In high society, a woman would often wear her wedding dress out as a formal dress at some point in her first year of marriage. and I thought that the white symbolized "debt free"

People used to wear their best dress, generally a brand new one. They'd wear it again after the wedding.

If you were really loaded, you could afford to have a white dress that you woudn't get much subsequent use out of. It was a display of wealth.

I guess we owe white to Victoria.

Queen Victoria put the wheels in motion by marrying in white. Though brides continued to wed in gowns of different colors, white was now set as the color of choice for weddings and has continued ever since. In Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1849, this statement was printed: “ Custom has decided, from the earliest ages, that white is the most fitting hue, whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one.”

It would have been sweet to be the one displaying this wealth.

(I'm in love with this dress.)

I'm confused as to why wedding dresses are being discussed in the past tense. Don't people still wear them? Or did I make a big fashion faux pas?

FTR, several of my friends have worn their dresses/pants suits subsequently.

ita, we found benches at cost plus for you that would work perfectly with your table.

Also at Cost Plus? The Droste cocoa.

Ugh. am tired. And I have work to do.

I thought that the white symbolized "debt free"

Whose debt to whom?

I'm confused as to why wedding dresses are being discussed in the past tense.

It's the history of wedding dresses, I'm discussing, not so much their current usage/symbology.

you could afford to have a white dress that you woudn't get much subsequent use out of

Was white not a worn colour, before it became traditional wedding wear? I mean, why not a yellow dress you wouldn't get much use out of? I thought that white formal these days was too tied to the wedding tradition -- but before it, what was the drawback?

My mother had her wedding dress made into a ball gown (not high society, but from an era where women of, uh, regular society wore long dresses much more often thant they seem to these days). And then, apparently, she disposed of it. Such sentiment. Well, her sentiment was all tied up with her husband and not the dress, I suppose. Which is nice and all, but I like the look of the dress from the pictures, and it'd be nice to have it.

There was a point somewhere in there. Maybe.

Love the dress in that link.

White wedding dress thingy: [link]

We're talking about the history of white dresses, hence the past tense.

I'm going to kill Teppy for the trolls.

This one: [link] is the scariest thing I've seen in ages.

Ahahahaha!!!