Wedding Dresses - an introduction

In a wedding ceremony, the bride wears a specially designed gown or dress. This dress is known as a wedding dress or a bridal dress. This wedding dress is plays an important role in one’s wedding ceremony. The wedding dress is given special importance and care is taken to make sure that the bride looks like an angel in her wedding gown. As they say, “dressed up” suits perfectly for a bride when she is in her wedding dress.

The wedding dress is chosen carefully based on a lot of parameters like religion, customs, formality of wedding, wedding theme, time of the year etc. Basically, the background of the wedding governs the nature of wedding attire. In earlier days, wedding dress could be of any color except black or red. White has come to be known as the customary color of a wedding dress. This trend was started with the marriage of Queen Victoria to her cousin, Albert of SaxeCoburg in 1840. Her marriage is said to have had more influence on weddings than any other.

The term bridal gown came from the word al which means “party” combined with bride equals bridal party gown or wedding party gown. In the middle ages, wedding parties were simply known as Brid-als. A bridal train is the word used for the part of the wedding dress that trails behind the bride. The term came from similar trains worn by kings and queens which are derived from peacocks that were known as royal birds.

White is the most popular choice of brides since white is associated with purity, chastity and peace. But now a days, gowns are made of different variations of white like ivory, eggshell, diamond white, candle white, champagne etc. In China, the red is the most preferred color for a wedding dress since red is considered to be a lucky color there. Similar is the case in India. Indians consider red as a good omen. India brides wear a red saree which is bright and colorful with a lot of embroidery. Red color is usually avoided in western countries.

Veils are clothing worn exclusively by women to cover some part of her head or face. A Western woman normally wears a veil on her wedding day if she chooses an all white wedding motif. Brides used to wear their hair long, flowing down their back during their wedding to symbolize virginity. Nowadays, the white veil is often used to represent virginity. Bridal dresses are incomplete without a headpiece. A bride could choose to wear a tiara, a short headpiece, a veil covering her face or a flowing headpiece.

Wedding dress is one of the most important purchases for a bride. The gown and headpiece should match the occasion and her personality perfectly. It is important to shop for a gown that is stylish and just right for the bride.