The Tradition of White Wedding DressesBy Lucy WangWe are used to how it has always been until we encounter evidence to the proof. White wedding gowns has been a traditional for long time. However, do you know what it is before that was true?The history of white wedding gowns should back to the Victoria era. Queen Victoria was the first woman who wears white wedding gowns which would then have been considered a flamboyant white gown on her wedding ceremony in 1840. This gorgeous wedding gown did not start the tradition immediately; however, many women think this as a symbol of class and style and then they start to wear white wedding dresses in the wedding to copy Queen Victoria. After that, it spawns the interest and popularity of white wedding dresses as we know today.Prior to this, the normal policy of wedding dresses was to wear good, new dresses, which could be used for formal occasions afterwards. For the nobility, they would like to choose wear very expensive clothes with gold thread. In that era, the length of the train symbolized the degree of influence on the Royals.Nowadays, women all over the world are dreaming to have pure white wedding dresses for their wedding day. This tells us that the white wedding gowns of today is deep-seated tradition, and for many is worn to signify virtue as well as uphold tradition. We can heard from the marriage handbook that "from the earliest ages, that white is the most fitting hue". Even in the US in the history, it was normal to purchase a good dress for use as a wedding dress.As Britain is a place where is populated with traditions and legends, so it is natural that the tradition of white wedding dresses was started by the English Monarchy. Until the First World War, wedding dresses grew more and more elaborate in Britain. Women are tending to like simple style and they also led to the abandonment of the corset and shorter skirts.In the Great Depression period in the US, women will marry in a white gown but dye it into blue or other colors for normal wear. The funny thing you can see is that the collar and cuffs are still in white to show the original use of the dress.Things have changed in the World War Two. Women gave up the fancy wedding because there is little time for them to plan a wedding. Besides, it is a normal thing that women who are in the service to marry in her uniform. Of course, there are still some women who did not in the service. For these people, they would choose a good and new dress for their wedding ceremony.Then the prosperity period has coming. In this period, there are lots of special gowns that serve no other purpose than the wedding ceremony. Much like Queen Victoria, Princess Grace of Monaco set a standard of wedding dresses for women in the contemporary era on her wedding ceremony, showing them and those who came after them the criterion of the ideal wedding gowns.Nowadays, wearing a white, extravagant gown was a sign that you could afford to buy a wedding dress that you maybe never be able to wear again because of its style and color. Of course, there are many colors of wedding dresses. However, white wedding dresses symbolize that this is your first wedding and it also means the virtue of your wedding. So people would choose white wedding gowns in their first wedding. However, if they have a second wedding, the brides would choose other colors of wedding gowns such as pink and blue.With the time changes, brides in the new century would like to enjoy wedding in the color of their choice. Normal women have injected their own personality and style into the wedding dresses. We can see women are marrying in colors ranging from delicate ivory to deepest red and even black. For the Royalty, they still have favor in the traditional white wedding dresses. But the white wedding dresses can afford by many common people nowadays, so it cannot mark the stature of high society. So they choose something different to distinct from normal people with the most expensive silks, pearls and material possible.
