Over the years brides have carried in their hands all sorts of things. The religious bride, for example, getting married in church, liked to carry a prayer book, decorated with ribbons and flowers. Sometimes this was made particularly spectacular when the ribbon was placed within the prayer book and the ribbons allowed to float down to the hem of the dress. Creative brides would decorate the ribbon with a thin wreath of flower buds, or greenery, seemingly a part of the bridal dress.

Then, for a brief moment, when brides where delving deeply into history, parasols became the substitute for the bridal bouquet. Since not many people ever used the parasol as an everyday article, a lot of people, including the bride and her photographer, wondered how the parasol should be carried. Even the most outgoing bride balked at the idea of having it opened during the wedding march. Even out of doors it seemed like too much of a good thing. And what about the actual wedding photographs?

After playing around with the idea, the best that a bride could think of doing is to treat the parasol very much as a bouquet and carry it in front of her completely shut. Similarly, for most of the photographs except when opening it against the sun, or using it as a light diffuser, the parasol remained shut. Then the parasol silently stole away, reappearing only once in a blue moon.

Then came experiments in different cultures and the different symbols which carried different meanings in different countries. One of these was the fan. In the traditional Japanese wedding, one of the things that a Japanese bride carries on her person is a fan, which she places inside the traditional belt which is part of the wedding dress. The fan, often decorated with intricate designs, is seen as a symbol of good fortune. Since the fan continues to open in an ever widening circle, always increasing, it is associated with amplitude, and ever increase of happiness and plenty.

On the whole, the bride does like to have something to occupy her hands while walking down the aisle. In a religious ceremony this might include a bible or a prayer book. Other alternatives are the parasol, a fan, or a bouquet.

But it seems that there are some practical brides who, instead of spending a fortune on flowers, are now walking down the aisle caryying a sort of a bag for all the bits and pieces like brush and comb. Colourfully named as a Dorothy bag, it can be decorated to suit the general feel of the brides wedding dress.