The Bride Didn't Wear White

This week we're kicking off a new Wedding Wednesday series on color.  We'll show you where to find great inspiration for your wedding colors, a rainbow of idea boards for every season and style, and so much more.  But today we start with less traditional brides who opted out of the white dress.

Why do most brides wear white? In this day and age, it symbolizes virginity, but as studies have shown, many modern brides are not so pure. So why do they still opt for the pristine gowns? Well, the tradition started with Queen Victoria in 1840 and was more of a symbol of wealth than purity.  In those days, only the mega-rich could afford to buy a white dress (not so easy to clean before dry cleaners) and wear it only once. Before her time, brides wore all different colored gowns, with the exception of red and black, which represented prostitutes and death, respectively.

It was still about another 100 years later before white gowns really took off as the trend in weddings, all thanks to expanding media technologies that were transmitting photos and videos of brides wearing white.  These days, however, brides are going back to the pre-Victoria trend of wearing a rainbow of colors on their big day. Check out some of our favorite, less-tradtional brides below.

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So what about you? Did you opt for traditional white or did you sport a more colorful dress on your big day?  Send us a photo or leave us a comment about your wedding day fashions.