Maybe it is all due to fairy tales, but weddings, big and fat or small and thin, are always in fashion. A wedding in Italy is considered such a beautiful event that when someone asks you to do something you really like, it is described as invito a nozze, an invitation to the wedding. From the Sicilian “making of the bed” (cunzata del letto) to the “bride’s arch” in Piedmont, traditions and customs connected to weddings are many and they vary depending on the region.
The bed is symbol of conjugal life and, in Sicily, it must never be prepared by the bride. A week before the marriage, the bride’s closest girlfriends (in older times they had to be virgins, today they just have not to be married) will make the bed with white linens under the supervision of older women. To embellish the bed, white Jordan almonds or rose petals and rice are put on the night stand or on the bed in the shape of a heart. Neither the bride nor the groom are allowed to see the bed before they are married.
