Many girls from early childhood dream of a wedding and a beautiful snow-white outfit. When it comes time to make dreams come true, many brides are faced with a huge selection of options for every color, wallet and taste. But most go for the traditional white wedding dress.

Why is the wedding dress white?

There are several versions and beliefs regarding the color of the wedding dress. Each sounds quite believable and you can rely on them when choosing. It so happened that representatives of peoples on different continents choose a white wedding dress as their vestment. Naturally, beige, red, and even pistachio are in fashion. But snow-white remains the most popular among women of all ages and income levels. Modern life is often based on ancient beliefs, which are so tightly embedded in life that they are considered an integral part of it. The versions are as follows:

1. Historical - says that for the first time the future French Queen Anne of Austria wore a white wedding dress with sleeves for her wedding. She was so beautiful in it that the French fashionistas of that era chose, imitating the queen, the same wedding dress. The next wave of fashion for this color took place after the wedding of Queen Victoria of England, who also chose a dress of this color with an openwork neckline.
2. But the tradition of the white wedding dress goes much deeper. They come from pagan beliefs and weddings, when the bride's dress symbolized her innocence and purity, which was very much appreciated. In addition, it was believed that this relieved the evil eye and protected the couple on a holiday and for life.

Classic white wedding dress

The model of a traditional white wedding dress is a combination of a corset and a fluffy tiered skirt. The image resembles an hourglass, in which every girl will feel like a fairy-tale princess. In the classic version, the product does not have a lower skirt with hoops, the entire volume is created thanks to:

• hard fabric that creates large folds;
• several layers of a petticoat made of durable lining or starched tulle.

In recent years, voluminous multi-tiered skirts with a bottom hoop, which helps to create the effect of a magnificent bell, have begun to be considered a classic option. The classics also include a simple white wedding dress, which has the following characteristic features:

• A-shaped silhouette, where the hem folds and forms a flare from the waist;
• the waist is clearly defined, it can even be highlighted with a satin belt, decorative lace, embroidery or sequins;
• a white wedding dress has a long train that can be fastened with an invisible fastener at the back of the waist or put on a thin strap on the wrist, which will help to move freely while dancing;
• the corset is made according to all the rules of the cut on rigid elements;
• may have or quite discreet collar;
• sleeves can be long openwork or absent altogether, leaving the shoulders open.

Shoes for a white wedding dress can be chosen in completely different shades and options:

• shoes with high heels or without a heel at all;
• shoes can be made in a minimalist style or generously decorated with stones, rhinestones and other decorative elements;
• can be cream, beige, peach, red and other tones.

Lush white wedding dresses

The dreams of many young girls are white long wedding dresses with a fluffy bottom. The product is characterized by the following details:

• the volume of the hem depends on the petticoat with hoops and the number of lower layers. Sometimes this is a very heavy construction, but for beautiful brides this is not a problem at all;
• usually the corset is decorated with restraint, the main decoration falls on the skirt. But the imagination of the masters does not stand still, therefore, with each season, products with a similar cut become more and more chic.

White lace wedding dress

Lace is adorned with both lush and austere styles. A straight white wedding dress decorated in this way looks elegant and sophisticated. If the finish is handmade, then this increases the price. Openwork sleeves, bodice and top layer create an airy, light and romantic look. When choosing, it is recommended to consider the following points:

• looks spectacular when the lace top layer turns into a long train made of the same openwork material;
• lace, decorated with small shimmery rhinestones or natural pearls, looks great;
• does not tolerate an excessive number of accessories, as in itself it looks gorgeous.

Short white wedding dress

The shortened version is chosen by self-confident, emancipated and. A beautiful white wedding dress does not have to be floor-length, a short one will also look great. Style and decorative elements give a spectacular look:

• often a classic cocktail model;
• chic to a white wedding dress is given by a luxurious fabric, it can be hard taffeta or natural satin;
• the corset is not as rigid as in other models;
• can be off-the-shoulder, with short or elongated sleeves;
• can be complemented with a bolero jacket or a cute cape.

Fashionable white wedding dress

The imagination of designers does not stop, and new fashionable and bold trends appear. The experiments with the silhouette are so cardinal that it is possible to guess that the model is intended for a wedding only thanks to the color and some accessories. Stylish white wedding dress comes in many variations:

• asymmetry becomes fashionable, where the bottom in the front is much shorter than the back of the hem;
• models that repeat the silhouette of the 20s of the twentieth century are relevant;
• retro is at its peak.

Red and white wedding dress

Brave and daring representatives of the fair sex can afford a bright experiment with shades. Red - symbolizes, it is perceived as an explicit statement about oneself, and to combine it in a wedding dress with a pure shade is real courage. A white and red wedding dress can contain the following details:

• scarlet can be sewn-on openwork details that act as decorative elements;
• the play of shimmering rhinestones on a red background will make the image completely unusual.

Black and white wedding dress

It is very one-sided to consider black as exclusively mourning; it is a very intelligent and chic tone. The combination of white and black is a classic of opposition. A white satin wedding dress may have a bridal corset decorated with black lace. Lace flowers of black tone, let down on the hem, will make the image very mysterious and mysterious.

Do a little experiment: ask family members, neighbors, friends, colleagues what a white wedding dress and a white bridal veil symbolize. I am sure that in the overwhelming majority of cases you will hear: "This is the color of purity, innocence, purity, chastity." But this is not at all true!

Since ancient times, among all peoples, white symbolized the Past, it was the color of memory and oblivion, detachment from the earthly world. That is why among the ancient peoples of the Earth, including the Slavs, white was (and for some it still remains) the color of mourning, death, dying. This, by the way, has passed into the Christian tradition - angels and canonized saints are depicted in white robes that demonstrate by no means their purity, but belonging to a different world.

So why was the bride, according to the Russian (and any other Slavic) wedding tradition, dressed in mourning colors? To understand this, we must remember what kind meant for an ancient man. For ancient man, clan (family) meant literally everything: outside the clan, a person had neither rights nor obligations; he was not perceived by his fellow tribesmen as a person, but only as a member of a certain family. And the ancient man himself felt himself not as an individual, but exclusively as a member of the clan, constantly feeling his powerful support. A girl, becoming a wife, left her family, “left” it. She “died” for her kind and was “born” again in another. Hence the dressing in mourning, white, clothes.

These beliefs are associated with the traditions of the bride's crying and crying (voices) for the bride. Well, now you yourself can say why they were "shouting" for the bride. But why the bride herself simply had to cry bitterly and a lot? The point here is not at all that the girl was afraid of the unknown, she was afraid of how she would be received in the new family. The fact is that, leaving her family and passing into a stranger, she abandoned her patron spirits and gave herself under the protection of her husband's ancestral spirits.

With her tears, she seemed to thank the former patrons, and apologized to them for the “betrayal”, for the “offense” that she inflicts on them by refusing them. We all know this picture: the bride, waiting for the arrival of the groom, sits festively dressed, with her friends in her room. But this has not always been the case. Among the ancient Slavs, and later, in many Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian villages up to the 19th century, the bride, when the wedding train arrived, sat on the stove in her everyday clothes and mourned her previous life in the family. She changed into a wedding dress only after the arrival of the groom. And the ancient meaning of this action is farewell to the hearth, family, ancestral spirits.

The tradition of covering the girl's head with a veil is also associated with the “dying” of the bride in her family. Now I mean not that transparent cape made of lace or tulle, to which we are all accustomed, but an opaque scarf (two uncut scarves) made of dense fabric of white or red color, which was used to cover the bride in Ancient Russia, making her face completely invisible to others ... By the way, if I already mentioned the red veil, then I must also say that the mourning color in ancient times was not only white, but also red, or rather, white and red. Remember the images of a folk wedding dress: after all, it was not pure white, but with elements of red. The veil, as I have already said, was either white or red (fans of Indian films, a question for the filling: what color are the clothes of modern Indian brides?).

So why was the bride's face covered with an opaque dense cloth? Yes, all for the same reason: having agreed to marriage, she “died” for her kind and has not yet “reborn” for another, and it was forbidden for the inhabitants of one world to come into contact (even with a glance) with the inhabitants of another world, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. Why? Because, as our ancestors believed, any contact of our world with the world of the dead led to innumerable misfortunes and even the death of the world of the living. Therefore, it was impossible for anyone to contemplate the bride, so as not to bring misfortune either to her, or to her relatives, or to ourselves.

Over time, the ancient, original, meaning of these wedding traditions, like the mass of other folk wedding traditions and rituals, changed somewhat or completely disappeared. The meaning of some has transformed so much that they are perceived by us as fun or a game at a wedding celebration. But if someone really wants to find out where the custom comes from in Russia to break a plate at a wedding or loudly honk from the car when the newlyweds return from the registry office, why the bride is brought into the room through the threshold, and so on, then just ask a question. For example ... why the bride's wedding dress is white.

White wedding dress is traditional for modern brides, although this was not always the case. The fashion for dressing in such attire for a wedding ceremony appeared several centuries ago, and the usual image of a girl in a snow-white dress and a long veil became popular only in the last century. The choice of white wedding dress is due to the beliefs associated with this color, the customs of the countries in which they first began to wear a light dress for a wedding. Why is the traditional wedding dress white? What's its story?

Two main versions - why the bride's dress is white

Over the centuries of human existence, the white dress of the bride periodically appeared and disappeared. This phenomenon, as a rule, concerned only one country or region, but did not spread to the whole world. Now you can observe the widespread use of wedding snow-white clothes, even in those countries where their own marriage culture has been forming for millennia. For example, in China, the bride's dress, according to custom, is red, but many girls began to refuse this color, preferring white, leaving only a few scarlet details.

How did it happen that white, which for thousands of years was not particularly popular, spread throughout the world, affecting even the most remote corners of it? It happened in the 17-19 centuries, the exact date is unknown, but there are two versions of the emergence of a fashion for a snow-white dress. Both of them belong to European queens walking down the aisle in a white wedding dress.

First version

This story is connected with Anne of Austria, a Spanish princess who married the French king Louis in 1615. At the wedding, the girl appeared in a snow-white image, which surprised and amazed those present so much that French ladies began to imitate her style. According to some sources, the French women considered it to be like a "cake". It looked so cute that in France the white dress began to be used everywhere, and then the tradition spread to other European countries - Spain, England, Portugal.

Second version

News of the wedding of the reigning Queen Victoria quickly spread throughout England, and in 1840 she and Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha were married. The young bride wanted to look new and gorgeous, and therefore decided not to wear the heavy silver brocade, traditional for the royal family, choosing for her own wedding a new color for all - white. Her clothes were sewn from dense satin, and to decorate sleeves, veils, necklines (the so-called lace "bertha"), about half a meter of material was used, which lacemakers from the village of Bir, led by Jane Bidney, made for six months.

After the wedding of Queen Victoria, all lace patterns were destroyed so that no one else could repeat the exquisite pattern on her dress, and the dress itself is kept on the territory of Kensington Palace, where exhibitions are held. Victoria's only adornment during the wedding was a sapphire brooch presented by Albert. She subsequently became a family heirloom and is inherited by members of the royal family. The decoration of the young queen amazed those present so much that the white dress became traditional for weddings in England, and then all over the world.

Attitude towards the color of the wedding dress at different times

The first mentions of white wedding dresses appear in ancient Greece. The girls wore a white outfit for the wedding - peplos, the only decoration of which was two fasteners on the bride's shoulders. The more elaborate and richer these fasteners were, the better the welfare of their owner was considered. To make the girl's marriage happy, she was covered with a long golden cloth. In ancient Rome, ordinary tight-fitting clothes - kalaziris - were worn for the ceremony, and the bride was distinguished by the number and richness of accessories: tiaras, bracelets, necklaces, rings.

The wedding dress of the bride of Ancient Russia was strongly influenced by paganism. As a rule, girls wore a bright red sundress. The scarlet shade symbolized protection from evil spirits, fire, joy. There was also another image: sometimes girls wore a shirt decorated with elegant embroidery, and a poneva decorated with a red and blue check (a woolen skirt made of pieces of fabric, the hem of which was magnificently decorated). As soon as the newlywed wore this old version of the skirt, she was considered bridged. The tradition of dressing in red for a wedding continued until the eighteenth century.

In the Middle Age

In the Middle Ages, in Europe, wedding clothes were not sewn in any particular color. The girl who was getting married preferred to wear her best dress, the richest and most elaborate. As a rule, the bride's outfit was not new, but something that is worn on holidays. It has been customary to purchase separate clothes for the wedding day from the fifteenth century from wealthy families - the style of the dress, its decor was prepared according to the latest fashion. The dress was lavishly decorated with furs, expensive fabrics, and other decorations, and after the wedding it was worn more than once.

The shade of the outfit could be any, as a rule, the girls preferred dark or bright colors - purple, green, brown, pink, black. Medieval brides approached dressmaking from a practical point of view. Then the streets of the city were dusty and dirty, and therefore a dress of cream, sand, and even more so white, would simply get dirty. Washing such a dress was costly. Differences in wedding images manifested themselves depending on the region or country where the future spouse lived, the welfare of her family, and social status.

In the 16-17 centuries

At that time, only one category of girls wore a white dress - "Christ's Brides", who went to the monastery and completely devoted themselves to serving God. Dark colors faded into the background in the 16-17th centuries, giving way to more pleasant pastel shades that brides still wear to this day - light blue or pink. The choice of a particular tone of wedding dress was largely associated with the beliefs and customs of different cultures, for example:

• In France, brides often wore purple attire, because it promised them a loving husband for the rest of their lives.
• On the territory of Ireland, girls, as a rule, wore a green outfit on their wedding day. It was believed that this color brings happiness, harmony to the house, good luck.
• In Russia, brides still preferred to wear dresses with a predominance of scarlet or orange - this is associated with the religion of paganism, the worship of fire.

In the era of neoclassicism

The turning point in the history of white dress was the era of neoclassicism. Then a tradition arose to wear light ivory-colored clothes, cream decorations and snow-white clothes. This is due to the archaeological excavations that were carried out at that time in Pompeii, Herculaneum. Samples of Roman art were found - sculptures made of delicate white marble, which became public. This led to the widespread use of the marble shade. Clothes of this color were worn on weekdays, worn during holidays or weddings.

During neoclassicism, not only the traditional colors of wedding dresses changed, but also their style. Girls began to abandon tight corsets and fluffy skirts more often, preferring light, airy decorations with flowing fabrics, delicate ruffles of sleeves and a high waist. This era made pearl, light shades popular, which logically led to the traditional white dress.

What does white wedding dress mean?

Today's white dress symbolism is an endless holiday, a celebration of life, beauty and love. Such an outfit indicates that the bride is pure, has innocence and purity. He personifies her lightness, tenderness, kindness. It is precisely because of this symbolism that it is customary to get married wearing a white dress. A snow-white shade speaks of perfection, completeness, means a final decision, the beginning of a new life.

: don't get hung up

I want to say right away: despite the fact that a lot of signs and superstitions are associated with a wedding dress, you don't need to dwell on them too much. After all, there was a time when our ancestors just went to the registry office or the village council in everyday clothes, and then lived happily ever after for more than a dozen years.

If you think about something bad all the time, then it will certainly happen, so you do not need to wind yourself up on the eve of the wedding in the expectation that at some point something unforeseen and unpleasant will surely happen. Better to just relax and enjoy the upcoming holiday.

However, there are, and sometimes they really work. For especially suspicious brides, there are many rules for choosing a wedding dress.

What should be the perfect wedding dress

There is an old belief that a thing taken from someone close to the bride should be added to the bride. Previously, the bride's mother gave the girl an embroidered handkerchief. The headscarf was embroidered with symbols that protected the bride from unkind looks. It is advisable to ask for some trinket from relatives or friends, but in no case should you borrow a veil and gloves. It is necessary at the end of the wedding to return the borrowed little thing. It is advisable to borrow this thing from a friend who is happily married.

The wedding dress must be brand new. After the wedding, no one can lend it to anyone. There is, according to which, someone else's wedding dress can attract other people's problems into family life. A happy wedding dress can be an outfit that stores the energy of the family and is inherited from generation to generation. The wedding dress of a great-grandmother, who has been happily married for more than fifty years, can become a reliable amulet. True, it is difficult to find a family in Russia where a great-grandmother's wedding dress that can be worn is kept, so you need to buy an outfit for the upcoming celebration in a store. It is better to get a simpler wedding dress than to rent a chic outfit.

True, when buying a wedding dress in a store, one cannot say with complete certainty that no one has worn it before. I personally know such a case when my friend's mother worked as a salesman in a store of luxury wedding dresses and took a very beautiful outfit for her daughter for one day, which was then returned back to the salon and was bought.

The ideal option is a custom-made wedding dress. In this case, you can be completely sure that no one has worn the outfit before, and it does not carry negative energy.

There is also a sign according to which a wedding dress cannot be sewn by the future bride herself or trust this business to close people and relatives.

The wedding dress should be long as it means a long and happy family life.

An old English omen associated with the attire of the bride

According to tradition, the bride must wear four things on her wedding day. One thing must be new, the second old, the third blue and the fourth borrowed from a friend. A new thing is a symbol of a new family, where love, peace and harmony will reign; the old thing means the bride's bond with the home, parents and family in which she grew up. The color blue symbolizes modesty and loyalty, and a borrowed thing means the bride's connection with friends, on whose help and support she can always count on in difficult moments in life.

How to buy a wedding dress correctly

It is best to go with a company of loved ones. When trying on a dress, only those people should help in whose good attitude you can be 100% sure.

You do not need to photograph yourself in different outfits in order to compare later. Treat your wedding dress with due respect.

In the store, you need to try to ensure that the bride-to-be in a wedding dress is seen by as few strangers as possible.

The bride-to-be does not have to pay for the purchase herself. The wedding dress must be kept in the parental home before the celebration.

No one except the bride herself should try on a purchased dress. Also, you cannot put on the entire wedding outfit in full and look in the mirror. For example, you can try on with one glove.

What color should the wedding dress be

Traditionally, a wedding dress should be white. White color symbolizes purity and light, which will illuminate the future family life of the newlyweds. However, modern designers offer wedding dresses of various colors, and brides increasingly want to wear something unusual for their weddings.

A yellow wedding dress can attract quarrels and tears to a family, a red one - scandals and numerous quarrels. However, individual elements of red in a wedding dress or bridal bouquet portend good luck in marriage, the power of love and unquenchable passion.

Gold attracts money to the family and symbolizes a life of abundance. However, you shouldn't marry in an all-gold dress. We are talking here about the individual finishing elements.

The pink dress symbolizes deep, pure love, but the white wedding dress is still perfect.

How to wear a wedding dress correctly

Folk omens and superstitions say that you cannot dress for a wedding yourself or with the help of your mother. It is best to ask your friends for help. They are the ones who should help the bride on this day.

You need to pin a pin on the hem of the wedding dress, head down. The pin will divert the eyes of envious people and neutralize negative energy.

The bride's wedding dress must be worn over the head.

How to properly wear a wedding dress during a celebration

On the wedding day, when the groom has already arrived at the bride's house, the young can no longer be separated until the moment they are declared husband and wife. Also, guests should not be allowed to pass between them.

If the bride's dress has a very fluffy skirt that interferes with walking, the groom in no case should help his chosen one to carry the hem. This should be done by the bridesmaid.

During the wedding ceremony, girlfriends should not adjust the bride's attire. According to the existing sign, in this case, they will interfere and spoil the family life of the spouses.

Popular folk omens about the bride's wedding dress

On the wedding day, the dress was torn - the relationship with the mother-in-law may not work out.

If a button flew off the bride's wedding dress, then frequent quarrels and discord in the family are possible. It is necessary to sew a flying button with two stitches in order to ward off troubles from the newlyweds. By the way, according to folk tradition, there should be an even number of buttons on the bride's wedding dress.

You cannot show yourself to the groom in a wedding dress before the wedding. It is believed that in this case, the wedding may not take place.

Wedding dress as a talisman

Traditionally, a wedding dress is associated with white. When it comes to the bride, we immediately imagine a magnificent white dress ... It is not uncommon that brides prefer a different color when choosing their wedding dress, but still white remains the main, main, first, leader ...

But it was not always so…

In the 16th-17th centuries, only the “bride of Christ”, that is, a girl who went to a monastery to devote herself to God, could wear a white wedding dress. Or a very brave girl, or ... crazy. Usually, brides went down the aisle in blue or pink dresses. Dark tones were also considered unsuitable. Only in the south of France, a bride, if she was afraid of her mother-in-law's annoyance, could sew a purple wedding dress, and if she wanted her husband to go crazy with passion for her until the end of his days, she put on a burgundy dress. And Irish brides went down the aisle only in a green dress and a cap with green ribbons, for in this country the green was considered the happiest color.

And in Russia? Russian wedding dresses were predominantly red or orange. Most likely these are echoes of paganism. Despite the fact that the white color, according to ancient beliefs, personified purity, and the "maiden of marriageable age" should have been such, red color and its shades were still chosen for the wedding dress. For example, rural brides literally until the middle of the twentieth century wore national costumes for weddings - blouses and sundresses. “Do not wear me, mother, a red sundress,” the song says. That is, the wedding dress of a young woman consisted of a brocade sundress, colored shoes, red or blue ...

But back to the snow-white wedding dresses. Where did this tradition come from and why the color of the dress changed so dramatically, especially since it happened not in a single country, but all over the world.

Fashion for light - ivory, cream, but not yet white - dresses brought with it the era of neoclassicism. As a result of excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, many examples of Roman art - sculpture made of light marble - have become public knowledge. This had a very strong influence on fashion in general and the color of wedding dresses in particular. Marble-colored dresses have become popular, gradually leading us to white dresses.

There are two more or less plausible versions of the origin of the tradition of choosing white for a wedding dress.

First version. Queen Victoria wore a white wedding dress for her wedding in the mid-17th century. And, naturally, everyone began to repeat after her.

Second version. Silently earlier, Anna of Austria introduced the fashion for white wedding dresses. Her dress was so beautiful that the entire female high society of France began to imitate Anna. And later this fashion came to Spain, England and Portugal.

The situation is different for oriental beauties. After all, there white is considered a mourning color, the color of sorrow. Therefore, young people never wear anything white for a wedding. Their costumes are always in yellow-gold or red tones, as in India and China; young Japanese women wear light blue, blue or navy blue kimonos, hoping that their chosen color matches the color of the groom's cloak. Such a coincidence promised a prosperous marriage. And since it was not supposed to see the bride's kimono before the wedding, the groom's relatives sometimes bribed future relatives in order to find out the color of the wedding kimono.

Can you add anything from the history of the wedding dress?