I started reading Plutarch's Lives, beginning with Theseus and Romulus. So far I learned that (according to Plutarch) a husband carrying his new wife over a threshold derives from a Roman tradition. It is intended to commemorate a time when Romulus was first settling Rome and needed more wives for his citizens. He lured Sabine citizens to a sporting event, then at a signal Roman men captured all the Sabine girls that were present and carried them away to be their wives.