When I was married for the first time, (yes, there was a second time) it was impossible for the typical Scottish Wedding tradition to be carried out without a family member arriving from Scotland to join in on the festivities.
In a traditional Scottish Wedding ceremony the bride is presented with an ornate horseshoe for good luck, back in the day it was a real horseshoe that was decorated by the brides family with pretty ribbons and bows. Today these are mass produced for wedding shops and available in your every day greeting card store, but not in the United States. They are made of plastic similar to the materials used to hold together a bridal bouquet. Luckily I had family members flying over from Scotland to celebrate with us and they brought me a beautiful horseshoe to carry on the family tradition.
Tradition states that the youngest girl in the family present the horseshoe to the bride immediately after the ceremony. It can be a cousin, niece or even a family friend if no young girls are available within the family. Similar to a flower girl, the child who presents the horseshoe becomes part of the bridal party. The bride and groom will pause at the alter before walking back down the aisle and the child will walk up and hand it to the bride. The bride will then give the child a gift of a rose or some other small token that is held by the Maid of Honor during the ceremony, passed to the bride and presented to the child as she walks up with the horseshoe.
It is a very cute tradition and the horseshoe will then hang from the bride’s wrist with the bridal bouquet in front and the Horseshoe hanging down behind it. It is a very pretty look for those all important photographs.