There is nothing more beautiful than a bride walking down the aisle, resplendent in her white wedding gown. And it's not necessarily the clothes, you can see the love and happiness sort of emanating from within. But tradition says that a bride is supposed to have the white dress. Why?
Actually, the white part of the dress is a fairly modern concept. In centuries past, it wasn't the color of the dress that mattered. What did matter was the fact that the dress should be the best dress that the bride owned or could afford. It was a status symbol because the dress wasn't necessarily supposed to make the bride look beautiful, it was supposed to show how influential her family was and to prove that the groom's family was lucky to be absorbing such a woman into their bloodline.
For poor brides, the dress might be one they already owned and definitely would be worn again. Just because it was your wedding dress didn't mean that it got packed away after the ceremony was over. Lower class women would wear their wedding dresses to special church services or even to other big social events.
Upper class women, especially royalty, took pride in having a new dress made for their wedding days. The best possible fabric they could afford would be purchased from a cloth merchant. The dress might be worn again but only for the most formal of occasions. And the fabric for the dress was whatever color said "important." The wedding dresses of ancient and medieval royalty were in a rainbow of colors.
There is one notable white wedding dress in ancient history though. In 1406, Princess Phillipa of England wore a white wedding dress embroidered with real silver and gold thread to her marriage to King Eric of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It's nearly five centuries before white wedding dresses actually become a trend though.
In 1840, Queen Victoria of England chose white satin for her wedding dress so she could incorporate some beautiful antique white lace she had inherited from an ancestor. A photograph of Victoria and her groom, Prince Albert, became widely popular as a postcard (see the pic above). Women in Europe and the US would take this postcard to their dressmakers to design something similar to Victoria's gown for their own wedding.
The tradition of the white wedding gown took hold. Since that time, brides in the Western World have sought their own white creation. Whether it's technically pure white, ecru, candlelight or ivory, "wedding white" is still the most common choice in wedding dresses.
It's kinda funny how a lot of wedding stuff seems superficial. Like the rings and the dress are supposed to show off how much money you had and all that jazz. In my opinion, I think you just pick what's beautiful to you.. of course within your own price range.. but it shouldn't necessarily be all about the money. I've seen a lot of nice things that didn't cost as much as other stuff that to me wasn't as pretty. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteOh but if it was like that, the wedding industry wouldn't be bringing in billions of dollars each year. And the WE network wouldn't have any shows to play (although I can't hate on them because I love Bridezillas!)
ReplyDeleteBut in the past it makes sense that you tried to show your wealth in weddings because status was so much more important then than it is now (arguably).
I find the timing of these posts incredibly ironic. Bring on the matrimony!
ReplyDeleteEither that or RUN!!!!
ReplyDelete