bride always a bridesmaid, never a bride proverbial saying, late 19th century, recording the belief that to be a bridesmaid too often is unlucky for one's own chances of marriage.
Brides in the Bath name given in the popular press to the case of George Joseph Smith, who between 1912 and 1914 bigamously married and drowned in the bath three women, whose lives he had previously insured; arrested (initially for falsifying an entry in the marriage register) early in 1915, he was tried, convicted, and executed for murder later in the same year.
happy is the bride that the sun shines on traditional comment of goodwill at a wedding, recorded from the mid 17th century; a similar superstition is recorded in blessed are the dead of Chancery.

bride OE. brȳd = OS. brūd, OHG. brūt (G. braut), ON. brúðr, Goth. brūþs :- Gmc. *brūðiz, of unkn. orig.
Hence bridegroom OE. brȳdguma = OS. brūdigomo, OHC. brūtigomo (G. bräutigam). ON. brúðgumi, alt. by assim. to GROOM. bridesmaid XVIII, earlier bridemaid XVI.

bride / brīd/ • n. a woman on her wedding day or just before and after the event.