For the majority of history, even Western brides didn't wear white wedding dresses. In ancient Rome, where marriages were celebrated with parties and banquets—an important social event, otherwise a sacrament—brides wore long veils of deep yellow on the complicated six-part braided hairstyle. The yellow veil was referred to as being “the color of flame,” and therefore the brides themselves were like torches, bringing light and warmth to their new husbands’ homes.

Ancient Athenian brides wore long violet or light reddish robes, cinched in the waist with a girdle the groom was designed to loosen later, symbolizing losing her virginity. The marriage is made official with a feast, followed by a torch-lit procession that ferried the pair to the bridal chamber. Upon entering, an Athenian bride was handed a quince fruit to bite into, like Persephone tasting the pomegranate seeds in the underworld orchards that bound her to her new husband, Hades.

A key theme of weddings may be the symbolic passage from childhood to adulthood, from one distinct stage of life to the next. This is especially true for ladies, who pass in the virginal, springtime arena of girlhood into the fruitful maturity of wedded life, where they'll be expected to produce children. In many cultures, the rite that jettisons ladies into a " new world " of sex and motherhood is played out like a kind of death of the old self, filled with ritualized grieving and formal lamentations. At times, the clothes that brides wear have reflected these themes.