wedding
    n 1: the social event at which the ceremony of marriage is
         performed [syn: wedding, wedding ceremony, nuptials,
         hymeneals]
    2: the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony; "their marriage
       was conducted in the chapel" [syn: marriage, wedding,
       marriage ceremony]
    3: a party of people at a wedding [syn: wedding, wedding
       party]

Wedding \Wed"ding\, n. [AS. wedding.]
   Nuptial ceremony; nuptial festivities; marriage; nuptials.
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         Simple and brief was the wedding, as that of Ruth and
         of Boaz.                                 --Longfellow.
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   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.
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   Note: Wedding is often used adjectively; as, wedding cake,
         wedding cards, wedding clothes, wedding day, wedding
         feast, wedding guest, wedding ring, etc.
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               Let her beauty be her wedding dower. --Shak.
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   Wedding favor, a marriage favor. See under Marriage.
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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[aum]dja to appeal, Goth. gawadj[=o]n to betroth.
   See Wed, n.]
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   1. To take for husband or for wife by a formal ceremony; to
      marry; to espouse.
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            With this ring I thee wed.            --Bk. of Com.
                                                  Prayer.
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            I saw thee first, and wedded thee.    --Milton.
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   2. To join in marriage; to give in wedlock.
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            And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
            Shall live with her.                  --Milton.
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   3. Fig.: To unite as if by the affections or the bond of
      marriage; to attach firmly or indissolubly.
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            Thou art wedded to calamity.          --Shak.
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            Men are wedded to their lusts.        --Tillotson.
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            [Flowers] are wedded thus, like beauty to old age.
                                                  --Cowper.
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   4. To take to one's self and support; to espouse. [Obs.]
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            They positively and concernedly wedded his cause.
                                                  --Clarendon.
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WEDDING, n.  A ceremony at which two persons undertake to become one,
one undertakes to become nothing, and nothing undertakes to become
supportable.