
• Date Collected: 5/23/19

Informant Data:

Kathryn Keenan is a 29 year old woman, originally from Albany, NY and was raised in an Irish Catholic household with many brothers and sisters. She is currently in her residency to be an Emergency pediatric doctor in Buffalo, NY. She was married to Michael Keenan, also a doctor, in the Spring of 2018.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Wedding Hashtags are at the bottom of all photos or posts from an event on social media. They are used by all wedding attendees, as well as photographers or caters showing work that they did at a wedding. Ms Keenan noted that she had seen them used at weddings of many different faiths and cultures, but had only seen them used by younger couples. The process of coming up with a clever pun or name mash-up often involves friends and family.
• Cultural Context: The Wedding Hashtag is a new digital trend that is considered humorous and is a piece of verbal folklore created for each individual couple. It serves to organize and bond those in attendance. In a way creating a folkgroup from people who did not know each other because they know share a unique tradition or knowledge. It also allows each couple to have something new and uniquely their own. It creates a rebranding for the couple as a now being one unit.

Item:
Wedding hashtags are a unique phrase, often related to the couples origins, careers, or names, that is added to any social media posts, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. This allows other attendees to find photos from the wedding. The hashtag may represent physical lore as well. While Ms Keenan opted for a simple blackboard with their phrase written on it, other couples create wooden signs for it, have a wall with it to take photos in front of, or place it on souvenirs for the guests.

Collector: Rebecca Conway

Note: The upper photo is a stock photo and was not provided by the source. The lower photo was.

General Information:

• Customary Lore (the feeding), Material Lore (the cake)
• Language: English
• Region of Origin: Unknown
• Informant: Rhea Enzian
• Date Collected: 5/21/19

Informant:
 Rhea Enzian is a 21 year-old Dartmouth Student. She is originally from a small island off of Washington State. At Dartmouth she studies biology and is a member of the women’s rowing team.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Rhea has observed this at multiple weddings but most recently at a cousins. It generally occurs after the dinner and many people gather around to observe and take photos. Viewers do not personally participate but enjoy seeing a happy moment between the couple.
• Cultural Context: The process of cutting the cake together is meant to represent the challenges they will tackle as a partnership and is the first task they do together as a married couple. This along with the sweet gesture of feeding each other cake demonstrate reliance on each other and support for their partner. The act of feeding cake, a frivolous food, also demonstrates prosperity in their marriage. Rhea has observed this tradition at weddings with couples of various ages and faiths.

Item:

The couple takes the knife in their hands, both holding it, and cut the first piece of the wedding cake. The remainder of the cake is typically cut and served by the caterer. They then each feed each other a piece of the cake, typically with their hands. This often results in a friendly mushing of cake into their spouse’s face, giving way to laughter and smiles.

Collector: Rebecca Conway

Note: This is a stock photo and was not provided by the informant.

General Information:

• Customary Lore (the throwing), Material Lore (the bouquet)
• Language: English
• Region of Origin: England
• Informant: Kathryn Conway
• Date Collected: 5/22/19

Informant:
Kathryn Conway is a 62 year old woman brought up in a Scottish, roman catholic household. She was married in a traditionally catholic wedding in 1986. She worked as a mechanical engineer before retiring in 1997 and she has lived in the northeast of America all her life.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Like many other wedding tradition this brings people together for a humerus and fun activity. Typically all adult, unmarried women participate and it occurs at the end of the reception. The event requires very little planning and can be spur of the moment.
• Cultural Context: This tradition shows clear elements of contagion magic. The bride is handing off an item closely linked to her good fortune and married status to unmarried women, in the hope that they too will be lucky. It also brings the bride together with other unmarried women in a group for the last time and separates her from the group she was recently a part of.

Item:

At the end of the reception the bride gathers all the unmarried women and turns her back. She then throws her wedding bouquet behind her and who ever catches it is said to be the next one to be married. Ms Conway did not personally participate in this at her wedding as her bouquet was not real flowers and she wanted to keep it. However she saw it done at many friends weddings and participated. The mood during this is generally jovial and the participants do not take it too seriously.

Collector: Rebecca Conway

Note: this photo is not Ms Conway’s and is a stock photograph.

General Information about Item:

• Material Lore (the items themselves), Verbal Lore (The common phrase)
• Language: English
• Region of Origin: Victorian Era, England
• Informant: Kathryn Keenan
• Date Collected: 5/23/19

Informant Data:

Kathryn Keenan is a 29 year old woman, originally from Albany, NY and was raised in an irish catholic household with many brothers and sisters. She is currently in her residency to be an Emergency pediatric doctor in Buffalo, NY. She was married to Michael Keenan, also a doctor, in the Spring of 2018.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The practice of completing all of these items is common at American weddings and she not sure when she heard about it first. Though not superstitious about the items, she found butting them all together to be a fun challenge
• Cultural Context: By having people carry something ‘old’ and something ‘borrowed’, the link between generations is strengthened. This connects the bride to the people who have supported her and allowed her to be here today. There is also a level of sympathetic magical belief, as the bride selects items that have a joyful family history, such as lace from a successful marriage’s wedding dress.

The Item:

Ms Keenan used her wedding dress as something new as she felt it was a unique way to express herself and she wanted a modern style. As her something old she used the lace from her husband’s grandmother’s wedding dress and wrapped it around her bouquet. This connects herself and her husband’s family. For her something borrowed she used a diamond bracelet from her mother. Her something blue was a painting she asked her friend to do on the bottom of her shoe. Her friend painted “I Do” and the date of their wedding. She intentionally choose to have an item from each family and one from a friend as those were the groups she felt had supported her and that she wanted to incorporate into the wedding.

Collector: Rebecca Conway