Up until fairly recently, and still in many cultures, marriage was more about unity and cooperation between two families or even countries than love. As a reflection of this, traditionally wedding dresses were used as a way of demonstrating wealth and power much more than a woman’s beauty and love.
Of course, today the idea is markedly different, but there are still some leftovers from days gone by. Most obviously, jewelry remains a very important part of most wedding outfits. The ‘classic’ look that many women still go for today is still the pearl necklace. In my experience as a world class wedding designer, even a lot of girls who do not think that it is ‘for them’ will be surprised how much they enjoy it when I put a pearl necklace on their necks.
Another trend that has made a fairly startling comeback in recent years is diamonds, or imitation diamonds for those who can’t afford the real thing. Of course it would be unwise and even tacky to wear a large false diamond necklace, but the royal style ‘tiara’ has seen a major increase in popularity in recent years, influenced by high profile weddings of some major Hollywood stars.
Something that many people don’t know about wedding dresses is that in terms of history, the wearing of white is a fairly recent trend. In the UK it is generally seen as beginning with the popularity of the great former monarch Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in the early 19th century. Although before that white had been a fairly popular colour, it only became a ‘classic’ look after that time as a result of the affection that the British people had for their powerful queen.
Interestingly, this trend is seeing something of a reversal in the past decade or so with it becoming more and more common to see people wearing different colours, blue and red dresses have seen a marked increase in popularity, seemingly influenced again by the weddings of famous celebrities.
Of course, this could also be seen as a shift in the cultural identity of the British as we look more to the rest of the world. Red is the traditional colour for wedding dresses in China and Japan, and as these countries become more important to us, we may be absorbing their cultures without even realising. To be honest this is probably not a major concern for most people when choosing a dress for the big day.
It is also worth remembering that white wedding dresses are not always white, the ‘classic’ white dress is not usually plain white, especially earlier or later in the year when white can be a fairly bad idea because of the unreliable weather. Pure white can be a very dangerous colour to wear if you are not sure of the weather, although it will look great on a bright sunny day, this is not necessarily the case should the weather become darker. With grey or cloudy skies you would be better off with a more subtle colour, or a darker shade of white such as cream or egg.
Overall the most important thing to remember is that there are no rules that you need to follow except that you look and feel fabulous.