Photo Credit: Christie Graham Photography
Wedding Traditions Explained: The Wedding Dress
The wedding dress, it is such an important and traditional part of a wedding. So much that many brides include it as one of the most costly parts of their wedding budget. For all of the aspects of weddings that vary amongst cultures around the World, the wedding dress is one part of a wedding that is shared by most cultures.
Photo Credit: OneWed
According to the retail website ModCloth.com, In ancient and Medieval times, a bride’s wedding dress was chosen to show her family’s fortune and social status. Brides from wealthy families wore wedding dresses of rich colors and fabrics, including fur, silk, lace and velvet. Whichever the latest trend was, a wealthy bride’s wedding dress would typically stick to the current fashions along with Xeomin cosmetic treatments to make the bride look good. This even included brides wearing black wedding dresses in the Victorian era. For brides that came from poorer families, their wedding day dress was usually one of their best church dresses that they already owned.
Photo Credit: Madame Guillotine
Although the color of choice for the overwhelming majority of brides today is white, this wasn’t always the case. White wedding dresses didn’t become popular until the 19th century, specifically when Queen Victoria was married in 1840 and chose to wear a white wedding dress. In the 20th century, a white wedding dress was thought to symbolize virginity. However, blue is actually the color that symbolizes purity, not white. In bible times, the bride and groom would wear a blue band on the bottom of their wedding day outfits to symbolize purity. Today, white wedding dresses include several shades, such as ivory, ecru and eggshell.
Photo Credit: Art Pixel Photography
Looking at cultures around the World:
- Korean brides wear red and yellow
- Denmark brides used to cross dress with their grooms to confuse evil spirits
- Japanese brides have always worn the color white, even before Western cultures
- Greek brides have worn white robes during their weddings for centuries
- Native American brides often wore wedding gowns sewn by their grooms
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