I have always wondered what brides and grooms wore on their wedding day decades ago and how drastically it has changed over the years. So I decided to wonder no more and look into it, what exactly did a wedding dress from the 18th Century look like? Well before I did any research my intuitive nature told me, wedding dresses back then were huge in size and women were covered up from their neck to their feet. Most dresses were long sleeved, corset style and pure white or tan/beige. And those were a brides options, well what I discovered was kind of the opposite. There was no specific wedding style for the bride or groom, women wore attire they ALREADY had available, the dresses below are definitely one for the books but I find it very humbling to see how far wedding day fashions have evolved.

Now, not to leave the grooms out, It does not look like their wedding day attire has changed that much over the last several decades. In my opinion, I’d definitely wear the suits they donned back in the 1800 hundreds and beyond. I mean wouldn’t you, just check these styles out.

Now, the 19th century wedding day styles seemed slightly more fashionable as the wedding industry began to expand. Couples began consulting professionals, certain wedding styles began to take shape, brides were no longer wearing what they had available but opted for actual wedding dresses. And styles for the wedding party began to emerge also, that is until the 1980s when bridesmaids dresses began to take there own shape, literally.

The wedding fashions of the 1900s saw floor length slightly poofy dresses, where veils were a must. In the course of a decade the wedding dress styles changed drastically from 1900 to around 1950s and then again from the 1950s to 1980s. The 1950 wedding dresses ranged from floor length to what I call a “bell hop”, 🔔. Not all brides opted for the shorter length wedding dress, modesty was key with a church ceremony therefore brides wore wedding dress that had removable layers for comfort during the reception party. I mean, wedding dresses in the traditional ballgown style are heavy and has many layers. What bride wouldn’t want the option to take off some layers.

The above “bell hop” dress, courtesy of Elle.com is one I’m actually a fan of, however, from the late 1950’s to the around the late 1990’s wedding dresses changed again and would change more consistently. Now, skipping to the 1980s, it brought trends of poofy sleeves and long trains, tulle and lace as pictured below.

Now when it came to the wedding party it was usually the bridesmaids who were less fortunate in wedding attire. This is what some of the bridesmaids dresses looked like in the 80s. This one doesn’t look as bad too me but imagine this dress in more pastel colors and larger then life hair.

Luckily, as we welcomed 2000, wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, mother-of-the dresses and grooms attire all became more fashionable. The wedding trends became more personalized, more sexy, more sleek even more comfortable and wedding photos would be more memorable then previous decades.

Top wedding dress designer Vera Wang (pictured above- photo curtsey of Deborah Feingold/ Getty Images)

Wedding fashion trends come and go as quickly as the weather changes but one thing should be certain, no matter what you or anyone wears, a few of the most important aspect of your wedding is having fun, being surrounded by family and friends and marrying your person whose love is and always will be completely enamored with you. Happy planning ❤️.