Wedding Dress

You may opt for a traditional white dress or you may find ivory, cream oyster or a pastel shade more becoming. Strong colours are also becoming very popular for the wedding dress, as are patterned dresses. The old saying goes:

Marry in white, you’ve chosen all right;

Married in blue, you love will stay true;

Married in pearl, you will live in a whirl;

Married in red you will wish yourself dead;

Married in yellow, ashamed of your fellow;

Married in green, ashamed to be seen

Married in pink, of you he will think;

Married in brown, you’ll stay out of town;

Married in grey, you will go far away;

Married in black, you’ll wish yourself back.

It has always thought to be unlucky for the bride to make her own wedding dress.

Tradition has it that the bride should not try on her complete wedding out-fit before the day and that she should not finish dressing until the last minute. Some brides even leave a final stitch on the dress to do just before the bride leaves for the ceremony.

The groom should not see her in her wedding dress before the day, the first time he sees her in the dress should be when the bride walks down the aisle.

Superstition has it that bad luck will fall if these rules are not followed.

Good luck is thought to come to the bride who finds a spider in her dress as she prepares for her wedding, but bad luck will come to the bride who breaks anything on the day, especially a mirror.

When the bride leaves the house to go to the church/ceremony a last look in the mirror is thought to bring good luck, but returning to the mirror once she has begun her journey is thought to result in bad luck.

After the wedding ceremony a bride should it is thought to be bad luck if the bride does not throw away every pin from her veil and dress when she changes out of it.

Something old, something new

Something borrowed, something blue

And a silver sixpence in your shoe

This rhyme is thought to originate from Victorian times, although some of the customs it refers to are thought to be much older.

Something old – traditionally this was a garter worn by a happily married woman passed to the bride who would thus pass on the happiness of her marriage to the new bride and it is for this reason that garters were worn often incorporated as being blue for something blue. Something old is also thought to symbolise the couples friends who will remain close to them helping them through their marriage with the something new symbolising a happy and prosperous future.

Something borrowed – this is often an item of great sentiment kept within the family such as a cross and chain or locket – the bride must be careful to return the item promptly to maintain the good luck.

The custom of wearing something blue is said to originate in ancient Israel when a bride wore a blue ribbon in her hair to shoe her fidelity.

Many dressmakers sew a blue item into the dress to cover these ideas and some even weave a strand of the groom hair into the dress for good luck.