Wedding Symbolism: Bare Shouldered Brides

Perhaps their seamstress is skimping on material.

I think it's a stylish trend Noddy. Bare shoulders don't represent anything other than the bride's preference.

I'm old enough to remember a time when a white wedding dress meant the bride might possibly actually be a virgin...LOL

Do true virgin brides really exist anymore I wonder.

I think it's sexy, on the right woman, as more formal dresses are also sexy, on the right woman.

Aren't there a passel of christian kiddies and older young folk dedicating themselves to virginity until marriage in your god-infested country, Doglover?

I seem to recall some of the poor things were in their thirties!

I just bet that somewhere, in the outer suburbs of my country, young folk are copying them, too.

Yeah dlowan, I suppose there are some Christian singles out there professing to remain virginal until marriage, but what they say and what they do are two different things. I have a niece who is getting married next June. She is 26 and her fiance is 28. They both claim to be virgins. I don't think the guy really is all that into women. :wink:

I had no desire to remain a virgin until I was married. Never really understood the importance of it or the significance of it.

I think that people who remain virgins till marriage are setting themselves up for failure in the future. Especially women. I know statistics say otherwise, but I don't agree. Look at those who remained virgins until marriage 20 or 25 years later....and see how happy they are. JMO.

nice right shoulder ya got there, doglover

She's right, Noddy. Strapless gowns are the current fashion, that's all. I don't think there's any symbolism to it.

No symbolism? For an English major you might as well say, "No Logic!"

I was raised as an agnostic in the '40's and '50's when you didn't attend church in a sun dress and a kleenex bobby pinned on your head was more acceptable than having no hat at all.

Over the years, weddings have changed. People are married underwater and in hot air balloons and on ski slopes and beaches and roller coasters. People write their own words of commitment and choose pop songs for liturgical music.

Originally white dresses had nothing to do with virginity. Queen Victoria chose to be married in a white dress and by doing so set an enduring fashion.

To me strapless wedding dresses seem to stress the physical rather than the spiritual, but I'm an agnostic, an observer and not a believer. Still, for an observer, a strapless dress in virginal white seems to send a mixed message.

Betazoid couples get married naked. Oops, I'm confusing TV with reality again.

I think the mixed message may be precisely part of the point.

I'd noticed the trend too btw, recently went to a church that had a wall of bride pictures and I had to look carefully to discern they weren't all the same person. Same dress (strapless, big skirt), same hairdo (upsweep), same veil, same everything. Some 20 of 'em! Yuck.

Wow I must have been ahead of my time! I got married 7 years ago and I wore a strapless dress. The reason, it was the dress that looked best on me. I just tried on more and more dresses and this one looked fabulous on me. No symbol or anything; just the simple fact that when I put it on everyone with me said "Wow! That's the dress!"

Married in white, you will have chosen all right. Married in grey , you will go far away. Married in black, you will wish yourself back. Married in red, you'll wish yourself dead. Married in blue, you will always be true. Married in pearl, you'll live in a whirl. Married in green, ashamed to be seen, Married in yellow, ashamed of the fellow. Married in brown, you'll live out of town. Married in pink, your spirits will sink."


In England (and thus spread over to the USA), wedding dresses only became white after Victoria married Prince Albert.


In some German regions, wedding dresses were dark even in latest times:


photo from a GDR magazine, 70's (I would say)



A wedding at about 1910 in the Black Forest

Thanks Reg...LOL

Walter--

My mother used to quote the "Bride's Rainbow" on appropriate occasions. I was married in blue--both times.

Walter, what the heck are on those gals' heads?

Anyway, yeah, I think there is a sense of mixed message, e. g. I'm here in a place of worship and I'm being good but look! I can be naughty, too, check out my great bod! I'm not saying that everyone has to be done up to their necks, but when there's a huge amount of cleavage going on, it does make one wonder what's being said.

Jespah - I understand what you and Noddy are saying about being in church and wearing a sexy wedding gown and showing cleavage. The thing is you can have an off the shoulder wedding gown that is not naughty looking and not showing a huge amount of cleavage. Even though my wedding gown was off the shoulder, it was very elegant and showed very little cleavage. And believe me we have a pretty conservative family and no one felt that what I had on was inappropriate. We also have many family members who would have let us know.

A little off the subject - Taking about mixed messages and inappropriate clothes entering a church. I went to Italy with a girlfriend of mine. The day we were going to visit the Sistine Chapel, I was dressed in a skirt and sleeveless shirt and my friend had on ripped jeans and a concert T-shirt. Yes, we were an odd pair, but we have been since being some children. Anyhow, I was stopped and not let in because my shoulders were bare. Once I put on a jean jacket, they let me in. I understand the no shoulder thing, but really, I was dressed nicely with a conservative no sleeve shirt (it was damn hot that day) and my friend was dressed like a slob (no disrespect as I love her dearly). Does that make sense?

(Angela Kaset)

I'm looking for something in red
Something that's shocking to turn someone's head
Strapless and sequined and cut down to there
Stockings and garters and lace underwear
The guaranteed number to knock the men dead
I'm looking for something in red

I'm looking for something in green
Something to out do an ex-high school queen
Jealousy comes in the color of jade
Do you have some pumps and a purse in this shade
And a perfume that whispers "Please comes back to me"
I'm looking for something in green

I'm looking for something in white
Something that shimmers in soft candlelight
Everyone calls us the most perfect pair
Should I wear a veil or a rose in my hair
Well,the train must be long and the waist must be tight
I'm looking for something in white

I'm looking for something in blue
Something real tiny,the baby's brand new
He has his father's nose and his chin
We once were hot lovers now we're more like friends
Don't tell me that's just what old married folk do
I'm looking for something in blue

I'm looking for something in red
Like the one that I wore when I first turned his head
Strapless and sequined and cut down to there
Just a size larger that I wore last year
The guaranteed number to knock the man dead

I'm looking for something
I've gotta have something
I'm looking for something in red

This was actually my wedding song, call us morbid, heh heh:

My young love said to me, "My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"
And she stepped away from me and this she did say:
It will not be long, love, till our wedding day"

As she stepped away from me and she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she turned homeward with one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

The people were saying, no two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow that never was said
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
As she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"It will not be long, love, 'til our wedding day"