CNN’s front page story today took a pointed angle on the Bridal Market’s showing of wedding gowns in color — pretty pastels, bold brights — and started up the ol’ firestorm about whether or not today’s bride should wear a white gown.
My book Your Wedding, Your Way — which provides tips on how to twist traditions to suit your tastes and your love story — talks about the bride’s freedom to choose a gown in color if she wishes to. And she has freedom to wear a white gown if she wishes to, even for a second or third wedding.
So why does this firestorm always happen? Today’s CNN story shows it: a source in the story said (and I’m paraphrasing) that ‘nobody wears a white gown anymore. It’s kind of a faux pas.’ Really? That’s quite a statement, and is so far from the truth — just look at the thousands of white gowns shown by the industry’s top wedding gown designers. Are they all a faux pas? Nope.
I have to wonder when I see these articles — what is the writer trying to do? Why would a source who’s a wedding coordinator say that ‘brides are bullied into wearing white?’ And why would the many comments that are posted under articles like these be so bloodthirsty?
It’s a simple thing, people. If a bride wants to wear white, tries on white, loves it, and wants it, it’s not a faux pas. If she wants to wear color, she can wear color. If she wants to wear two gowns on her wedding day, she can.
There are a lot of sources of wedding planning information out there, and today’s brides stand in the middle of it, getting bombarded by articles like these. It adds such a swirl of drama to what should be a carefree, blissful process –a bride shouldn’t have to worry when she’s going for her dress shopping trip that she ‘can’t’ wear white for any reason.
Can’t we just let brides enjoy themselves without having to worry about ‘faux pas?’
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