Not all is  white

It’s July and the wedding month has just passed. June as the wedding month comes to us from the ancient Roman proverb: “Prosperity to the man and happiness to the maid when married in June.” The month of June is also name after Juno, the Queen of the gods and the goddess of women who is also the protector of married life. By this time you must have attended several wedding ceremonies. Me? I am always fascinated by bridal traditions.

In the Elizabethan era, both men and women decorated their bridal finery with gaily-colored ribbons called favours, predominantly silver and gold if the wedding was royal, or white and “something blue” for everyone else. The earliest northern civilizations’ primitive men and women, when marrying, were bound together with ropes around their waists — literally, “tying the knot.”

However, hard times inspire escape through fantasy, and Hollywood was quick to supply movies that seared their influence into the national consciousness as brides imitated screen stars, wearing long, flouncy “tea dresses” and large garden-party hats. But according to Arlene Hamilton Stewart’s Brides’ Book of Wedding Traditions, which I bought to prepare for Mikee’s wedding, a bride can be fairly selective about the color of her wedding gown. Traditionally, white was seen as the most luxurious color choice, being the color of innocence, and no bride can go wrong wearing it. Gray was also seen in many “traveling outfits” or more formal suits used for visiting, shopping or attending church.

Black, a color associated with mourning, was worn only for special circumstances. However, in Spain, it is an old-fashioned tradition for Roman Catholic brides to wear fancy, lacy, black gowns.

Red was thought to proclaim a person of easy virtue. But to the Chinese and Hindus, it is especially welcome at weddings as the color promises good tidings. Early American brides wore red as a patriotic gesture during the Revolutionary Period. With the Civil War, many brides selected purple wedding dresses to honor the war dead, purple representing virtue and valour, exemplified by the award of the Purple Heart.

Blue gowns traditionally embodied notions of purity, love and fidelity. Historically, isn’t this color of the heavens ascribed to the robe of the Virgin Mary? Ancient Hebrew brides married in white gowns trimmed with bands of blue. Mary Queen of Scots was enrobed in a dark blue velvet gown decorated with jewels and white embroidery. Wallis Simpson wore a plate blue gown designed by Main Docher for her 1937 marriage to the Duke of Windsor.

Yellow is rarely seen as a bridal color, despite its being another hue associated with the Greek God of marriage and fertility, Hymen. Yellow is seen as promoting white-hot passion.

And green? Nearly everyone agrees it is the worst wedding gown color — except in Norway. Green, being the color of nature, isn’t a “bad” color, but very hard to wear; even Kermit the Frog laments, “it’s not easy being green.”

One deviation from the Vatican obsession with an all-white wedding occurred late in the 1800s. The Victorians developed new colors created from new aniline or synthetic dyes — sharp browns, russets, crimsons, blues — and worked them into fashionable wedding wardrobes. White in all its variations — ivory, ecru, champagne cream — are wonderful at any wedding.

Do colors matter? Brides are entitled to wear whatever makes them happy. The wedding is a joyful affair and it seems right for the bride to be seen as light-as-air with a soft veil caressing her face and shoulders — the veil with its wild, romantic past.

Grecian brides made an offering of their veils to Hera. Vestal virgins wore veils as a symbol of devotion to the gods.

The veil tradition might have originated in the days when bridal parties set out on foot or horseback to a wedding; the bridal caravan would advance under a large canopy. For Anglo-Saxon weddings, the man sheltered the bride under a cloth or “veil” that symbolized the bride’s status as part of her father’s house, under his control. When the ceremony was completed, the veil was lifted and the bride emerged. This was the genesis of two traditions: the bride walking toward the altar with her face covered, and lifting her veil after taking her vows. So utterly romantic, mysterious and pure!