Happily married women hold a sheer cloth over the head of the wedding pair during the ceremony. Later, the women scrape crumbs from two beautifully decorated sugar cones, known as kalehghand, over the couple's heads for luck. The traditional wedding cake of the Emerald Isle is a rich fruitcake. In true Irish spirit, the recipe is laced with brandy or bourbon. A lucky horseshoe is given to the bride and groom to keep in their home.
Ribbons signify the tying together of two lives.
A ribbon is tied across the front of the hurch door to symbolize the wedding bond. On her wedding day , the bride and her family visit the groom's house. Traditionally, she wears a triangular band on her head, known as the tsunokakushi, or horn cover, to hide the horns of jealousy, which supposedly all women posess. The groom's gifts to the bride are delivered to her home by costumed children in a noisy procession, carrying lavish trays of food and currency folded into animal or flower shapes. Each wedding guest is given a beautifully decorated hard-boiled egg, a symbol of fertility.