History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
The marriage festival was an event to which friends and neighbors from all the country round were bidden ; much ale and liquor was drunk, and the dancing was kept up the night through. There does not, however, seem to have been the strictest morality observed concerning the relation of men and women, for on January 5, 1658, the Council of the New Netherlands issued a very stringent order against those who had had their banns published and then had not had the ceremony performed. It was ordained that " all persons whose banns have been published, after the third proclamation shall have been made and no lawful impediment occurring, shall cause their marriage to be solemnized at the longest within one month after the last proclamation, or, within the said term, to appear and render in his reasons for his refusal, as it behooves him ; and this under the penalty of ten guilders for the first week after the expiration of said month, and for the succeeding weeks twenty guilders for each week, until the time he shall have made known the reason of his refusal.
" Furthermore, no male and female shall be permitted to cohabit before they shall have been lawfully married, in the penalty of one hundred guilders, or as much less or more as their circumstances shall be found to warrant.' '
The English colonists took a patriotic pride in celebrating what was called " A Merry English Wedding." No matter how poor the new-made husband, he must find money for the Gargantuan spreads which the guests expected. The minister finished the ceremony by kissing the bride; then all the gentlemen followed his example, while it was the bridegroom's privilege to kiss each of the ladies. A bride might receive the salutations of a hundred men in the course of the day; and as if this were not enough, the men called on the bride afterward, and this call was colloquially known as " going to kiss the bride." A practice among the ruder frontier people was to carry off the bride and hold her prisoner until she was ransomed by the groom providing entertainment for the captors.