Old, New, Borrowed and Blue



The traditional four things a bride must carry at her wedding:

"Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something blue."

Wedding episodes are frequently named after this.

For Shotgun Weddings, the Something New is the baby.

The something blue is usually a ribbon, or brooch, or some other minor accessory. It used to be a penny in your shoe. Before 1840, when Queen Victoria was married in that year, blue was the choice colour for wedding dresses as it was the colour for purity.

Often the something blue will double as something borrowed and either something old or new depending on whether the dress is old or new.

Anime and Manga

 * Manga series The Embalmer refers to this tradition in its opening episode. The embalmer's client's fiancé is killed in a car accident shortly before the wedding - the embalmer conceals the stitching of the woman's reattached leg with a blue garter (an item also borrowed from a friend), so that when the body is displayed during her funeral it completes a symbolic wedding to offer the client some solace.
 * The Plot Coupons in Wedding Peach, called the "Saints Something Four". Each of the four girl gets one and they become a Holy Hand Grenade in the second Season.
 * Wedding Peach Abridged spoofed this in an Omake, with Momoko thinking it was the penny in the shoe, and telling all the girls to check their footwear.

Comic Strips

 * An Ivy the Terrible strip where Ivy tried to get the four things for a friends wedding. First she went into a fish and chip shop to ask for something really ancient, and got chased out. She later got a vase from an antique shop for something old, and borrowed a baby blue whale as something new borrowed, and blue.

Film

 * A plot point in the 1956 psychological thriller A Kiss Before Dying.
 * In film of In Her Shoes, Rose's grandmother lends her - big surprise - a pair of shoes: old, but not to Rose (new), not given to her (borrowed), with little blue decorations on the inside.
 * In Disney's Babes in Toyland, Mother Goose is helping Mary Mary Quite Contrary make her wedding dress and recites the "Something old, something new, something borrowed..." Upon which the film's Big Bad shows up, causing Mother's pet goose Slyvester to crack, "Something old and ugly, too!"

Literature

 * There's a Babysitters Club book where Kristy's mom gets married, and her underwear is her "something blue." Too Much Information.
 * Laura invokes the trope in These Happy Golden Years when her mother objects to her getting married in the new black dress they are making for her ("Marry in black, you'll wish yourself back!"); she cheerfully suggests that she can wear it with a blue-lined bonnet that she's owned for several years and her mother's gold brooch, to which Ma Ingalls allows that there's probably no truth in these old sayings.

Live Action TV
"Chandler: I have a condom in my wallet that I've had since I was twelve. Monica: It'll work! Chandler: I don't think so."
 * How I Met Your Mother had a two parter, 'Something Borrowed' and 'Something Blue'. Frasier used 'Something Borrowed, Someone Blue.'
 * Also used as a joke during the wedding arc in Ugly Betty, in which one character says the bride herself is "something old," to which the bride replies, "well, with your varicose veins I certainly have something blue."
 * When Chandler and Monica decide to get married in Vegas on impulse, they shoplift a blue sweater to count as something new, borrowed, and blue. For something old:

"Gracie: "Fran you're choking her!" Fran: "Well then at least I'll have something blue won't I?""
 * Phoebe gets married outside in the snow - when asked if she's going to be cold, she says "I don't care. I'll be my something blue!"
 * There was an episode of Touched By an Angel where this appeared.
 * In an episode of Thirty Rock, Liz reluctantly agrees to be one of Cerie's bridesmaids. Cerie then hugs her and cheerfully says "Now I have my something old!"
 * On Roseanne she and Darlene argued about whether Darlene should bother with it- Jackie's failure to adhere to the superstition and subsequent marriage implosion is used as evidence.
 * On The Nanny, Fran's friend Val fails to find her a something blue and she freaks out, resulting in:

"Margaret: in tears Well, it's blue. And it's new."
 * Played with in a 3rd Rock from the Sun episode in which Sally almost got married. Harry ends up getting her an old guy whom he borrowed from the tip top club. This guy played the blues and was Harry's new friend.
 * The episode of Torchwood wherein Gwen and Rhys get married is called "Something Borrowed" and in this case it refers to the alien fetus that Gwen has accidentally had transferred to herself.
 * In the Doctor Who episode The Big Bang, quotes "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"
 * All of which was carefully planned by the Doctor to avoid being permanently forgotten.
 * Similarly, the Buffy episode where Buffy and Spike get hit by one of Willow's accidental spells and fall madly in love is called "Something Blue."
 * An episode of Top Chef was based around 4 teams, each having to make food based on one of the four categories for a wedding reception.
 * In Grey's Anatomy's season 5 finale, when Meredith and Derek decide to get married, Cristina gives her an old grocery list, a new post-it, and her favorite blue pen (which also counts as borrowed, since she wants it back).
 * Source of much drama in Mad Men, when Roger's second wife gives some very expensive jewelry to her step-daughter for her wedding.

"Rebecca:Now, I just need something old, something borrowed, and something blue. Carla:How about Norm's liver? Norm:I am almost finished with it."
 * The Cheers episode where Rebecca is about to marry Robin Colcord references this with Lilith giving Rebecca her "something new".


 * The BBC's adapatation of Agatha Christie's The Sittaford Mystery (extensively rewritten from the source material) involves the protagonists realizing that a suspect was married to the murder victim due to the fact she was wearing something old, new, borrowed and blue the day before.
 * Used in an episode of Xena.

Video Games

 * Referenced in Animal Crossing, of all things; occasionally the "Perky" animals will ask girl players if they've chosen theirs yet.
 * In the fourth Monkey Island game (Escape from Monkey Island), the four heirlooms are something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue respectively. (They were intended as wedding gifts.)
 * Following a similar scheme in rhyme and purpose (in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge), in order to make a voodoo doll, you need Something of the Head (dandruff, hair, lice, what have you), Something of the Thread (a thread or cloth sample from the victim's clothing), Something of the Body (spit, phlegm, blood...whatever), and Something of the Dead (a bone or something from a dead relative).
 * While not quite a wedding ceremony, a magical ritual in City of Heroes calls for the participation of a old mage, a young witch, a powerful psychic in a borrowed body and somebody whose name is Cerulean.
 * Occurs in World of Warcraft in the Twilight Highlands zone, where Alliance players must help along a dwarven marriage for political reasons. Of course, being dwarves, the gifts are slightly different, being "something bold, something brewed, something stolen, something stewed".

Web Comics

 * PvP had Skull the Troll as the blue thing.
 * Something Positive had main character Davan give best friend Aubrey a bruise (blue) when she was freaking out about not having something for it.

Western Animation

 * A Peanuts cartoon where Snoopy's brother Spike is getting married to Fifi the poodle. The kids go through the whole process of new, old, borrowed, blue. (They were all bones)
 * On The Simpsons, in the flashforward episode where Lisa marries Hugh, Lisa's pearls are old, her dress is new, she borrows a locket from Hugh's mother, and a lock of Marge's hair is blue.
 * There's also an episode' where Bart has to marry Cletus' daughter, who brings the four things to her wedding, although instead of something blue, she has 'something stew.'
 * There's an episode of DuckTales where Scrooge is about to marry a gold digging bitch (and is unaware of her bitchess; his nephews are of course trying to convince him to no avail), and just before she walks down the aisle, she says "I need something old, hmm, Money! Something new? Money! Something borrowed... Money! And something green... More money!"
 * In one episode of Thomas And Friends, Percy is asked to help find the "Good Luck Package" at the last minute for the wedding of Mrs Kindly's daughter. I forget what was Borrowed, but the Old Slow Coach was Something Old, a set of buffers right from the factory was Something New, and Thomas of course made an appearance as Something Blue.
 * The something borrowed was the flat truck the new buffers were on.

Other
""There's your Something Blue... here's your Something Borrowed.""
 * This Gag Sub of The Movie of Mahou Sentai Magiranger has a reference to this trope added to the 'script' - after Groom Bridon kidnaps a human girl, Meemy dresses her up in a goth wedding dress and hands a magic ring to Bridon:


 * Veteran comic Bob Monkhouse was once dismissed as a comedian in possession of a stage routine that was "mainly old, seldom new, often borrowed and sometimes blue"