Choosing an Alternative Wedding Dress

What Is an Alternative Wedding Dress?

If you're planning an ethical wedding or any sort of alternative wedding, then you're probably thinking about alternative wedding dresses. For some, this may mean having a fair trade dress that was made without harming the environment, while for others this may mean foregoing the dress altogether and opting for some sexy cutoffs or a tuxedo. As always, it all depends on how the married couple to-be defines their ethics.

The Symbolic Value of the Wedding Dress

 

For me, choosing an alternative wedding dress meant thinking about the symbolic value of the dress itself, so I did some research to learn about the history of the wedding dress. I found that the white wedding dress is a fairly recent phenomenon.

It began with Queen Victoria, who wore a white wedding dress at her 1840 wedding. During this time, photography was fairly new, so not many people had seen photographs of royalty before. At the same time, newspapers were coming into their own. When Queen Victoria's wedding picture was published in a newspaper, it was one of the first wedding photographs to reach an enormous number of people. Couple this with nineteenth century reverence for the monarchy and the growth of mass production of affordable textiles and voila, the white wedding dress was a hit. Today, those of us in the West (and now as a result of colonialism and globalization many of us around the world) are still wearing the white wedding dress.

Though this was an interesting history, I did not find it a particularly meaningful one. I couldn't think of any real connection between my idea of an ethical wedding and wearing the same kind of dress that Queen Victoria wore. Queen Victoria herself only wore white so that she could wear a particular kind of lace! In short, I realized that there was no particular reason for me to wear white other than to do what everyone else seemed to do.

Opting for the Red Wedding Dress

 

I value authenticity and originality. I value tradition as well, but only when those traditions are embedded in greater ideals that I agree with. Being like the queen is not something I particularly value. Being virginal or pure—ideas that white supposedly signifies—is also not particularly important to me, and I actually feel quite stifled by the idea of a young lady's “purity.” As a result, I realized that there was no reason that I should be limited to a white dress.

Ultimately I chose a burgundy wedding dress that I purchased from a local business. I chose it because I loved the color, because it allowed me to support local business, because it was fairly affordable, and because it allowed me to express myself. I felt that wearing a white wedding dress would mean letting others define me, and that was the last thing I was going to let happen on my wedding day.

What Does an Alternative Wedding Dress Mean for Me?

 

In the end, there are an unlimited number of ways to define “alternative wedding dress.” Many of my loved ones were married in white, and I am more than happy that they did so. There are indeed a number of reasons for going with that strapless ivory number. Maybe you want to wear white because you want to wear the same color your mother did on her wedding day. Maybe for you white signifies rebirth. Maybe white has special religious connotations for you. Or maybe you think that aqua is gorgeous, and you can't imagine getting married in anything else!

Regardless, the point is that you get to decide. Neither tradition nor other people can decide for you. You define your ethics, and your ethics will help you decide what sort of symbolic value your dress will have.

But symbolic value is not the only characteristic that you may be considering when choosing an alternative wedding dress. Things like cost, material, vendor, impact on the environment, and re-sale will also probably factor into your decision. Look forward to some more posts on these aspects of choosing an ethical wedding dress soon! And if you have any ideas about alternative wedding dresses, I would love to hear them!