What Does a Red Wedding Dress Mean?

Meanings Behind a Red Wedding Dress

Red wedding dresses are popular across many cultures, and this color is a popular non-traditional choice in the United States, where ivory, cream, and other white-colored gowns are typically worn by brides.

Red wedding dresses are a great way to differentiate yourself from other brides and embrace a bold color. Plus, the color red when worn as a wedding dress has several meanings that you might want to embrace on your wedding day.

Red wedding dresses indicate:

• Harmony and happiness
• Good luck or prosperity
• Feminine power
• Strength, courage, and loyalty
• Wealth and success
• Love and passion

Red wedding dresses are most popular in East Asian and Southern Asian cultures, though they are quickly gaining in popularity for their versatility and plentiful happy meanings in the United States.

Wearing a red wedding dress on your wedding day may indicate your love for your partner, your commitment to health, harmony, and happiness, and your wish for success in your marriage.

Should I Choose a Red Wedding Dress?

Whether or not you walk down the aisle in a red wedding dress is a highly personal decision, and not one you should make on a whim. Red wedding dresses are bold and make a statement, and some cultures are more familiar with seeing brides in red wedding dresses than others.

It’s important to consider how your wedding pictures will look, the color theme of your wedding, the outfits of those in your bridal party, and how you will feel in a red wedding dress as you start to make this decision.

If you aren’t ready to commit to a red wedding dress for your ceremony, you can also consider changing into a red dress for the reception portion of the evening and wearing a more traditional wedding gown during your ceremony.

Picking the Best Shade of Red for Your Dress

Not all red wedding dresses are alike, and it’s important that you pick the shade of red for your dress that is going to be the most flattering for you – light reds, bold reds, and dark, burgundy reds are all popular options for wedding dresses, though you should consider your skin tone and hair color when selecting the best shade.

Cool skin undertones (your veins will look blue or purple) typically look better in cool-toned reds, while warm skin undertones (your veins will appear more green) generally look better in a warmer red with orange or yellow undertones. Neutral skin tones (veins appear both blue and green) may wear either, as long as the red selected is uniform with other outfit choices.

Make sure to try on several different shades of red when shopping for a red wedding dress so that you have an idea of the colors that work best to flatter you on your wedding day.

Where to Purchase a Red Wedding Dress

Most wedding dresses are traditionally found in the colors of white, ivory, cream, and nude, which makes it a little more difficult to find a red wedding dress. However, you can search both online collections of wedding dresses and visit in-person boutiques to find your dream red wedding dress.

We know that wedding dress shopping can be stressful and seem to take forever, so make sure that you prepare yourself for this event. Take a few of your close friends or family members with you so you can gather opinions on dresses, wear a comfortable outfit you can easily change out of, and prepare yourself to look at plenty of options before deciding on a red wedding dress.

Attending Your Wedding in Style

Making an entrance on your big day is something that many brides wish for, and there’s no better way to do that than to embrace the color red and all of its meanings.

If you are interested in a more non-traditional gown and you love the idea of wearing a red wedding dress, don’t hesitate to start searching for dress options in the color you desire.

Remember, at the end of the day, it’s your wedding, and your big day – make sure you focus on what makes you and your partner the happiest as you declare your love for each other, red wedding dress or not.