I like black. It's a perfect frame for special jewelry, pretty hair, polished makeup. And with a change of accessories a black dress can be worn again, as long as you refrain from style features like enormous ass-bows.
I've been okay with black for wedding wear for a long time. My mom wore a black dress to my wedding 21 years ago. She looked great, it made her happy, so it made me happy. If there was a curse or bad luck attached it's evidently an extremely slow-acting type.
I sort of think the color symbolism thing has lost its punch, at least here in the Midwest. For instance, white bridal gowns are still best-sellers, in spite of demographic evidence that would predict charcoal gray as the correct choice.
I think the superstition applies just to the bride wearing it ("married in black, you'll wish yourself back)
Prior to late Victorian times, the bride simply wore her newest bestest dress - most "ordinary" women only had a new one once in a while, and it had to last them. Personally, although I earn a crust sewing bridal wear, it still makes me cringe inwardly that I'm putting all this work into garments that will be discarded after just one (albeit special) occasion - even the children's posh frocks aren't expected to have more than the one "outing".
She who would like to be obeyed once every Preston Guild wrote in news:pngD8rCjf+ snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com:
It's a Pagan wedding ceremony -- someone on another newsgroup I hang out on told us about his daughter's ceremony. But you know, Google is your friend.
Kathleen wrote in news:sBOoe.1576$mZ2.1575 @fe07.lga:
For the *bridesmaids* in a traditional-type wedding? *shudder*
Melinda, wondering how old she must be that people think this is not a good thing and who thinks wedding party pix with attendants attired it black would be pretty boring as well
She who would like to be obeyed once every Preston Guild wrote in news:NHvKEIDdj+ snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com:
Well, on this side of the pond, at least, black is considered funereal attire and it could be looked on as an insult to be in mourning that the bride is getting married. That's not a superstition.
I was in a wedding where the bride's mother wore black. 20 years ago. But she always wore black, and it would have been astonishing to see her in anything else.
My maid of honor wore black. 16 years ago. I remember her explaining to my mother-in-law that there had been a couple of high-class weddings in Cinci where all the attendants wore simple black gowns. The real reason was that I had told her that I didn't expect her to get a gown just for the wedding, so she found a gown that coordinated with the style of my gown that was also suitable to wear to a formal dance. Black velvet bodice, silver/pink abstract floraly taffeta for the skirt. We looked great together, just like it had been planned, when in reality, I hadn't seen the dress until the day before the wedding (and she hadn't seen mine). (There's a reason she was my maid of honor.)
...it remained legal in Scotland all the way up to 1939, even after Lord Harwicke?s Act of 1753 declaring that marriages in England were legal only if performed by a clergyman. After Lord Harwicke?s Act, the Scottish border town, Gretna Green became a mecca for eloping couples from England who fled there to perform their own Handfastings. In those times, the couple themselves performed the Handfasting before witnesses. It was also used in Scotland for the engagement period of a year and a day before a wedding was proved.
Two-handed Handfasting still constituted a fully legal marriage throughout Europe whether the blessing of the church was sought or not. Clergymen, of course, recommended that newlyweds attend church as soon as possible after the signing of the contract and the Handfasting. Marriage is now one the Seven Sacraments that had been ignored by the church for centuries. Only the very wealthy and affluent could afford church marriages. Handfastings were under the jurisdiction of common law rather than canon law. In the 16th century in Switzerland, if couples were seen in public drinking together they could be considered married.
C> She who would like to be obeyed once every Preston Guild
This bride is perfectly happy with black.. we have all colors planned and they have meaning for us, including the black. Too bad if anyone doesn't like it :)
uttered>This bride is perfectly happy with black.. we have all colors planned >and>they have meaning for us, including the black.>Too bad if anyone doesn't like it :)>
Absolutely. It's your day! Just please, for the sake of the dressmaker's sanity, don't choose the dreaded satin-that-shall-not-be-named
It puckers at the drop of a needle: it does this especially on straight grain cuts, but can also do it on flared panels and bias cuts. Serging is best, but not always possible. Differential feed is not always the answer here, either. True bias cuts are best sewn the old fashioned way: tiny narrow zigzag-stitched flat seam. See my Bias Cut Disaster for that one...
It loves to live on the floor, especially if you are cutting it or sewing an awkward spot...
Even with a brand new really good needle, it can snag and pull as if you were sewing it with a barbed harpoon!
It stretches - especially it grows along bias seams and necklines! Stay-stitching does not work... Once it has stretched you cannot ease it back, it just gathers along the stay stitching line!
It's very soft and drapy (which can be good in the right design), but also springy, so while it will fold anywhere and acquire tucks where you least need then, it will never pleat successfully!
It HATES to be hemmed! I've never made a successful invisible hem on it
- something always shows, even if it's only one of those notorious needle snags!
It creeps! So wherever you THOUGHT you'd pinned it and sewn it, you didn't! By the time it got under the needle, it was no longer lined up the way you had it...
It LOVES thread and hangs on to it REALLY HARD, so frog-stitching is almost impossible! And, naturally, it's always gone wrong at a point where you have to frog it one stitch at a time, so there are multiple chances of more snags...
Needle holes show! You can occasionally rub them out, but the cheaper the fabric the less this is possible!
SOME poly versions of duchesss satin and taffeta work very well, but most if the stuff labelled 'bridal satin' or satin backed crepe/dupion are a pain in the bum. I speak as an expert who has sewn more miles of this bloody stuff than most, and with hard work and dedication has got a decent result, but every single time I have wished to be sewing something else - almost ANYTHING else!
LOL that makes me laugh when I realize that in most of the weddings I have been to the MEN always wear black tuxedo's! Maybe its because they realize that their bachelor life is gone forever.......
I hope anyone doesn't have anything bad to say about that, I just had a laugh that I had to share!
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.