The Connotation and Evolution of Wearing White Wedding Gowns

White wedding dress is obviously the most popular bridal outfit today. If I may ask why is it so? From feed back I got on my questionnaires I posted online, 90% says that white wedding dress stands for purity, therefore the bride is believed to be pure and piety. If that is the case most brides today shouldn’t wear white for their wedding – many of them are morally tainted to wear white for their wedding. Contrary to what most people believe, white wedding dress does not depict virginity or purity but wealth.

Today weddings symbolize love and commitment between the bride and the groom till death do part, these wasn’t the case back then, at the Middle Ages weddings were more like a business deal in which two families joined forces for a beneficial arrangement or alliance. Many weddings were more a matter of politics than love, particularly among the nobility and the higher social classes. Therefore, brides are expected to dress in a manner that speaks well of her family, they represent the family during the ceremony. Brides from wealthy families often wore rich colors like white. White dresses were exclusively for the rich and wealthy because of maintenance. 

In the middle Ages, brides rarely shop for dress specifically for their wedding day. The bride would typically wear her finest dress to the ceremony, even if it was a dark color. In fact, many brides wore black during this time. Only a few colors were avoided, such as green, which was then considered unlucky. Blue was a popular choice as it represented purity, faithfulness and a connection to the Virgin Mary, plus the dark color easily hid stains and imperfections and could be worn again.

How wearing of white wedding gowns started

The origin of white wedding dress can be trace back to Queen Victoria of England; she was the first to wear a white dress for her wedding when she got married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg in 1840. White was not chosen for a wedding dress but blue and other colours, she broke these traditions by wearing a white dress on her wearing day. She was also the first royal bride to have bridesmaids carry her train. Surprisingly, she didn’t wear it to symbolize purity or virginity. She just wore it because, she liked white. 

Decade after the wedding, Godey’s Lady’s Book, with the sentimental statement “ It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one,” declared that white was the most fitting color for a bride. This was what inspired the connotations of virginity and purity attached to white wedding dress as we all know today.

Hope you find this educative as much as I do

imageby: cherrymary