Alternative Wedding Dresses: Black Gowns for a Daring Bride

Historically, wealthier brides dressed in the most expensive fabrics and styles to show off their family's elevated status. Black was a popular color among the aristocracy because the dye was so expensive.

There were even laws passed that restricted the lower classes from wearing certain colors and fabrics. Black was one of the colors only the nobility were allowed to wear.

Black has been considered a power color since the Middle Ages. Before that time, royalty preferred wearing deep purples and reds. By the 16th century, black was the color of choice of every monarch in Europe.

If your fiance is against you wearing a black dress, tell him this little fact and maybe he'll change his mind.

Spanish brides wouldn't consider wearing anything but black for their wedding.

In Spain, black holds a special meaning for a bride. A woman wearing a black dress for her wedding symbolizes that she will be faithful to her husband until death.

Perhaps people balk most at a bride wearing black because they are under the impression that white is meant to convey a bride's purity and virginity.

But In years past, colors were symbolic and had meaning. These meanings have been changed, or forgotten altogether.

For instance, black didn't always mean mourning. Several hundred years ago, white was the appropriate color to be worn at funerals.

During the Renaissance, white was the color widows would wear while mourning their dead husbands.