Everyone Has One…..a Story

The most exciting part of the wedding process for me as I remember was the buying of the dress. The white wedding dress holds a power that no other dress can.  Your dress will start conversations between strangers.   Your dress  will be in a million pictures – your dress will make your fiance’s heart skip a beat.  Your dress may become a keepsake – you may dye it – trash it – sell it or donate it. The dress has a life of its own that’s continues to grow.  It even has its own show –   “Say Yes to the Dress“.

The first recorded wedding gown was in 1406 worn by Princess Philippa, daughter of Henry IV, to Eric of Denmark.  For the Royals and wealthy of that time, wedding dresses were made of expensive velvets, silk, fur, gold and silver thread, gems and more.  Dress colors varied from red to purple to even black.  For the not so “liquid” it was the most beautiful dress that you owned that was your wedding dress.

I was surprised to find out that white wasn’t the favored color for a wedding dress in the middle ages. Blue was the preferred color.  Blue was a sign of purity.   A band of blue ribbon would be worn by the bride and groom during the ceremony.   It seems the  “something blue” rhyme came from this tradition.

White became the real star for wedding dresses when Queen Victoria wore a white dress when she married Albert Sax-Coberg in 1840.  I guess we’ve always been influenced by what celebrities wear.

Godey’s Lady’s Book was a very popular women’s magazine in the 1800s. Here’s a couple of wedding dresses from that magazine.

And here is some images from Harper’s Bazaar, from August 2, 1860.

My how time flies….

Here’s a fun quiz ..well it was for me… can you tell what time frame each dress is from?  (1920 – 1990)  Answers to come later this week.

Do you think you guessed right?