When setting the month of the wedding, there are inevitably whirling clouds of superstition – but May cops most of the flak and has done right back into Roman times, when May was the month they held feasts to appease the spirits of the dead, during which time women were forbidden to wear cosmetics or take a bath. Beauty considerations aside, May was also sandwiched between goddess of love Venus’s April and goddess of marriage Juno’s June, so marrying then was thought to slight both primadonna goddesses. Ovid declared, “tis unlucky to marry in the month of May”, later taken up as a proverb: “Marry in May, repent alway”.

“The mother-in-law should break a cake or loaf of bread over the bride’s head as she first enters the door of her new home. This will establish friendly relations and make both happy.” – from The Folklore of Weddings, 1970 – because apparently having breadcrumbs tossed in your face is more welcoming than a banner and a hug…

When Elizabeth Hurley chose to marry Arun Nayar at Sudeley Castle, the vicar of the small chapel of St Mary must have thought his days of petty fund-raising were over. As a result, he waived the usual fee (about £1,000) but hoped for a celebrity-sized donation. Instead, the chapel received not a penny – the couple gave a dozen hand-embroidered kneelers… useful, one observer commented bitterly, for kneeling on to pray to God to bail out the Save Our Roof fund. “We need money to pay the gas bill!” said the parish treasurer. “Perhaps we were naïve and should have stuck with the normal charges. We’ll know for next time she gets married…”