If you want a “green” wedding then the first thing to do is drop the white, use only once, wedding dress
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
If you want a truly “green” wedding then the first thing to do is drop the white, use only once, wedding dress. It is something that only came about not so long ago. Anything else “green” is more or less additional. The dress is the one things that is (1) expensive, often horrendously so, and (2) then only is designed to be worn once.
So, how came the white, wear once only, wedding dress come about.
Let's look a little at history, and in fact it had to do, originally, with frugality, would you believe it. So I guess it was maybe changed afterwards and worn for other occasions.
It was Queen Victoria who chose white for her wedding dress but not because it symbolized purity, but because she wanted to show her people that she would run the country in an economical way.
White was a much less expensive color to make than the colors typically popular for wedding dresses at the time (red, black, and purple). Plus, it gave her the option of using some lace that she already owned, rather than having something specially made. So basically, the white dress was originally a political move and one of frugality.
Before the white wedding dress was popularized in the 1800s among women of wealth, most brides just wore whatever dress was their best.
Wealthy ladies had gowns designed for one wearing, but merchant and commoner classes seldom had the money for such luxuries, so the bride simply wore the nicest thing she had, or had a new dress made that she intended to wear again, and it is that way, as far as I am concerned, that we should think again if we look at green weddings.
Today white or cream is the “normal” color for the wedding dress, claimed to represent purity, but not all cultures see that color at that. In some the color white, in fact, is the color associated with death and funerals; it was thus amongst the Romani People, the Gypsy, though even there now the white dress is used mostly.
When it comes to being green no one time wear only dress of the voluptuous wedding dress in white with train and veil and all that jazz makes any sense whatsoever.
Most of us men don't have a special suit made for that occasion and then would but wear it once, so why should there be this dress with its extravagance of material and made to be worn, to all intents and purposes, only once, and then put away, in most cases. Put away for what? This does not make sense and never will.
There is a lot of talk nowadays about “green” weddings and the designers use natural materials and recycled stuff and all that but no one ever, so it would appear, seems to advise the bride against the extravagance of the (white), wear on the day only, wedding dress.
I thought this must be changed and therefore I am doing just that, namely advising against the use of the (white), wear on the day only, wedding dress.
Look for a nice dress that you could and would wear again, and not just once afterwards, and one that can be combined with a variety of things to create a great outfit each and every time and that could, therefore, be lasting a long time. That is the way people used to do it, many years ago, before someone invented the current tradition and we must come to this again.
The is a war on, you know. A war against the ravaging of the environment and all that, and like in the two world wars when rationing made it a must that the wedding dress would later serve another purpose this must be thus again.
Only with a non-disposable wedding dress can a wedding be truly green.
© 2010
