A wedding dress or bridal gown is the clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants.


For most of history, brides rarely purchased a 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, piety and a connection to the Virgin Mary, plus the dark color easily hid stains and imperfections and could be worn again.

Brides dressed in the height of current fashion, with the richest materials their families' money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their best church dress on their wedding day.


Though examples of brides wearing white can be traced back as early as 1406. The first documented instance of a princess who wore a white wedding dress for a royal wedding ceremony is that of Philippa of England, who wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with squirrel and ermine in 1406, when she married Eric of Pomerania. Mary, Queen of Scots, wore a white wedding dress in 1559 when she married her first husband, Francis, the Dauphin of France, because it was her favorite color, although white was then the color of mourning for French Queens. This was not yet a widespread trend.


The 1840 marriage of England’s Queen Victoria to her cousin Prince Albert is considered the seminal white-wearing occasion. Dripping with orange blossoms, her stunning white dress inspired thousands of common folk to follow suit.

Almost a decade after the wedding, Godey’s Lady’s Book, one of the first women’s magazines in America, declared that white was the most fitting hue for a bride.


Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity, though this was not the original intention.
Source:
¤ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress
¤ https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-of-wedding-gowns

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