Red Wedding Gowns Impure?
July 3, 2008 by Kori Ellis
Filed under Wedding
Earlier this week, I posted about the Justin Alexander red wedding gown. A reader named Gray commented that the dress would be “fine for someone who isn’t ‘pure’ which is what the white dress stands for, virginity.”
In this day and age, should virgin brides be the only ones wearing white? Or another question … Is it okay for a virgin to wear a non-white wedding dress?
I don’t think that traditions should dictate what you wear at your wedding, but I’m sure many people may disagree. The style, shape, fabrics and designs of wedding dresses change all the time. So why not color?
Is a red wedding dress (or blue or another color other than white) frowned upon? Chime in with your comments and let us know.
Check out more red bridal gowns:
This gorgeous red bridal gown from Bonny Bridal’s Essence Collection (Style #8611) features a strapless bodice with beautiful rhinestones and beading, along with a full ruched skirt. I love the train on this dress!
And here’s another red wedding gown that I really love. It’s available in sizes 2-24 for $699 at OnlyGowns.com. In addition to the red and white version pictured, it also comes in all white, red and gold, and ivory and gold.
Photo credit: Bonny Bridal and OnlyGowns.com
Not ‘pure’?
How archaic.
My personal belief is that a bride should be able to wear whatever they want on their wedding day. How many women getting married are still virgins?! I don’t think it should matter if you’re a virgin or not when you marry. You’re getting married because you’ve found profound love with someone, whether that person was your first love or not.
Red wedding dresses are not “impure” at all – they are a statement for brides who want to stand out from the crowd. Just like the short wedding dress, white wedding suits, and other ways that women find to be different at their wedding.
Kudos to brides bold enough to wear a red wedding gown! I will stick with white, but I am planning on accenting my dress with bright-colored shoes and other accessories. And my dress will most likely be knee length, too.
While the purity concept is irrelevant, I have seen some wedding photos of very pretty women wearing red dresses in reality, and they have not come off well in the pictures. The dress photographs beautifully in a staged showroom, but a red dress in actual live photos seems to have aless than desired effect. The photos I’ve seen either featured washed out brided in comparison to the dress, or the bride looking a little tacky. I’m curious if anyone has gone to a wedding where the dress was red and how it looked in person. I have changed my mind about a red dress personally, purely based on the photos, and will be going with something that draws attention to me instead of my clothing.
Actually the white dress thing is not as old a tradition as people mistakenly think and it had nothing to do with purity or what not. It was purely a fashion trend that started with Queen Victoria when she wore white to her wedding and it just stuck and then morphed.
Prior to that brides trasitionally wore their best dress or had a nice dress made that they would wear throughout the first year of their marriage to special occasions. Red, even green in many cultures(including the U.S) is the traditional color to wear for a wedding.
This whole virgin bride purity is bs and has been perpetuated by yocals who need something to hang on to. It’s nothing more than a trend that stuck. Trust me if Lindsay Lohan got married in a red dress, suddenly every David’s Bridal would be selling those like hotcakes.
I’ll be wearing a red wedding dress for my wedding. I really don’t look all that great in white or ivory and I’ve always loved red. I think it’s really a matter of personal preference. Also, it’s wise to consider that people still seem very stuck on the traditional colors. I have already gotten rude comments from a few people about my choice. You have to be prepared to either defend that choice, or just laugh it off.
I think a bride should wear what makes her feel beautiful. I love red, as I said, and it’s also been associated with love for a very long time. It used to be that a bride wore bright colors to show her joy in the union. I prefer that idea to the “purity” supposedly represented by white. I’m not pure. He knows I’m not pure. White doesn’t speak to me, but red does.
I’ll be wearing a red dress too. What was the biggest complaint you received from those opposed to the idea??
I’m the same as you, white does nothing for me spiritually or physically (the way i look in it, if anything, white washes me out, red has always looked nice on). And it says a lot about the passion i feel and how i want to feel on the day i make the biggest commitment of my life! so i really hope no one is rude. I am…however…not telling the groom, just a few of the women, well, and my dad. I want it to be a surprise!!!
I would have to agree with all of you. The whole white dress for virginity is bs. I am pretty sure non of the brides I know that have worn white were virgins at their weddings. I am a firefighter as is my FH, and we are doing a firefighter theme wedding, so I will be wearing either a pure red dress or a red and white. I believe to each his own. Its your day do like you want.
Thank you all to everyone who commented on Red Wedding Dresses. I found the perfect RED dress for my wedding and I was so nervous about wearing. I was just nervous never said I would change my mind about wearing it. I know I’m going to get alot of rude comments and eye rolling at my wedding, but I honeslty don’t care. It’s flawless on me. It’s not tacky, tight or tastless. It’s beautiful, elegant and creates a very romantic atmosphere. My fiance and I are very classes people so this wedding dress fits our wedding perfectly.
It’s 2008 and I’m only 26 it’s time out for people to be stuck in tradition. Try something new and exciting on your BIG DAY. I AM!!!!
I like red… I think people are just old fashioned- most likely that generation will be dying out soon.
I wanted the perfect wedding gown in red. I found it, and my mother of all people (old catholic) told me..”sweetie, red denotes slutiness and harlot.. you’re not wearing red.” I was shocked. I’m still wearing red! I view it this way: it’s MY day to shine, if people can’t get over askewed propaganda from the 50’s..then don’t come to the wedding!
I think any bride should wear what ever color makes them feel beatiful!
White represents purity. If you are not pure then maybe you don’t feel so guilty about not wearing white. Save the pure color for the ones who actually committed themsevles to staying pure, and the rest may choose whatever color you want.
I plan to wear a red strapless satin ballgown for my wedding, and Noone is gonna know except for my mom and my bridesmaids. My family is so stuffed full of wedding traditions that it is hard to have a unique wedding. I will use my gown and my reception intro song (encore by eminem) to make my wedding something that will stand out from my sisters and my cousins weddings.
Actually, interestingly enough, blue represented purity long before white did. White became a tradition only fairly recently. Queen Victoria started a fad. She wore white as a show of wealth and station. White is wholly impractical, so wearing a dress that could only be worn once was a show, it had absolutely nothing to do with purity.
Wearing bright colors was the tradition for a very long time. Before Queen Victoria set her trend, women simply wore their best dress for their weddings. Bright colors symbolized their joy in the union. The history is really very interesting.
Every culture has their own traditions –
In France, white was the traditional color of mourning and in India, brides wear red.
Today’s bride should wear what she wants – but be fully aware that people will “talk” – if it’s not about the color of her dress – they’ll discuss how the mother of the groom should have worn a girdle and that the salmon was farm raised -
Wedding dresses shouldn’t always remain white, I mean look at other cultures, in Indian cultures the wedding dresses come in all colour of the rainbow, except for white, and the Chineses wear red wedding dresses. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re “pure” or not, it depends on the person wearing the dress, and what colour they feel it should be for their special day.
I worked in the bridal fashion industry for years, and have dressed hundreds of brides. The simple fact is many women do not look good in white or in ivory. Those are hard colours to wear, and often require extreme amounts of makeup for a bride to carry off which can look dated and artifical in photos. Rum pinks, dark creams, blue-hued whites, gowns with a touch of bold colour, even “non-traditionally” coloured gowns are far more suitable to a huge variety personalities and hair & skin colour types. Why be part of the boring herd on your big day? Be beautiful, be unforgettable, be yourself. Consider colour.
And don’t even get me started on the archaic, sick notion of virginity equalling purity, and those alleged “virtues” being something that actually have any relevance in the real world. IMO, both concepts of purity and viginity are highly over-rated.
It is refreshing to see more and more women opting for the “colour” option on their wedding days. It makes each wedding seem more individual and memorable than trotting out yet another forgettable, done-to-death white dress.
I think that a long white dress screams wedding dress. We’re so used to it from media and every wedding we go to, that its just instinctive. I remember two girls wearing white to my prom and everyone saying the dresses looked like wedding dresses! I wore a turquoise corset top with a white full skirt with turquoise beads for my wedding, not too dissimilar in style to the red dress here. With a turquoise skirt it look like a prom dress…
I wanted something with colour, but I still wanted to look and feel like a bride