I just saw (most of) the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral this weekend, and I noticed that all or nearly all of the women wore hats to the weddings. Is this still common in the UK? Wearing hats to weddings is quite uncommon in my part of the US (west coast). Also, men who didn’t appear to be part of the wedding party still wore flowers in their lapels, which I’ve not seen before.
Were these things common 10 years ago, when the movie was made, and are they still common now? What are some other differences between US and UK weddings?
When I was married in England (to an Englishwoman), all the women from her family wore hats, and none of the women in my family did. It was amusing to see my 4’ 11" (now ex-) mother-in-law nearly disappearing under a large sunhat.
Every family wedding seems to be an occasion for my mother and her sisters to buy new hats … of course, they’re all fairly traditional people.
Fair number of hats on display whenever I walk past the local registry office, too … based on that anecdotal evidence, I reckon the tradition has yet to fall entirely into desuetude.