At the actual ceremony, however, brides were nearly as reserved in the 1990s as they'd been in the 1950s. But then the numbers of women who got married in churches started to drop, and so did the strictures on what was appropriate to wear. (According to a survey by Condé Nast bridal media, only 46 percent of brides were married in a church or synagogue in 2006, down from 55 percent the year before.) As more couples began to get married in homes, in hotel ballrooms or on beaches on Capri—anywhere but places of worship—the bridal gown lost its ceremonial meaning as a virgin's garb. It became a fashion garment only. "For a long time wedding dresses were this backwater," All Dressed in White author Wallace says. "They were very different from what anyone would wear in their normal life. But now it's perfectly clear that white no longer symbolizes virginity. It's become a symbol of merely being a bride. So once virginity goes out the window, why wouldn't you show more of your breasts or have a back cut down to your waist?"
Couples are also living together before they get married, of course. About six out of 10 brides check their single lives at the door of a shared apartment years before their wedding day. In response, sociologists say, the sexier dresses and the handoff of pin-up pictures—which was introduced into the wedding prep about three years ago—are ways to add spark to an already-established couple's sex life and mark the marriage as a monumental life change.
"When a girl left her parents' house to be married, she was making an enormous transition," Wallace says. "The wedding celebration was to help her negotiate the change. Now very often there is no functional difference between marriage and living together."
Owen Strachan comments:
One wonders how long the tradition of the white bridal gown will last. It does not, after all, signal purity for many brides today, as it formerly did. It is merely a holdover from a quaint age and an aesthetically pleasing choice for brides today.
The sexualization of weddings is really quite strange, if you think about it. Weddings (should) celebrate the complete union of a couple, but this is a private matter, not a public one. It’s very strange, and quite twisted, to have brides attempting to draw the eyes of men other than their husband on their wedding day. One doesn’t need to be a Christian to see this. It’s just common sense. It’s downright weird for a woman to sexually advertise herself on the very day that she announces to the world that
she is permanently taken.
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