Old Wedding Traditions: Penny in Your Shoe

Originally the well-known rhyme says, that a bride should wear something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in her shoe. This rhyme takes roots during the Victorian times, when the penny, and particularly the Irish penny, was a symbol of wealth and good fortune of the couple. But over the time sixpence was substituted by penny for a good reason.

However, there's also another explanation of the tradition to have a penny in your shoe on the wedding day. It's believed, that the tradition was started from the Scottish penny wedding. This kind of wedding required guests to bring food drink for a celebration after the ceremony. But eventually this tradition evolved into guests giving the couple gifts that would help towards the cost of the wedding.

The tradition to have a coin in shoe on the wedding day exists in many European countries, however, in some of them it evolved into something different. For instance, in Poland coins are tossed over the newlyweds instead of confetti. And in Lithuania guests throw coins over the dance floor when the bride and groom dance. No matter how the coins are incorporated into the wedding, the meaning of these customs is the same: wishing the couple to be prosperous.

If you're going to follow the tradition to put penny in your shoe, then you should remember a couple of important details. First of all, the penny should be in your left shoe. No matter what kind of shoes your going to wear (open or closed ones), tape the penny to the inside of the arch of your shoe. It will secure the penny and it won't move as you walk and dance all day long.

You can also go further and incorporate penny in your wedding in another ways. For instance, you can order special penny cufflinks for your groom. You can also have a penny stamped with your initials and used on a necklace or consider giving sixpence as shower gifts to the guests.

What should you do with the penny you put in your shoe after the wedding? Many brides keep it and make a whole in it to use for a necklace or bracelet. And if your mother or mother-in-law gave you this penny, then you have to keep the coin. You will pass it to your daughter (or daughter-in-law), when she will have her own wedding. By the way, if you're the first in your family to have the coin in your shoe, then you can become the person who's started this tradition.