As we finish up the month of June, the
traditional month of marriages, which dates back to Roman times
when they celebrated the festival of the deity Jupiter and his wife
Juno, who was the goddess of marriage and childbirth. In
Victorian times, the tradition is thought to have continued
because there were flowers available for wedding décor, and the
scent of the flowers masked body odor.
The common form of white dresses for those in the west began
during the 1800s, especially when Queen Victoria married Prince
Albert in 1840. Before that any color would do, based on wealth
or personal preference. The white dress practice spread quickly
to the broad reaches of the British Empire. Back then, no woman,
not even royalty was expected to wear her wedding dress only
once and then never again. This practice also changed after the
marriage of Queen Victoria.
After that, wedding dresses were adapted to the styles of the
day, such as during the early 1900s, they included lace or
frills. During the 1920s, they were typically short in the front
with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style
wedding veils. Following current fashions continued until the
late 1960s, when it became popular to go back to long,
full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era. These
days the majority of wedding dresses are strapless dresses or
sleeveless.
White wedding dresses had been used for many years before that,
but it was not the dominant color. Also, white dresses did not
have a symbolic meaning of virginity or purity, but rather were
costlier and harder to keep clean, and thus were status symbols
of wealth for the wearer. Victorian ideals of weddings, romantic
love, and purity were projected backwards to rewrite the white
dress as a symbol of innocence and virginity rather than wealth.
Many other cultures also have specific, although usually
unwritten rules for wedding attire, including color and style.