History of the Wedding Dress

Your wedding day. The day when the everyday girl who's normal attire is jeans-and-a-T-shirt is adorned to the max in pearls, lace, organza, tulle, rhinestones, veils and something old/something blue. However, the wedding dress as we know it today is a fairly modern invention.

Royal weddings set forth in Medieval times were arranged to seal alliances between countries and brides were dressed in fabrics such as velvet, fur, lamé threads, heavy damasks and silks. She was draped in the most expensive fabrics to make a regal impression of prestige. In addition, dresses were often sewn with precious stones such as saphirres, rubies, diamonds and pearls! Skirts were gathered and full; arms would sweep the floor and trains were a dozen feet long. Only the wealthy could afford dyes in black, purple and red; the bride's attire would be in these colors!

Of course, most brides were not from royalty and would not be dressed so elaborately. A noblewoman of the upper middle class would copy dresses from A princess and use a lesser quantity of those novelty fabrics and only adorn the collar with jewels. A middle class bride would use less expensive fabrics such as velevet or satin and the poor bride's dress would have been much simpler and sewn out of linnen or wool but still more elaborate than her everyday dress. She would then wear it for her best Sunday dress for the rest of her life.

Why do brides wear white? It was not fashionable for brides to wear white until the late 19th Century. Until then, blue was the most important color for a bride to wear because that color was associated with the Virgin Mary and was a symbol of purity. Brides who wore blue believed that their husbands would always be true to them! (thus, "something Blue.") Pink was another popular wedding gown color because it symbolized youth and was worn primarily during May weddings.


Queen Victoria's all white wedding gown in 1840 popularized the white wedding dress many women follow today. Contrary to the wide belief that white symbolizes the bride's purity; white is intended to symbolize the celebration of a union. The intricacy of the bride's dress increased with social class. A bride of a lower class would sew temporary decorations such as lace, ribbon and bows on a white dress; during the festivities these decorations were pulled off by guests and saved for souvenirs or wedding favors and that dress would become part of her wardrobe for years to come. Even women of the higher social classes would wear her dress again on special occasions.