Editing Marriage (section)

====Essos====
Wedding customs in [[Essos]] differ somewhat from Westerosi ceremonies. Weddings done under the [[Lord of Light]] involve [[red priest]]s. A priest (or priestess) recites ceremonial prayers, which are answered by the wedding guests. The priest and groom await the bride by a ditchfire. The bride is escorted to the priest, who first asks the bride to identify herself, and next asks who comes to claim the bride. Both bride and groom are asked whether they will share their fire with their spouse-to-be, to warm him/her "when the night is dark and full of terrors". Bride and groom are to leap over the ditchfire together, to emerge as one. Following this, the groom removes the maiden’s cloak and places the bride’s cloak around the bride’s shoulders.{{Ref|ADWD|49}}

As is traditional in [[Ghiscari]] wedding customs as practiced in [[Meereen]], the female relatives of the groom examine the bride's womb and female parts, to ensure her fertility. Three [[Graces]] witness this ancient ritual, and recite prayers. The bride is to be stripped completely naked for this purpose. After the examinations are done, the women eat a cake baked specially for betrothals, which men are forbidden to taste.{{Ref|ADWD|36}} Usually, the bride is to wash the groom's feet, signifying that she will be her husband's [[handmaid]].{{Ref|ADWD|36}} Under special circumstances, it might be the groom who washes the feet of the bride.{{Ref|ADWD|43}}<ref group="N">When [[Daenerys Targaryen]] marries [[Hizdahr zo Loraq]], she sits in an ivory chair whilst he washes her feet with water from a golden bowl, while fifty eunuchs sing to them.</ref> The bride traditionally wears a ''[[tokar]]'' of white silk, with dark red veils. The ''tokar'' is fringed with baby [[pearl]]s, which symbolize fertility.{{Ref|ADWD|36}} Weddings of the highest nobility in Meereen takes place at the [[Temple of the Graces]]. The ceremony might last up to four hours, and when husband and wife emerge from the temple, they are bound together wrist and ankle with chains of yellow gold.{{Ref|ADWD|43}}

Among the [[Dothraki]], weddings occur beneath the open sky. The ceremony might last the entire day, during which the guests feast, drink, dance, and fight, often to the death.{{Ref|AGOT|11}} Towards the end of the ceremony, the bride is presented with her bride gifts. A ''[[khaleesi]]'' will be presented with a gift from each of her husband's [[bloodrider]]s, which she is to decline and give to her husband instead. Following the receiving of the gifts, the ''[[khal]]'' and ''khaleesi'' will consummate their marriage.{{Ref|AGOT|11}} Following the wedding, the ''khal'' is to present his new bride to the ''[[dosh khaleen]]'' at [[Vaes Dothrak]].{{Ref|AGOT|11}}

The [[Qartheen]] have a custom in which the bride and groom may each ask the other on their wedding day for a worldly token of love which cannot be declined.{{ref|ACOK|40}}