04/14/2024
A little wedding dress history
Queen Victoria is credited with spreading the tradition of brides wearing white dresses to their weddings? In the wake of her union with Prince Albert in 1840, the venerable monarch inadvertently sparked a revolution in bridal fashion, elevating the humble white dress to the pinnacle of matrimonial symbolism.
Context: The tradition of wearing white at weddings didn't start until Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert in 1840. She chose the simple dress she wore for a few different reasons, one of which was a way to help the lace industry, and the lace would be best emphasized in white. The dress was also simpler than many other monarch's before her because she didn't want the heaviness that came with a monarch, but instead wanted to make sure Albert was marrying the woman he loved not a woman just out for power. The tradition did take a while to completely catch on as white was far more difficult to maintain, but because of that a white dress also displayed power and elegance like the royal family.
Though photographs were not taken of the —it would be about a decade before photography techniques were developed enough for such occasions—Victoria’s choice of a white wedding made world news courtesy of newspaper reports, paintings of the ceremony, and souvenir artwork. Fourteen years later, and Prince Albert reportedly staged a wedding re-enactment for a .