{Victoria's Choice}

Dear Bride-to-Be: 
If you know one thing about “wedding gown history,” I would wager that it has something to do with Queen Victoria starting the fashion for brides to wear white. (And now, thanks to Victoria, it has been a tradition for 175 years.) But I would also wager that most people don’t know the real reason the 20-year-old monarch broke the precedent set by earlier royal brides (who usually wore cloths of silver or gold) and chose the color white—she even chose a wax orange blossom crown instead of a dazzling diamond diadem!

Her choice has been regarded as representing simplicity, modesty and purity—and indeed the young queen was sentimental and had an “uncluttered fashion preference,” according to costume historians. However, Victoria was deeply in love, and this became her guiding inspiration for her wedding attire. So with much consideration—taking into account her duty, her position and her subjects—nonetheless, “the queen decided to make her marriage vows to her ‘precious Angel’ as his future wife rather than as the monarch,” wrote curator Edwina Ehrman. Or as author Kay Staniland explained: Victoria decided “her role on her wedding day was primarily that of a bride” and opted against, not only wearing the silver and gold of royalty, but also chose not to wear her queenly crimson velvet robe of state, feeling “it would only emphasize her seniority, and overshadow the role of her future husband.” (And come the day of the wedding, Victoria’s adoring subjects happily received their queen’s choices!) 

Whatever you choose to wear on your wedding day, keep your relationship your first priority…and let the frills of fashion follow that. (It’s the queenly thing to do!) Of course you’re going to look beautiful…because a woman in love becomes her own spotlight.

Love. Listen. Let go.
....with love from Cornelia

[This post inspired by my new book, The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride {Volume One} For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding ... available at Amazon. I think you will enjoy it!]