speaking of which, what would a medieval european wedding dress look like? were they just chosen amongst the regular fancy clothes of the bride or was there anything special added to them for the occasion?
That is an excellent question! In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, European wedding clothes seem to have been the finest fashionable items you could afford or already had in your closet. In fact, for much of medieval European period, wedding ceremonies the way we recognize them did not necessarily exist (within the Christian community), with marriages having been sealed by contracts and a series of legalistic and ceremonial rituals and celebrations that excluded the Church for the most part, with the real clincher of a marriage having been the consummation thereof. Anyway, records of clothing for these series of ceremonies and celebrations basically describe the most splendid version of fashionable garments that the family could afford, with some families often going into debt to outfit the bride in a manner that would bring "honor" and prestige to the family (and said families then pawning the valiable wedding clothes to help get themselves out of said debt...). As with all sweeping statements covering a whole continent and 1,000 years of cultural history, though, your mileage may vary! 😊
@@andreamess5345 and you may or may not know this, but it was Queen Victoria who started the trend of the white wedding dress, but that didn't really take on as a common practice until the first half of the 20th century, when department stores and magazines really started pushing the idea!
@@thecreativecontessa i’ve heard of Queen Victoria first wearing white before, mostly because -if i remember it correctly- she had also wore a famous diamond necklace gifted from Sultan Mahmud II. (which our high school teacher’s told us about here in Turkey😂)
speaking of which, what would a medieval european wedding dress look like? were they just chosen amongst the regular fancy clothes of the bride or was there anything special added to them for the occasion?
That is an excellent question! In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, European wedding clothes seem to have been the finest fashionable items you could afford or already had in your closet. In fact, for much of medieval European period, wedding ceremonies the way we recognize them did not necessarily exist (within the Christian community), with marriages having been sealed by contracts and a series of legalistic and ceremonial rituals and celebrations that excluded the Church for the most part, with the real clincher of a marriage having been the consummation thereof. Anyway, records of clothing for these series of ceremonies and celebrations basically describe the most splendid version of fashionable garments that the family could afford, with some families often going into debt to outfit the bride in a manner that would bring "honor" and prestige to the family (and said families then pawning the valiable wedding clothes to help get themselves out of said debt...). As with all sweeping statements covering a whole continent and 1,000 years of cultural history, though, your mileage may vary! 😊
Also, I am completely uninformed about the Muslim and Jewish communities who were resident in various parts of Europe and their wedding practices...
@@thecreativecontessa wow that’s very interesting! thank you so much for answering✨
@@andreamess5345 and you may or may not know this, but it was Queen Victoria who started the trend of the white wedding dress, but that didn't really take on as a common practice until the first half of the 20th century, when department stores and magazines really started pushing the idea!
@@thecreativecontessa i’ve heard of Queen Victoria first wearing white before, mostly because -if i remember it correctly- she had also wore a famous diamond necklace gifted from Sultan Mahmud II. (which our high school teacher’s told us about here in Turkey😂)