Carrying the Bride over the threshold of the new marital home symbolises medieval 'kidnapping' when they enter the marital home for the first time. If the bride entered the home with her left foot first, she would be visited by bad fortune. In order to avoid this disaster, the groom lifts her into the home.
The bouquet tossing custom started when the bride used to throw her left shoe over her shoulder to indicate her new status and departure from her old life into the new, the one who caught the shoe would be next to marry! It was replaced by the bouquet to stop the bride from walking barefooted for the rest of the day.
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