Attire & Accessories Forum

Nonwhite Wedding Dress

I'm toying with the idea of not wearing white to my wedding, have any brides worn a different color? How did it work out for you? Where are some good places or designers for nonwhite wedding gowns? I'm having a tough time finding them from nonexpensive designers like marchesa or vera wang. Any advice here would be appreciated. 

Re: Nonwhite Wedding Dress

  • Lots of people have. Generally it's a better idea to look at non-wedding gowns - bridesmaid dresses, evening gowns, etc. You'll have more colored options. I believe @phira 's gorgeous blue gown was a bridesmaid dress. @emmyg65 wore hot pink. @magicink wore red, from ModCloth. @RajahBMFD wore hot pink as well.

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  • @lolo883 is correct, my read dress was from ModCloth. I loved it, wearing white just wasn't for me. It was also shorter and not a traditional gown at all. 

    If you want more a traditional gown, just colored, try looking at pageant dresses (big on bling), evening gowns, cocktail dresses, and even some prom gowns can look super fancy. Also once you remove the word "wedding"...things drop in price sometimes.
  • edited January 2015
    Essence of Australia make their gowns in many different shades of white.

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    "If you really want something you don’t stop for anyone or anything  until you get it".
  • By "not white" what do you mean? Do you mean not really a traditional dress at all? Or traditional, in a not-white color like blush,  gold, blue, purple, black and green? For the really non traditional colors, you may need to look outside of bridal salons, but for blush, gold, and some of the lighter purples and blues, many bridal salons will carry them. 

    I am wearing a champagne colored dress which is pretty traditional, but for my conservative family, it's really outside the box. 
  • I wore dark blue, and I have zeeeeeero regrets.

    There are a bunch of options for looking for non-white dresses, and it comes down to what your personal taste is, what color you're looking for, and what your budget is.

    1) You can have a gown custom-made. Wedding Dress Fantasy is a website that does exactly that, although the dresses are not inexpensive and tend to be very, very elaborate. Some of them are just gorgeous, though.

    2) You can check out bridesmaids dresses. This was what I'd planned to do initially, since they're (generally) inexpensive, and often you can find the silhouette and fabric you want, and then just pick your color. Depending on the dress, you can glam it up with accessories. Highly recommend.

    3) What I ended up doing was searching "evening gown" on Google and looking through, like ... the first 20 websites. It wasn't as easy as looking for bridesmaids gowns; often I'd find a dress I liked but it was the wrong color, or it was too glamorous, or it had some particular detail I hated. Or maybe it was perfect but too expensive. The gown I eventually found was PERFECT but I could only buy it from authorized dealers, and the only local dealer didn't have a sample. I ended up buying it without trying it on, which worked out fine for me. But then again, I knew my body type and what looked good on me, so I was 99% sure that the dress would look good.

    Here are some photos (one is a good photo of the bottom of the dress, and the other is a good photo of the top).


    Anniversary
    now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
    image
  • My dress is silver from the Zac Posen line. It was between this and an ivory dress, My future MIL told me that the silver one was "me" and that she couldn't see me in anything else because of her words I made the jump. 
  • I wore champagne for my wedding. Vera Wang has a few non-white options through David's Bridal. Also if you go under their wedding dress section go under colors & click on more, they will show you the different color options they have. Many of them you can't see the color online but if you do a search through google you may be able to find them in the color options available.
  • Alfred Angelo's newest disney (and not disney) lines come in a large variety of colors, and are relatively inexpensive as far as wedding dresses are concerned. Mine is a darker-than-blush pink from their previous line and I love it. Their current line has blue, green, red,pink and purple, and there's also silver and blush offerings.
  • thanks! that's what i was thinking too about prices. i could probably get an awesome dress for much less if i went pageant or evening. 
  • wow, you looked stunning! thanks for the reassurance! i'm definitely not wearing white now lol. 
  • great tip, thanks! 
  • FYI if you're responding to a particular poster, use the Quote function so we know who you're talking to. :)

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  • FYI if you're responding to a particular poster, use the Quote function so we know who you're talking to. :)
    iiii was wondering how that worked. thanks so much! lol
  • I went with one from Alfred Angelo's Dream in Color collection.  It was the perfect blend of the "traditional white gown" I wanted with color that was so perfectly me.  :)
  • Non white wedding dresses are more then except able no days. Personally, I am a light skinned red head, so the stark white classic wedding dress doesn't exactly flatter my color. I'm going more with an ivory or champagne which is still light but not so stark.
     Wedding Countdown Ticker}
  • edited January 2015
    Knottie56690751 said: Non white wedding dresses are more then except able no days. Personally, I am a light skinned red head, so the stark white classic wedding dress doesn't exactly flatter my color. I'm going more with an ivory or champagne which is still light but not so stark.


    While I don't disagree that nonwhite dresses are
    acceptable, ivory/champagne is still a shade of white. And FWIW I am also a fair-skinned redhead and white looked way better on me than ivory, which was what I had originally planned on getting. Changed my mind the second I saw myself in the first white dress. It's more about pink vs. yellow undertones in your skin than light vs. dark.
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  • The OP wasn't clear about what she meant by "nonwhite," but yeah, I typically group silver, champagne, and ivory in with white. I know that for a lot of folks, anything that isn't pure white is not appropriate for a wedding dress, but these days, off-whites are pretty acceptable for the general population.

    When someone asks about non-white dresses, no matter how well-meaning the ivory/champagne/silver crowd is, it can be very grating for people like me who really did not wear white. It's very, very different trying to find a wedding dress when you're looking for blue or red or green or black (although black is getting easier), and you're also often treated very differently because of your decision.
    Anniversary
    now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
    image
  • You are correct, I was referring to no white related shades. I would love something with a slight purple/grey/blue/black tint or shoot even all over. I'm shooting for the stars here. I am curious what you mean by I'm treated differently because of my decision? So far everyone has been on board in my personal life. I'm just afraid bridal salons will look at me like I'm crazy. 
    phira said:
    The OP wasn't clear about what she meant by "nonwhite," but yeah, I typically group silver, champagne, and ivory in with white. I know that for a lot of folks, anything that isn't pure white is not appropriate for a wedding dress, but these days, off-whites are pretty acceptable for the general population.

    When someone asks about non-white dresses, no matter how well-meaning the ivory/champagne/silver crowd is, it can be very grating for people like me who really did not wear white. It's very, very different trying to find a wedding dress when you're looking for blue or red or green or black (although black is getting easier), and you're also often treated very differently because of your decision.

  • @minksterwedding, your best bet is going to be not shopping in bridal salons at all unless you're looking at bridesmaid dresses instead of wedding gowns. You will want to look at evening gowns and/or pageant dresses.

    Although, apparently Alfred Angelo now has a line of their Disney dresses that come in colors according to the princess that inspired them.

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  • @minksterwedding I bought my dress from a boutique that sells wedding gowns, bridesmaids dresses, and evening gowns, so my alterations were done in the bridal alterations department of that boutique. I got some weird looks. I also had a couple of friends get mildly upset with me because I wasn't going to take them with me dress shopping (since this wasn't going to be like Say Yes to the Dress). I also had some family members pressure me to consider off-white shades like ivory. It was a little irritating.
    Anniversary
    now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
    image
  • Ahhhh ok thank so much for all your help! @phira
  • I will be wearing the blush, maggie sottero divina dress
  • I will be wearing the blush, maggie sottero divina dress
    great choice! love that one! 
  • I'm toying with the idea of not wearing white to my wedding, have any brides worn a different color? How did it work out for you? Where are some good places or designers for nonwhite wedding gowns? I'm having a tough time finding them from nonexpensive designers like marchesa or vera wang. Any advice here would be appreciated. 

    I wore a white lace over pale gold Maggie Sottero and loved it. Sottero has fewer red dresses this year but still quite a lot in gold and some other colors, many in the 1500 dollar range. When you search, first run a search under the listed color, one at a time , gold or blush or blue etc. Then run it one time not check a specific color but not checking white. CHECK OTHER. For some reason, that brings up some gowns that do not come up under other colors on the list. Like I found one in Sapphire and one in Topaz or similar, and another in amethyst that never came up under blue or gold, and the is no purple category.
  • I'll be wearing Maggie Sottero Cosette. Ivory and black
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