Tradition dictates that a bride-to-be is escorted to the church by her father on her wedding day and then handed over to her future husband at the altar.
However, traditions often become outdated, and modern-day family life being what it is, a bride may well want to be ‘given away’ by somebody else other than her natural father.
We posed this question on the Wedding Ideas Forum and you, our readers, certainly gave us a lot to think about.
Your overwhelming response was that the honour should be given to whoever has contributed the most to your upbringing. And that may not be a male relative. Plenty of you are planning on being given away by mums, nans, even sisters.
If you are choosing a male relative, it could be your uncle or your brother or even an eldest son.
A lot of you don’t agree with the whole ‘giving away’ thing anyway and some like the idea of walking up the aisle alone, meeting husband-to-be half-way there and then making the final journey to the altar together.
Here are some of the things you said:
“My stepdad … has always treated me like his own little princess …”
“Blood doesn’t make a dad, actions do.”
“I’ve seen my father twice in 18 years … we have no relationship so he hasn’t been invited to the wedding …”
It seems that the person who walks you down the aisle on your big day should be the person you’re closest to – which could be male or female, a relative or not.
What do you think? We’d love to hear your comments or why not join our Forum discussion to have your say.
Photograph by Linus Moran
