Wedding Dress Symbolism and Superstition
Most brides choose to wear a white wedding dress as a symbol of innocence, purity and traditionally of virginity. But this was not always the case. Before the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg in1840, the bride's preference was usually a silver coloured dress. Queen Victoria started the new trend of a pure white dress which continues to the present day in many European countries, the USA and many other countries.
It is true however that every culture interprets the wedding dress colour with a particular meaning. In Western cultures, it is white which is considered to be the colour to symbolize purity, whereas in Islamic countries it is black. In Japan, the predominant colour is red.
It is thought to be bad luck if the bride makes her own dress, or if the groom sees her in her wedding dress before arriving at the ceremony. According to superstition it is also a bad omen to wear a used or borrowed dress.
The bride should not wear the fully-completed dress before the wedding day. Some leave a final adjustment to the dress uncompleted until the last moment to allow for this.
