Father of bride 'giving away' daughter at wedding: Love or hate?
(NEXSTAR) — "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" It's a phrase you've likely heard at a million weddings as the father of the bride presents his daughter at her wedding. But how do modern women really feel about it?
A recent poll on wedding etiquette conducted by YouGov found that while the tradition is old and might be considered "old fashioned," a majority of women said they still "love it." YouGov explains that 1,000 U.S. adults participated in the survey.
The breakdown for women polled was:
- 45% — Love the wedding tradition of the father of the bride giving her away
- 25% — Like it
- 17% — Neutral
- 5% — Dislike it
- 4% — Hate it
- 4% — Not sure
The age of respondents is interesting, however, as only 10% of people ages 18-29 said they loved the idea of fathers giving away brides. The majority of this age group (41%) said they felt neutral overall about the tradition, while 7% said they dislike it and only 4% said they hate it.
YouGov's survey also took race, political party ID and U.S. region into account, in addition to other factors. Here's part of how those broke down:
- Race — 44% of white and 42% of Black participants said they loved the tradition, while Hispanics were less favorable, but only slightly at 36%
- Party ID — 53% of Republicans polled said they loved fathers giving away their daughters, while only 39% of Independents and 32% of Democrats said the same
- U.S. Region — The south (47%) and midwest (40%) tended to love the tradition more than the northeast (37%) and the west (35%)
Father-daughter dances at weddings were more popular, with at least 25% (ages 18-29) saying they loved it. Other ages groups were even more favorable of it. The highest number of people who said they disliked it (5%) were ages 30-44. The highest percentage of people who hated it was 2%, in the age 30-44 group.
All-in all, men were more lukewarm on the subject overall. While a majority still said they loved it (36%), higher numbers of men said they only liked it (30%) or felt neutral (24%) about the tradition.
So while the tradition is less popular than it probably used to be, it's still pretty popular. But what if you personally don't want to do it? There are a variety of alternatives. Here are a few according to Brides:
- Walking alone down the aisle
- Walking with your partner down the aisle
- Walking with both parents, if possible
Alternatively, Redditors in the r/weddingplanning subreddit also had a few suggestions, as seen in the thread "What are modern alternatives to being "given away" by your father?" These include the above suggestions, in addition to doing a traditional father-daughter walk down the aisle but altering the "Who gives this woman away"-type language in the ceremony to something more modern.