Bridal Crown
The bridal crown (brudkrona), a crown of gilt silver or brass that Swedish churches owned and lent to brides for the wedding ceremony. The custom, recorded from the Middle Ages, made the bride a 'crowned bride' and the crown a symbol of honour and virginity. Rules sometimes required a fee, and the crown was kept locked in the church between weddings. The crown became common in Sweden only after the Reformation, when it spread from the nobility and the towns to country parishes in the seventeenth century; it was usually owned by the parish itself, lent out for the wedding and locked away again