Back in ancient times, the objective of the bridesmaids was to keep the evil spirits away by making the spirits not be able to determine which is the bride and which is the bridesmaids, so give up and go away.

Is it really the job of the bridesmaids in this day and age to deter attention away from the bide? Being evil spirits at that, why is it that the role of the bridesmaids now is to help the bride look the most beautiful at the party? goes against tradition? or maybe tradition is outdated and we only do the same things as the ancients, but for entirely different reasons. I pledge the later.

Europeans have a similar tradition, and later bridesmaids and groomsmen sometimes did have to defend the happy couple against real-life thugs and warriors! Or even the infamous prima noca law as passed down onto the scottish from the ruthless ruler 'LongShanks'.

Traditionally, the bride stands on the left, the groom on the right. (Although the Jewish wedding tradition reverses this.) Weddings used to be a lot more like the ones you watch on daytime TV, with dastardly ex-suitors and other thugs sometimes rushing the altar. And of course, some wedding crashers were heroes, just trying to rescue a captured bride. Whatever the reason for the interference, the groom needed to keep his right hand free so he could grab his sword, thus the bride stood clear and to the left. I have no idea what happened when the groom was left-handed.