A white dress, gold bands, lace veil, and white frosted cake are all elements you might see at an American wedding, but this "standard" is not an American tradition. One hundred and sixty years ago, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert wearing a white satin gown, abandoning the velvet robes of her ancestors. Elizabeth Pleck, an LAS professor of history, says that this famous British wedding started the trend of the "white wedding" in the United States.
Before Victoria's graceful walk down the aisle, what kind of wedding you had depended on social status and where you lived. People declared themselves as married after a civil service, a small ceremony in the home, or sometimes, after jumping over a broomstick. But when the white wedding arrived in America hailed by all the etiquette books as the "proper" wedding, every bride wanted a religious ceremony and a white gown. The white wedding was a way to show off wealth and decorum. For immigrant families, it was a sign of successful assimilation.
The white wedding embodied Victorian values such as the sanctity of marriage, the bride's innocence, and most importantly, romantic love. The bride became the star of the occasion and the union was transformed from an economic partnership to a romantic fairytale. The dowry became passeé and the responsibility of gifts fell to the guests. The white wedding inspired other traditions like the diamond ring, the wedding march, and the honeymoon. As the wedding tradition evolved so did the reception. Fairy princesses didn't want their parties at their parents' house, so halls were rented and guest lists grew.
Greater extravagance meant greater expense and early in the twentieth century commercialism crept into the fairytale. Wedding gown manufacturers appeared so the bride's family didn't have to sew their own. Bridal magazines emerged and got thicker with each passing decade. In the 1940s, jewelers began pushing the engagement ring with the slogan: "A diamond is forever." Couples eager for the glamour of the white wedding were quite willing to take out loans for the occasion. The average cost of a wedding today is $22,000.
