In today’s world, Hollywood “chick-flicks” and viral photos of extravagant royal weddings have led us to associate long, white, elegant dresses as the “norm” for brides on their big day. These dresses are symbolic of innocence and purity, and most often – only to be worn once!
But, did you know that this is a (relatively speaking) new trend!? What!?🤯
The tradition of a white wedding dress is actually less than 200 years old (and if you remember from our first post, weddings are waaaay older than that!)! Even better, the white dress didn’t start out as a symbol of innocence and purity at all – that came afterwards! So, where did the white wedding dress actually come from?!
We credit Queen Victoria with the fashion statement of all eternity, when she dawned a beautiful white gown at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. Now, we know today this seems totally normal, but back then, it was much more common for a woman to wear her “best dress” on her wedding day. This was probably a dress she had already worn to another event, and would more often than not, wear again!
Queen Victoria’s white gown was a symbol of wealth, given how hard and expensive it was to maintain such delicate fabric and pristine white conditions. However, after seeing how amazing the photos (of course in B&W or Sepia) turned out, highlighting and accentuating the beautiful details of her white gown, many other wealthy brides began to follow suit. Eventually, as the cost of maintaining these dresses lowered, and the disposable income of the middle class rose, more and more brides opted for white dresses, and could justify such an extravagant gown to only be worn once!
Nowadays, different brides may choose different colors and styles based on their respective cultures, but many still daydream about the delicate white dresses we have all come to know and love! The good news for all of our brides is that regardless of what you might be looking for, #BAB has you covered! We work closely with our designers, and can offer you many different shades or variations of the white-tone you might be dreaming of, but we also know lots about branching out, and have seen our designers create stunning dresses in all shades of blues, pinks, and more!👰🏽♀️🤍