As it turns out, the rhyming phrase originated from the superstitious Victorian times , where the presence of all four things is believed to bring good fortune to the bride on her big day. She's expected to carry an old item that symbolises her past, a new item that represents the exciting promise of the future, the borrowed item from another happily-married wife is mean as a metaphor for borrowed bliss, while the blue item — typically a garter — stood for purity and fidelity . The Old English rhyme concluded with " a silver sixpence " — a coin widely believed to bring luck — in the bride's shoe, but this custom has all but died out now.