What is The Meaning of a Red Wedding Dress?

Some of the red color connotations don’t align with marriage well: it’s the color of aggression, danger, and dominance.

However, it’s a matter of perception: red is a lucky color attracting wealth and happiness in many cultures.

If you love to break the rules and are confident enough to wear red for your wedding, no one has the power to stop you. After all, it’s also the color of love, life, femininity, and courage.

Furthermore, red comes in various shades, so every woman can find a hue that suits her complexion and personality. The most popular red wedding dress shades are Bordeaux, coral, flaming red, and crimson.

Love & Passion

Red has long been associated with love and passion in the Western world. Unlike the traditional wedding dress color white, which represents innocence, red is a seductive color related to mature love.

It’s a very emotional and, at times, dramatic color that corresponds with the right part of our brain responsible for irrational thinking. Red is more than romantic love; it’s the color of passionate and mad love.

If you think about it, many images we traditionally associate with the expression of romantic feelings and seduction are red: roses, Valentine’s Day candy boxes, and red lipstick.

A red rose with thorns represents both the struggles and pain and the happy moments of a romantic relationship.

A red wedding dress symbolizes that you are ready to risk being heartbroken to experience genuine happiness.

Numerous studies have shown that men find women wearing red more attractive and are even ready to spend more on a date with a woman in red.

A bride wearing a flaming red wedding dress is likely a loving and passionate person regarding her S.O. and her hobbies.

It isn’t a color for modest and naïve girls but rather for women who aren’t afraid to show their feelings.

Energy & Life

Blood is among the most popular red color associations. While it’s often linked with aggression and sorrow, this connotation isn’t necessarily negative – blood is what keeps us alive, so red is the color of life.

Red is an energetic, enthusiastic, and exciting hue that represents the desire to grow, learn, and feel – in other words, to live to the fullest.

Passion stimulates desire, and it isn’t always sexual. It can also refer to the desire for deep emotions and new experiences. Red is the color of fire, linked with emotional warmth and vitality.

A bright red wedding dress is perfect for a joyful, emotional, and energetic woman.

It’s a color of those who know that life isn’t endless and prefer to spend their time on what they genuinely love. In a sense, red is a hedonistic hue.

Courage & Confidence

Red wedding dresses were created for the most confident brides who don’t mind all eyes being drawn to them. Red takes audiences by storm – it’s a dominant and daring hue for real leaders.

Many studies found that red clothes bolster self-confidence. However, too much red can be intimidating and irritating as this hue is also associated with aggression.

You should be a courageous and strong-willed person to pull off a red wedding dress.

If red is your favorite color, you’re likely an ambitious, extroverted person and a risk-taker.

Well, wearing red for your wedding indeed is a risk, but it’s worth it if you want everyone to remember your attire for years to come.

In Hinduism, the color red relates to the root chakra located at the base of the spine. It’s believed to connect us with the universe and give us confidence and courage to handle all hardships of life.

Strength & Authority

Red is a color of warriors and athletes. It’s a striking, bold, and captivating hue that can justifiably be considered the most dominants of all colors.

Interestingly, about 30% of the world’s 100 leading companies have red color in their logo.

Despite all the positive connotations, red also stands for danger and desire for power by any means. For this reason, people often think that red isn’t the best color for a wedding dress, but it’s a matter of perception.

Historians suggest that Vikings and pagans wore red for their wedding as a sign of strength. However, the color was traditionally used in men’s attires rather than women’s.

A red wedding dress symbolizes the bride’s fearlessness and inner strength. If red is your favorite color, you are likely determined, have great self-control, and always reach your goals.

Action

Red color can push people to act, and this phenomenon has a scientific explanation. Ohio State University study found that we perceive red color areas as located in the foreground, so they always draw our attention first.

For this reason, designers often use red color for call-to-action buttons, such as “buy now.” Red also stimulates appetite and temporarily raises blood pressure. It triggers alertness and forces us to act quickly.

A red wedding dress represents that you don’t hesitate to make difficult decisions. You may sometimes act before you think it thoroughly and be impulsive, but that’s not necessarily a bad trait.

People who aren’t afraid to act more often become successful in life and can solve any situation. And if your S.O. is more of a rational and calm person, your relationship is in perfect harmony.

Wealth & Influence

King mantles, high priest robes, and carpets on movie festivals are traditionally red, closely linking this color with influence. In Eastern cultures, this hue is worn to attract wealth and prosperity.

Unlike purple fabric dye that required collecting thousands of marine snails and thus was extremely rare and expensive, red fabric dye was relatively easy to make in ancient times.

It was one of the first dyes people started producing during the neolithic period.

Our associations of red with wealth and influence stem from cultural rather than practical connotations. In ancient Egypt, red was the color of life and victory, mainly worn by pharaohs and other people of power.

Maya used red dye in the burials of royalty, and ancient Greeks used red for murals in temples and palaces. Romans associated red with war and power, so Roman soldiers and emperors wore red tunics.

Good Fortune

In China, the red color relates to a fascinating legend. The emperor once placed a bounty on his worst enemy and offered the brave warrior who would defeat him to marry his daughter as a reward.

Panhu, a part dragon and part dog, delivered the enemy’s head to the emperor and was blessed to marry the princess.

On their wedding day, the princess wore a bright red gown made from feathers of a mythical bird phoenix to attract good luck and happiness, and they lived happily ever after.

Chinese brides wear red wedding dresses to this day, and this story is one of the main reasons for the tradition.

Femininity

Since childhood, we associate blue with boys and pink with girls, even though it wasn’t always like that historically.

Pink contains red and white and shares the connotations of both colors, so red is a “grown-up” pink associated with mature women.

Brides wearing red embrace their femininity – they are elegant, sensitive, emotional, and empathetic. Such a woman is the keeper of the hearth and always stands by her husband’s side, supporting him emotionally.

Differences Between Shades of Red

Red is one of the primary colors, along with yellow and blue. For this reason, the clean red color meaning has little ambiguity.

However, different shades of red have different contents of black, white, yellow, and blue that can change the color symbolism.

Light, pastel red colors, such as coral and salmon, have a high content of white and are often identified as pink. They are less fierce and aggressive than pure red and represent romantic love, empathy, sensitiveness, and joy.

A coral wedding dress is an ideal choice for feminine, emotional, and compassionate women who are confident but not dominant. Flaming red with high content of yellow represents courage, optimism, vitality, energy, and passion.

Dark red shades share the meanings of black color, symbolizing wisdom, devotion until death, elegance, wealth, and sophistication.

Carmine, rosewood, garnet, or burgundy wedding dress is an impeccably chic choice for brides who know their worth.

Red Wedding Dresses in Other Cultures

Red gowns are one of the least popular white wedding dress alternatives among Western brides due to some negative connotations of this color.

Meanwhile, red has different meanings in other cultures, and red wedding dresses are traditional in many Eastern regions.

Chinese brides believe that red wedding dresses attract good fortune and prosperity. Indian traditional wedding attires, lehenga, are usually red to represent love and success, honoring the Goddess of femininity, Durga.

By wearing a red lehenga, Indian women attract integrity, loyalty, strength, and forgiveness into their family life. Modern Wiccans and other pagans often wear red as a sign of vitality, passion, and courage.