Wedding Guests Know to Not Wear White—But What If the Bride’s Wearing Pink?


The Carina strapless corset and the Ashan soft net ball gown skirt by Watters. Photo courtesy of the designer.

The Carina strapless corset and the Ashan soft net ball gown skirt by Watters. Photo courtesy of the designer.

We’ve talked quite a bit here on this blog about how more and more brides are opting to wear an entire array of colors other than white these days—most specifically, blush—but the New York Times brought up an extremely good point in an article published just recently in their Weddings/Celebrations section.

It basically poses the issue of whether or not a bride who wears a non-white wedding dress has the same expectation as a bride who does wear white that her wedding guests will not, in fact, wear the same color as her. Because the thing is, it’s not as if every bride makes an announcement that she’s wearing white, and oh hey, can you guys please not wear white, too? It’s just one of those understood, unspoken things. So if she goes and wears pink, what is she to do? Anything?

In short, no, not really. I think etiquette expert Lizzie Post sums it up best when she says:

“If a bride chooses to wear pink, she can’t dictate what her guests can wear, but she can request it. But what are you going to do, include a swatch of fabric with your wedding invitation? If you’re taking a risk by not wearing a white wedding dress, you have to accept that some people may be wearing the same color as you.”

Unless you are keeping it a top-secret surprise from everyone, chances are that nearly all of the females coming to celebrate your wedding with you will know if you are wearing, say, a pink wedding dress, and steer their own wardrobe choices away from that hue. And if not, well, I cannot imagine that even if a lady shows up in the same color family, that it will much resemble at all a wedding dress, and that you will, no doubt, still stand out as the bride.

Still. Something to think about if you’re considering a colorful path down the aisle.

Any colored wedding dress brides out there been mulling over this dilemma? Are you going to try and do anything to get the word out? 

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