What is The Meaning of a White Wedding Dress?

The truth is, the white wedding dress color didn’t always represent virginity and purity. Back in the day, it served as a status symbol and wasn’t traditional for bridal attires.

The modern connection of white wedding gowns with innocence, modesty, and hope was only revived in the 20th century.

Although the tradition is relatively recent, the meaning of white color perfectly aligns with such a joyful event as a wedding. It’s a color of peace, love, light, and new beginnings.

Purity & Innocence

Brides in the Western world traditionally wear white wedding dresses to symbolize purity and innocence. When the white wedding dress tradition started in Rome, the white color represented the bride’s virginity.

Today, the connection between white color and virginity isn’t as strong, though some mature brides still are hesitant to wear white for this reason. However, that’s a matter of personal perception and cultural beliefs.

For instance, in India, only widows are allowed to wear white gowns for their second wedding as it’s the color of mourning. Thankfully, in the U.S., white never had such negative connotations.

White became the symbol of purity and innocence for multiple reasons. In Christianity, a white lamb symbolizes Christ’s sacrifice, and lambs are quiet animals associated with innocence and tenderness.

In Ancient Egypt and Rome, priests wore white robes to represent purity and divinity.

Even in chemistry, the lighter the color of a substance, the purer it is – a darker color usually indicates the substance is a mixture of different elements.

Pure white color doesn’t have any other shades mixed in, unlike ivory which has a hint of yellow or stark white which has a subtle hint of blue.

A white wedding dress represents much more than the bride’s virginity. It symbolizes her pure thoughts and intentions, sincerity, and honesty. A white gown means the bride has nothing to hide.

Some may even say white is overly bland. Indeed, white lacks any intrigue, but that’s the very reason this color is a perfect representation of an honest and faithful relationship.

Light & Divinity

Pure white is a brilliant, luminescent color. Too much white can be blinding, but this color is calming and refreshing in moderate amounts.

It helps clear our minds and improve the thinking process, thus being associated with wisdom and light.

Liturgic color white meaning is joy, light, and glory. White represents Christ himself and therefore is the most divine color of all. Therefore, a white wedding gown is the best choice for a church wedding ceremony.

White is widely linked with religious figures and angels in the Western world – think white glow, white robes, and white wings.

The association of white with light also has an etymological explanation. The modern English word “white” originates from Old English “hwīt,” which, in turn, has roots in Proto-Indo-European “kwid,” meaning “light.”

Modern Icelandic, French, and Italian words for white also stem from ancient words for “light,” “bright,” or “blinding.” Objects of white color reflect light, often appearing even brighter than they are.

Perfection & Cleanliness

White is the cleanest color. Historically, only wealthy women wore white wedding dresses, as keeping the light fabric clean was a challenging task. Dirt is instantly visible on white fabric, so a white gown must be impeccably clean.

White doesn’t hide any flaws, so people associate this color with perfection. It’s a color of fresh snow that hasn’t yet been touched by man’s foot, freshly laundered bedsheets, sterile hospitals and laboratories, and clean paper.

Due to its cleanliness, white promotes mental clarity and renewal. It encourages people to purify their thoughts and clear emotional clutter. It’s the simplest yet the most demanding to detail color.

White serves as a perfect backdrop and goes well with any spectrum color. It helps to visually declutter design and interior, giving us a heightened space perception.

A white wedding dress is ideal for a perfectionist bride who strives for excellence in every aspect of her life.

If you’re always on time, used to be the best student in class, and clean your apartment daily, white is undoubtedly your color.

New Beginnings

White is the color of new beginnings due to its cleanliness and purity. Imagine a white sheet of paper – you can paint it any color, draw or write anything you want, or tear it apart.

Metaphorically, this sheet of paper is the life of each of us. We’re free to turn the page and start a new chapter at any moment, and a white wedding dress represents the readiness to step into a new life.

Since white is a reflective color that enhances illumination, it can help those lost find their path in life. In a way, white serves as a guide to successful beginnings.

On the same note, white is used in New Year’s celebrations in many cultures to mark the completion of a cycle and the beginning of a new year.

Peace & Safety

White has strong connotations with peace and safety. We perceive a house with a white fence as a safe haven, and a white flag is the worldwide symbol of peace.

White doves signify love, purity, and peace – for this reason, white doves are often depicted on wedding decorations.

These associations stem from ancient Mesopotamia, where a white dove was the symbol of the goddess of love and peace, Inanna.

Later, a white dove with an olive branch signifying peace appeared in the Christian Bible.

In early Christian art, doves represented peace of the soul rather than the lack of war. Nowadays, you can often see the white dove symbol on political banners promoting peace.

A white wedding gown is a right choice for pacifists who strive to avoid conflict by any means, those who hope for peace in the whole world and love every living thing.

Modesty

White is a color of innocence, elegance, tenderness, and modesty – think white lambs or white blossoms. Unlike red or yellow, white doesn’t seek attention – it’s a perfect neutral background that doesn’t impose anything.

White is a traditional wedding dress color that doesn’t require you to be exceedingly confident or extraverted.

Brides wearing white appreciate eternal values and don’t seek public recognition. They care about their family and are down-to-earth.

Hope

White is an uplifting color that brings mental clarity and improves mood. People always hope for peace, another chance, or luck, and white is the perfect color to convey it.

A white wedding dress represents the bride’s hope for a happy married life, prosperity, health, and eternal love. It’s a universal color of hope and faith that reminds those who lose spirit about the possibility of new beginnings.

Open-Mindedness

White is a pure color that doesn’t stimulate our senses like bright shades.

This color doesn’t condemn people – instead, it encourages us to reflect on our beliefs and grow. It urges self-exploration and improves connection with the outer world.

White is the color of patience and open-mindedness. People preferring white are usually unprejudiced and empathetic. They accept any opinion and always strive to understand the reasoning of others.

Sometimes, white can come off as dull, lacking interest and opinion. However, it’s merely a shade of quiet observation, lack of criticism, and modesty.

The White Wedding Dress Tradition

You may have envisioned yourself walking down the aisle in a brilliant white wedding gown since childhood. But do you know where did the white wedding dress tradition come from?

Interestingly, the association of white gowns with purity is relatively new for the western world.

Roman brides started wearing white wedding gowns as a symbol of purity first, but the custom was forgotten for over a dozen centuries after the fall of Rome.

In medieval times, marriage was merely a political union than a sign of love. The wedding dress was supposed to show the bride’s social status rather than her innocence, so women wore their best gowns in any color.

Indigo, deep greens, purple, and deep red were the hardest to produce and thus the most expensive colors favored by the nobility. White wedding gowns were very rare – firstly, they were highly unpractical.

Secondly, white was the color of mourning in some Western countries, including France and England.

However, the public perception of white color started to change when Queen Philippa of England wore a white dress for her wedding in 1406.

Until the 19th century, white wedding dresses symbolized the bride’s high social status. After Queen Victoria chose a white dress for her wedding in 1840, the trend took off.

Numerous newspapers across Europe and the U.S. published Victoria’s gown, urging ordinary women to dress like the queen.

The first newspaper to link white wedding gown color with purity was an American women’s magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Over time, the association of white with purity grew stronger. The Industrial Revolution sped up white fabric production and made white wedding gowns affordable to every woman, thus erasing the connection of this color with wealth.