Why do grooms carry brides over the threshold?

by Josh Clark 

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Kiss Image Gallery

Even unusual weddings, like this mass Rockabilly drive-in wedding in Sweden in 2008, feature old traditions. See more pictures of kissing.

Ann Tornkvist/Getty Images

Anyone who's sat through a long ceremony, followed by a brief, dry reception can easily take weddings for granted. Brides and grooms, too, their minds lent almost ­exclusively to planning and celebrating their weddings, can overlook the themes inherent within the ceremony. Amid the flowers, limousines, gowns and honeymoons, common threads wind together to form the underlying traditions fou­nd in some form or fashion in just about every wedding.