Wedding Traditions – Where Did They Begin?
For the next few months I will be talking about wedding traditions and where they originated from. Anyone reading our blog, who has attended an event, attended a wedding, decided on The Page House for your wedding or toured our venue, will already know; The Page House is a beautiful Queen Anne Victorian built in 1903. Our venue was part of the most romantic age in our history. I will expand on traditions relating to & beginning during the Victorian era mainly due to our association with that time period.
The Wedding Dress
I decided to start with the wedding dress primarily because we have and old vintage wedding dress hanging on the door in our bridesmaid’s suite. This dress is nothing extravagant, in fact it is actually quite plain. It is a dark olive green with ivory lace trim. Have you ever wondered when and where the extravagant “white” wedding dress became the “traditional” wedding dress of our time?
Ancient Greek & Roman brides wore simple white robes or white gowns as a sign of their joy or to pay tribute to a god. The main tradition carried over from this time period was the garland/flower wreath worn on the head. Royalty were typically the only people who went to extravagant means for a wedding from the 1400’s through most of the 1800’s. Most brides were married in their best dress or would purchase a new dress for the occasion that they could easily wear to other affairs after the wedding. The wedding dress could be any color or style deemed appropriate for the era in which the bride was in.
In 1840 the tradition of the extravagant white wedding dress began. Though the tradition had a few setbacks with the Civil War, WWI, the Great Depression & WWII, the ever so popular “Cinderella Wedding” never died in the hearts and minds of excited brides. So how did this tradition begin? It began with the royal wedding of Queen Victoria. Though her birthright was the throne, Queen Victoria was not bless with beauty or the feminine qualities men of that era so desired. Yet she found the love of her life, Prince Albert, and it showed in every aspect of her wedding. She decided against the traditional royal silver wedding dress and wore a dress of rich pure white satin, trimmed with orange flower blossoms. The lace which formed the flounce of the dress was Honiton lace; it measured four yards, and was three quarters of a yard wide. The pattern was a rich and exquisitely tasteful design, designed especially for Queen Victoria’s wedding dress. The headdress was a wreath of orange flower blossoms, and over this a beautiful veil of Honiton lace, worn down her back. Her slippers were white as well. The bridesmaids or train-bearers, as they were called back then, were also dressed in white. Prince Albert did not wear the royal finery that was tradition at the time. Instead he wore a field marshal’s uniform, with large rosettes of white satin near his shoulders. In doing this, his bride stood out as the most important person in the chapel and gave to Queen Victoria her “hour of beauty”. This touched the hearts of women everywhere regardless of their status in society and so began the tradition of the white wedding dress and the bride “a queen for a day”. The styles of the white wedding dress have changed throughout the years, but the concept has stayed the same. I grew up believing the white wedding dress was brought about by the church as a sign of purity. The church in fact adapted to a growing trend and gave it a meaning. Queen Victoria & Prince Albert broke from tradition and started a tradition we still follow today.
This is a picture of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
In case you were wondering; I have determined the wedding dress we have in our bridesmaid’s suite is a product of WWII when women had to revert back to wearing wedding dresses they could incorporate into their wardrobe due to economic instability. It was also around this time when handing down a formal wedding dress from another family member became tradition.
See you next week!
Shera
