It is said that all brides are beautiful. At a traditional religious wedding, the guests assemble in the church and stand upon hearing the processional music begin. All heads turn to catch the first glimpse of the bride in her wedding finery. Great care has been taken in choosing the wedding gown and the headpiece, veil, and jewelry that will accompany it.
While most of North American brides choose white or off-white as the color for their wedding dress, the tradition of the white wedding gown is a relatively new one.
Gowns worn for ceremonial purposes have traditionally been made from richly-colored fabrics with all manner of embroidery and decorative touches. These treasured garments were often preserved and passed down to subsequent generations.
During the Middle Ages, the color red was often chosen for a wedding dress. Chinese, Hindu, and Islamic brides still don this striking shade today. If you were a woman getting married during the time of the American Revolution, you also might have chosen to wear the "color of defiance" on your special day.
The notion of the bride wearing white on her wedding day started in the Victorian era. The trend was started by Queen Victoria herself, who chose to wear a white gown at her wedding to her beloved Prince Albert on February 10, 1840. (Before that point, white was a color worn by the Royal Family during times of mourning.) Brides from well-to-do families started choosing to wear a white gown as a sign that they had the means to afford a dress to be worn for one occasion only.
This tradition of wearing the wedding dress once is still with us today and just like the people that lived so long ago, we take steps to preserve our ceremonial gowns, whether the young women of the next generation choose to wear them or not.
Jodee Redmond
http://paranormal.suite101.com
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