Wedding Bidding

The Bidding is presented as a form of Welsh assistance gathering associated with marriage. Sikes prints an invitation that solicits contributions and promises repayment when a similar occasion arises. He says the celebration might occur on the wedding day or on the preceding day and night, with variation between districts. When it took place the night before, dancing, harp music and sales of cakes and beer contributed to the couple’s income.

The source calls this preceding-night festival Nos Blaen and identifies the Bidding as a Priodas Cymmhorth. Its emphasis is on a network of contributions and returned favours, rather than a gift disconnected from future relationships. The entry follows the printed invitation and accompanying description; it does not assume every Welsh wedding followed this arrangement or turn Sikes’s generalization into a contemporary rule.

The Bidding names the wedding form of assistance; Cymmhorth is the broader category, and the gwahoddwr is the representative who could invite participation.