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Wedding Attire & Fashion


Suited for the Occasion-What Colors Symbolize for Your Wedding

Wearing a virginal white wedding dress is steeped in tradition, representing purity and innocence. However, today times are changing and the old tradition doesn’t hold as much importance. More and more brides are adding color to their dress to express their personality or accompany a theme. If you want to express yourself with color at your wedding, there are plenty of options to choose from. More than ever, colored bridal gowns are becoming popular, especially for seasonal or themed weddings.

Maybe the idea of color intrigues you, but you don’t have a favorite that would make the choice obvious. It might interest you to know that there are symbolic meanings associated with different colors. Knowing those meaning might help to make the decision for a colored wedding dress clearer. Here are some historical associations of psychological significance for common color choices:

Red

Red is for the bride who wants to be noticed. When roses are red they represent love, desire, excitement, heat, and warmth. Red is also associated with danger, anger, strength, daring, and bravery.

Yellow

Yellow might be perfect for a summer wedding, as its symbolic associations include the sun, energy, optimism, and enthusiasm. It pulls the eye, such as with highlighted text or safety clothing and equipment. Unfortunately, yellow is also a symbol for cowardliness.

Orange

Vibrant orange combines the associations of red and yellow. It is also associated with the sun, cheerfulness, heat and warmth. It doesn’t have all the intensity of red, as it is calmed by the energy of yellow.

Brown

Earthy brown symbolizes the fall season and nature. It is comforting, relaxing, solid, reliable, and honest.

Black

Black can be slimming and elegant, but is well known to be a color or mourning. There is no getting around its association with death, depression, and negativity.

Gray

Gray is conservative and traditional. It triggers associations with seriousness and intelligence. It can be dull and boring, but when brightened up with accessories of another color it can be quite striking.

Green

Green also has strong associations with nature, as with environmentalism and the spring season. Feelings brought on by green include relaxation, calmness, harmony, honesty, and freshness.

Purple

Purple is traditionally tied to royalty, and therefore symbolizes luxury, nobility, prosperity, elegance, and sophistication.

Blue

True blue is the color of honor, trust, loyalty, dependability, and stability. Associations with nature generally revolve around winter and cold weather. Considered a cold color, it can unfortunately be linked to boredom and depression.

Though all of these meanings are interesting, there are plenty of other reasons to choose a color. You might just choose a color because it looks great on you. However, if you want to choose a color because it means something to you but it isn’t the most flattering for your personal coloring, remember that different skin tones are suited to different shades. Just about every color has multiple options in shades and variations.

When choosing a colored wedding gown, follow your heart. It’s your day, and if you choose a color for any reason that is important to you, it will be well suited both for you and for the occasion.

Purple

Purple was traditionally the color of royalty. It has meanings of nobility, prosperity, luxury, elegance, sophistication, mystery and magic.

Black

Black was another expensive dye in the past and so like purple, it is associated with elegance and sophistication. Worn well it can be very slimming. On the other hand it is worn for mourning in the western world and therefore it is linked psychologically with death, negativity and depression. It is also the color of the illegal activities of the ‘black market’, linked with dishonesty and unfaithfulness.

Gray

Conservative and traditional, gray is associated with intelligence and seriousness, but it is likely to be seen as dull and boring unless you brighten it up with striking accessories in another color.

White

White of course symbolizes purity, innocence, simplicity and virginity and is the traditional color for a bride’s dress, at least at her first wedding. In the past it was often felt unsuitable for a widow to wear a white wedding gown and she would more often be remarried in a shade such as ivory or cream.

So those are the main meanings of the different colors of the spectrum. But what if you would like to wear a certain color because of its meaning, but you do not think you look well in that color? Just remember that there are many shades of most of these colors. For example, if you think that pink does not suit you, you should look at fuchsia or rose pink. These suit different skin tones than pale or pastel pink.

So that is how to find a color that suits both you and the occasion, when you are selecting colored wedding dresses.