By: Carey Howard
Submitted: 2010-06-09 04:12:57 | Word Count: 641
Little girls grow up into women and there are not many who don't dream of a white wedding. This dream carries through into adulthood, and today many women get married in white, but this has not always been the traditional color of the wedding gown. Although white is supposedly worn to signify virtue, the first celebrity white wedding dress worn was when Queen Victoria married her Prince Albert.
After this celebrity wedding everyone wanted to wear white when they got married, but unlike some wedding traditions, this is not something that dates back into the annals of time. Her dress was considered to be nothing short of "flamboyant" but people did not immediately begin to wear white. Although upper class ladies did immediately follow suit, and saw the white wedding dress as a unique fashion statement.
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Essentially, the white dress was more about status than virtue, lower class people wouldn't dream of wearing white, as it could not be easily cleaned. Ordinary women still wore dresses of different colors and it was only when ready made dresses became available with the advent of the department store, that this fashion became very popular. Coco Chanel is believed to have really got the tradition of white started when she designed a knee-length wedding dress with a long train.
One of the oldest bridal traditions is the veil, no matter what color the dress worn, the veil was generally white. The veil is supposed to protect the bride from malevolent spirits who might try to steal her away from the groom on her wedding day. Brides have always been considered to be the most beautiful of women, and veils were designed to hide that beauty, they were a sign of humility. Today they complete the wedding ensemble and can be very simple or elaborate; it generally depends on the type of dress worn, as the veil should not compete for attention with the dress.
The tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe is still believed by many brides. They make sure they don't shirk this tradition, although wearing a sixpence in the shoe, seems to have gone by the wayside, as these coins are no longer minted. This is also believed to be a Victorian tradition, which started in England. Each of these items is a good luck symbol for the bride.
The color blue is one of the older traditions, centuries ago, as far back as Ancient Rome, blue has been closely connected to weddings. Blue was worn by brides in Roman times to represent fidelity, love and modesty. So blue is a far more traditional color for a bride to wear, but if they wear white, most brides will carry or wear something blue, even if it is only her garter. You may have noticed that the Christian religion always portrays the mother of Christ - Mary, wearing blue, this is the color which symbolizes purity, not white.
Other wedding traditions include throwing rice, which today has largely gone by the wayside, in favor of confetti or even blowing bubbles t the bridal couple. Rice was symbolic of fertility. Ancient Romans had a lot to do with bridal traditions and this is why the groom carries the bride over the threshold, so that demons cannot trip her. Groomsmen and bridesmaids are also to protect the couple from demons, apparently, this confuses the demons and they don't know who the bridal couple is.
Author Resource:-
Howard has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in marriage and weddings, you can also check out his latest website about:
