Irish Wedding Dresses

Wedding Dresses and Their Traditions

There are many different traditions associated with wedding dresses but some of the most common and oldest ones are those to do with the actual colour of the wedding dresses.

You may not be aware but special wedding dresses were not actually worn until Victorian times. Up until this point, the wedding dresses were simply the best outfit that the bride owned.

It was Queen Victoria who launched the tradition of white wedding dresses. She decided that she preferred white to the traditional silver wedding dresses that previous royals had worn.

Of course white wedding dresses symbolise purity and virginity but many modern brides prefer to wear other colored wedding dresses.

There is an old rhyme that provides guidance to brides-to-be and is meant to help them decide on the most appropriate colors for wedding dresses:

Married in White, you have chosen right,
Married in Grey, you will go far away,
Married in Black, you will wish yourself back,
Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
Married in Blue, you will always be true,
Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
Married in Brown, you will live in the town,
Married in Pink, you spirit will sink.

The origins of this guide for wedding dresses are unclear but one of the funniest is associated with avoiding green wedding dresses.

Green is meant to be an unlucky colour and should be avoided when it comes to wedding dresses however it has deeper implications. Green wedding dresses are linked to grass stains and imply that the wearer has loose morals!