Western culture

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just a union between two people. They could
be a union between two families, two businesses or even Weddings performed
during and immediately following the medieval era were often more than two
countries. Many weddings were more a matter of politics than love, particularly
among the nobility and the higher social classes. Brides were therefore
expected to dress in a manner that cast their families in the most favorable
light, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony.
Brides from wealthy families often wore rich colors and exclusive fabrics. It
was common to see them wearing bold colors and layers of furs, velvet and silk.

Over the centuries, brides continued to dress in a manner
befitting their social status—always in the height of fashion, with the
richest, boldest materials money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their
best church dress on their wedding day. The amount of material a wedding dress
contained also was a reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated
the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests. Today, there are wedding
dresses available in all price ranges, and Western traditions have loosened up
to include a rainbow of colors and variety of lengths, which are now considered
acceptable. Women may purchase ready-made gowns, wear a family heirloom, or
they may choose to have a dressmaker create one for her. In addition, today many
bridal salons have samples of wedding gowns in their stores where the bride
selects a certain style and orders one to be made to fit.

Wedding dresses have traditionally been based on the
popular styles of the day. For example, in the 1920s, wedding dresses were
typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with
cloche-style
wedding veils. This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the
late 1940s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs
reminiscent of the Victorian era. Although there has always been a style that
dominates the bridal market for a time, and then shifts with the changes in
fashion, a growing number of modern brides are not choosing to follow these
trends. This is due in large part to non-traditional and non-first-time
weddings, and women who are marrying later in life.

Today, Western wedding dresses are usually white,
though "wedding white" includes creamy shades such as eggshell, ecru
and ivory. Philippa of England was actually the first
documented princess in history to wear a white wedding gown during a royal
wedding ceremony: she wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with grey squirrel and ermine).[1]

White did not become a popular option until 1840, after the
marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria had worn a white gown for the event
so as to incorporate some lace she owned. The official wedding portrait
photograph was widely published, and many other brides opted for a similar
dress in honor of the Queen's choice.[2]

The tradition continues today in the form of a white
wedding, though prior to the Victorian
era, a bride was married in any color except black
(the color of mourning) or red
(which was connected with prostitutes). However, in Finland during
the 19th century, it was popular for brides to wear dark colors, especially
black.[3]
Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity,
though this had not been the original intention. (It was the color blue
that was connected to purity.) The white gown is in fact a symbolic Christening
gown. The are a variation of the white surplice worn
in the Western Catholic tradition by members of the clergy, church choirs and
servers and the gowns worn by girls making their first
communion and at their confirmation and also by women making religious
vows. Today, the white dress is normally understood merely as the most traditional
and popular choice for weddings.