Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: Cultural Differences in Appropriate Attire

So, a lot of people who I talk to about colorful wedding dresses here look at me like I have multiple heads.  Or some sort of weird disease.  Or I was dropped on the head as a small child.  Or I get the look of pity, and some snide remark about how my desire to not wear white on my wedding day is due to some deep-seeded remorse I feel for being less than "pure" on my wedding day, as I was raised Roman Catholic.

Well, I have only one head, on which I have not been dropped, no diseases, and no regret that I did not remain "pure", as it were.  But I live in America, where the archetypical wedding dress is in hues of bright white, ivory, champagne, and other boring white-ish tones.  I get that it's a socially accepted norm for things like weddings.  Sorta like we wear black for funerals.

But what about in other cultures?  In India, brides wear a myriad of bright, fun colors in their bridal saris.  In Japan and China, brides also tend to don a kimono in breathtaking shades of vibrant color. It seems only those of us who happen to live in the Western Civilization deem colorful bridal gowns "taboo".

I know I am not the only bride-to-be that feels this way!  All you have to do is check out the Rock'n'Roll Bride's blog to see several examples of American, British, and Australian brides wearing everything from purple to rainbow to black bridal dresses!

But I am more interested today in exploring the beautiful traditional colorful bridal gowns...


Tashu's Wedding Dress

Traditional Cambodian Wedding Dress

Wedding Traditional Japanese Dress

Traditional Japanese Weddings

Indian Beauty

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Together

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All the above images are from Flickr, and should link through to their original source (look at me, I'm fancy!).  Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

Does anyone else find the cultural taboos to be so intriguing?  And bizarre?  Any of you lovely readers wore or want to wear a bright frock for your wedding?  I'd love to know!


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7 comments:

  1. this is my first time to your blog and have to admit i love it. cant wait to read more =)

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  2. Kat Ann- thanks and welcome! If you want to see more of any particular thing, please let me know!!!

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  3. PS- Kat Ann, I can't see your profile (it's disabled for public views or something), and I would love to stop by your blog if you have one! Please let me know! Thanks!

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  4. I recently photographed a wedding where the bride wore a bright red dress and it was gorgeous!
    Also, if you didn't already know, the tradition of a white wedding dress originally had nothing to do with being pure... it used to be a common tradition to wear royal reds and purples, but a queen (forget which one =/ ) chose a simple white dress to show her people she understood the tough economical times and wasn't going to be extravagent when they couldn't. Of course her nobility made a trend and voila... nothing about purity. =]

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  5. Sara Bell- Wow! I had no idea! Thanks!

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  6. You're welcome! I found this link for you too. =]
    http://www.historyofquilts.com/wedding-dresses.html

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  7. Sara Bell- thanks! That was fascinating! I definitely appear to have been missing a bit of history in relation to wedding attire... :)

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