When I Get Married Why Do I Have To Wear A White Wedding Dress?

You may have often wondered why brides have a white wedding dress, when other cultures wear a variety of coloured wedding dresses.

The white wedding dress did not come into existence until Queen Victoria introduced it as a symbol of wealth. It had absolutely nothing to do with purity or virginity. Historically blue had always symbolized purity and virginity since the dawn of time. Prior to that time, royal brides wore silver and “commoner” brides wore jewel covered dresses (which they already owned). The reason for that was that royals could afford a new lavish dress they would only wear once. Obviously poor people could not afford a new dress, so they just covered their regular dress with jewels. White was also expensive, as it was only ever going to be worn once – thus making it was so impractical.

Women then decided to follow in Queen Victorias footsteps and white became fashionable for brides.

The meaning behind the colour of white also became slightly skewed so that people completely forgot and didn’t care that white had never originally symbolized purity. Even though we were misinformed and didn’t care at all that the information was incorrect, no one bothered to correct the facts. So white came into existance for just about every wedding.

This fashion trend of wearing a white dress was slowly exported from Great Britain and became a way of life in America, Australia, Canada etc. Other cultures then started to copy wearing white dresses after seeing “Hollywood” movies – even though there was nothing in their culture that said they should wear a white dress. Young women just wanted to have a “fairy tale” wedding – as seen at the cinema.

You will now find that the very place where the white dress originated – Great Britain – is now home once again to brightly coloured wedding dresses. Not everyone wants a white or ivory dress as they may feel they look better in colours, which is true for many people (especially if they have been eating too many cookies). So in essence, non-white wedding dresses are actually not traditional at all – and just a fashion trend.