"bride-elect" -- an odd term

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

I'm sometimes amazed at how a term I never heard before turns out to be frequent, or at least not infrequent.  I just came across "bride-elect" (= bride-to-be) in the wedding-announcements of a recent issue of my local newspaper.
Google shows 94,600 instances of this. "Groom-elect" has 14,800 hits, a term I had never  seen or heard before either.

In any case, both terms strike me as odd.  It's as if the family and friends got together and cast ballots for who should be selected for the marriage.

Gerald Cohen

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