Wedding \Wed"ding\, n. [AS. wedding.]

Nuptial ceremony; nuptial festivities; marriage; nuptials.

Simple and brief was the wedding, as that of Ruth and of Boaz. --Longfellow.

Note: Certain anniversaries of an unbroken marriage have received fanciful, and more or less appropriate, names. Thus, the fifth anniversary is called the wooden wedding; the tenth, the tin wedding; the fifteenth, the crystal wedding; the twentieth, the china wedding; the twenty-fifth, the silver wedding; the fiftieth, the golden wedding; the sixtieth, the diamond wedding. These anniversaries are often celebrated by appropriate presents of wood, tin, china, silver, gold, etc., given by friends.

Note: Wedding is often used adjectively; as, wedding cake, wedding cards, wedding clothes, wedding day, wedding feast, wedding guest, wedding ring, etc.

Let her beauty be her wedding dower. --Shak.

Wedding favor, a marriage favor. See under Marriage.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Wed \Wed\, v. t. [imp. Wedded; p. p. Wedded or Wed; p. pr. & vb. n. Wedding.]

[OE. wedden, AS. weddian to covenant, promise, to wed, marry; akin to OFries. weddia to promise, D. wedden to wager, to bet, G. wetten, Icel. ve[eth]ja, Dan. vedde, Sw. v["a]dja to appeal, Goth. gawadj[=o]n to betroth. See Wed, n.]

1. To take for husband or for wife by a formal ceremony; to marry; to espouse.

With this ring I thee wed. --Bk. of Com. Prayer.

I saw thee first, and wedded thee. --Milton.

2. To join in marriage; to give in wedlock.

And Adam, wedded to another Eve, Shall live with her. --Milton.

3. Fig.: To unite as if by the affections or the bond of marriage; to attach firmly or indissolubly.

Thou art wedded to calamity. --Shak.

Men are wedded to their lusts. --Tillotson.

[Flowers] are wedded thus, like beauty to old age. --Cowper.

4. To take to one's self and support; to espouse. [Obs.]

They positively and concernedly wedded his cause. --Clarendon.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)