Wedding Gowns

Nowadays wedding catalogues are glittering with gowns of any color imaginable and it’s up to you to choose the color you like. Don’t feel restricted to wear white only because your mum and granny did so if deeply inside you know it is not to your liking.

However, it’s no by chance that most western women wear white gowns for their marriage. In fact, it’s one of the wedding traditions that has an explanation behind it.

According to some sources, before the times of Queen Victoria brides could have a wedding gown of any color, except black and red. Black was associated with mourning and red stood for the prostitutes’ favorite color.

The era of Queen Victoria was the starting point of white wedding gowns. In 1840 she chose this color for her marriage to Albert Saxe-Coburg. Brides-to-be were so impressed by the way the queen looked on her marriage day that as a result white became the most wide-spread color for the wedding gown. No wonder, brides look as fresh as a spring flower in a white dress.

Actually, innocence and virginity were attributed to this color, though originally it was blue that symbolized purity and white implies innocence of heart. One more wedding attribute is indicative of virginity, namely, veil. Centuries before brides used to wear their hair flowing down their back at their wedding to symbolize their virginity, now the white veil is often said to represent this.

If you decide to marry according to the Chinese tradition opt for red gowns as they are said to bring good luck. Also, in India, red is the traditional color for wedding garments and stands for auspiciousness. It would be an exaggeration to say that most eastern girls wear traditional red gowns for their big days. In fact, nowadays ever more of them, especially in pro-western countries, opt for the white western wedding gown. Indians, however, are good to be loyal to wearing the traditional wedding sari.

In my opinion, white really looks very romantic and appealing on brides. However the case might be, in our subconsciousness it arouses lots of light positive associations. So before quitting the idea of white, try some creamy shades of white such as ivory, ecru and eggshell. My personal observations show that they look irresistibly appealing and becoming on most brides, whatever age, complexion and hair-color they have. Only if you are still sure that white makes you ghostly pale or you simply can’t stand it pass on to other colors.

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