He usually is to pay for the wedding and escorts the bride down the aisle.

In traditional wedding circles, this guy fronts most of the cash -- that's no small feat. In addition, brides' dads have picked up additional to-dos along the way. Dad's chores might include airport duty, coordinating maps/directions to the wedding site, scouting potential locations, doling out tips to wedding day staff, and a variety of toasting and hosting tasks.

He used to pay for everything at a wedding but nowadays both families often share the costs. What has not changed is his duty of escorting his daughter down the aisle in her last few moments of being single.

Father of the Bride is a 1950 comedy film which tells the story of a man trying to cope with all of the disasters that happen along the way from the time that his daughter announces that she's engaged until the wedding actually occurs. The movie stars Spencer Tracy (Stan), Joan Bennett (Ellie), Elizabeth Taylor (Kay), Don Taylor (Buckley), Billie Burke, and Leo G. Carroll, and was adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from the novel by Edward Streeter, and directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Father of the Bride is a 1991 comedy film starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams, George Newbern, Martin Short, and Kieran Culkin. The movie's soundtrack was scored by Alan Silvestri and was influenced by Jazz and Christmas instrumentations. The Temptations (and their performance of "My Girl") joined up with several other groups and artists to add musical numbers to the movie as well.