These Long Island brides didn't wear white to their weddings
After choosing New Orleans’ French Quarter for her nuptials, Bridget Jones wanted her wedding dress to evoke the wrought iron characteristic of the city’s architecture. She chose a lace Sottero & Midgley gown with swirls reminiscent of the ironwork’s scrolls — and the dress was black.
“I had been stalking that dress for a couple of years,” the 53-year-old Sag Harbor resident says. “I love fashion and had seen it on Instagram.”
Jones, who got married April 14, 2022, and purchased her gown at Bridal Suite of Bay Shore, is among a growing number of brides on Long Island and elsewhere saying “no” to the traditional white wedding dress and going for more colorful offerings.
They’re choosing wedding dress silhouettes but bypassing ivory, beige, blush, Champagne and other subtle color departures from white dresses that have been popular in recent years, and going straight for hues that make more of an unconventional statement — including blues, greens, lavender, deep pink, and even red.
“My mother, who is Irish Catholic, was a little surprised,” Jones says. “But my dress was the only dress I tried on.” Jones loved it right away.
Andrea House, a partner in Bridal Suite of Bay Shore, says of colorful wedding gowns: “It’s a thing.”
House says she started seeing the trend develop two or three years ago. “One of the first ones was the ‘Zander’ gown (that Jones wore and that was featured in the designer’s Spring 2019 collection). People were enthralled with it.” She adds, “It was new and daring.”
New now in stores is another striking creation by Zander designer Maggie Sottero — the “Scarlet,” a soft red wedding dress.
“We actually have several gowns in bold colors right now,” says Christina Blanchette, vice president of sales and marketing for Maggie Sottero. “We are seeing the demand and interest in colorful wedding gowns increase.”
A wedding gown full of color that’s recently gotten a lot of attention is the “sage chartreuse” tulle tiered “Diana V2” by the new couture wedding dress designer Andrew Kwon. His yellow Flora V2 and blue Aphrodite V2 dresses have also been worn as wedding gowns.
Kwon says that since his first bridal collection in 2021, he’s been asked more and more by prospective customers if a white dress they like comes in colors. He says some of the inspiration for the sage chartreuse dress came from a trip to the South of France in summer 2021.
“Those colors always popped out to me,” Kwon says. He said Diana V2 can be used for any formal event but “some girls decided to wear it to their weddings.” He adds, “So many girls coming out of the pandemic were so excited to wear something they didn’t even think about before.”
At the lower end of pricing, David’s Bridal has an off-the-shoulder satin wedding gown that is available in deep red, light pink, dusty blue, lavender and black.
“I think brides now want to do something different — something Instagram-worthy that will really wow their guests. Not all people are as traditional today,” House adds.
The white bridal gown was made popular in Western and Anglo-Saxon culture by Queen Victoria when she married Prince Albert in 1840 and illustrations of the silk-spun dress trimmed with Honiton lace were widely published. Before then, colored wedding dresses were the norm.
Christina Marotta, 28, says she couldn’t see herself in a traditional all-white gown. Originally from Amityville and now living in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, she married her wife, Morgan, also 28, in Cancún, Mexico.
“We were obviously already not having a traditional wedding,” Marotta says. “We wanted to break a couple of rules.” She adds, “I went on Pinterest and loved the ideas but I knew I didn’t want anything prommie. I needed some color in there to say yes to the dress.”
Marotta purchased her gown at Princess Bridals in Farmingdale, where she tried on an all-white dress that she liked but it didn’t do it for her in its original form.
“We added two layers of blue tulle throughout the whole skirt — like a Tiffany blue,” Janalyn Thurber, a bridal consultant at the shop, explains. The hue complemented Morgan’s blue suit.
After choosing New Orleans’ French Quarter for her nuptials, Bridget Jones wanted her wedding dress to evoke the wrought iron characteristic of the city’s architecture. She chose a lace Sottero & Midgley gown with swirls reminiscent of the ironwork’s scrolls — and the dress was black.
“I had been stalking that dress for a couple of years,” the 53-year-old Sag Harbor resident says. “I love fashion and had seen it on Instagram.”
“I’m not the girl who would wear a white dress. I definitely wanted something different.”
— Bridget Jones, 43, Sag Harbor
Jones, who got married April 14, 2022, and purchased her gown at Bridal Suite of Bay Shore, is among a growing number of brides on Long Island and elsewhere saying “no” to the traditional white wedding dress and going for more colorful offerings.
They’re choosing wedding dress silhouettes but bypassing ivory, beige, blush, Champagne and other subtle color departures from white dresses that have been popular in recent years, and going straight for hues that make more of an unconventional statement — including blues, greens, lavender, deep pink, and even red.
SHOCK FACTOR
“My mother, who is Irish Catholic, was a little surprised,” Jones says. “But my dress was the only dress I tried on.” Jones loved it right away.
Andrea House, a partner in Bridal Suite of Bay Shore, says of colorful wedding gowns: “It’s a thing.”
Colorful wedding dresses including the red Vera Wang and blue Ines Di Santo are sold at The Wedding Salon of Manhasset. Credit: Linda Rosier
House says she started seeing the trend develop two or three years ago. “One of the first ones was the ‘Zander’ gown (that Jones wore and that was featured in the designer’s Spring 2019 collection). People were enthralled with it.” She adds, “It was new and daring.”
New now in stores is another striking creation by Zander designer Maggie Sottero — the “Scarlet,” a soft red wedding dress.
“We actually have several gowns in bold colors right now,” says Christina Blanchette, vice president of sales and marketing for Maggie Sottero. “We are seeing the demand and interest in colorful wedding gowns increase.”
Left: New couture wedding dress designer Andrew Kwon has several colorful gowns in his collection, including this tulle tiered “Diana V2” in sage chartreuse. Right: The new “Scarlet” wedding gown by designer Maggie Sottero. Credit: Andrew Kwon / by Haifa Olsen ; Maggie Sottero
A wedding gown full of color that’s recently gotten a lot of attention is the “sage chartreuse” tulle tiered “Diana V2” by the new couture wedding dress designer Andrew Kwon. His yellow Flora V2 and blue Aphrodite V2 dresses have also been worn as wedding gowns.
Kwon says that since his first bridal collection in 2021, he’s been asked more and more by prospective customers if a white dress they like comes in colors. He says some of the inspiration for the sage chartreuse dress came from a trip to the South of France in summer 2021.
“Those colors always popped out to me,” Kwon says. He said Diana V2 can be used for any formal event but “some girls decided to wear it to their weddings.” He adds, “So many girls coming out of the pandemic were so excited to wear something they didn’t even think about before.”
At the lower end of pricing, David’s Bridal has an off-the-shoulder satin wedding gown that is available in deep red, light pink, dusty blue, lavender and black.
BREAKING TRADITION
“I think brides now want to do something different — something Instagram-worthy that will really wow their guests. Not all people are as traditional today,” House adds.
The white bridal gown was made popular in Western and Anglo-Saxon culture by Queen Victoria when she married Prince Albert in 1840 and illustrations of the silk-spun dress trimmed with Honiton lace were widely published. Before then, colored wedding dresses were the norm.
Christina Marotta, a former Amityville resident, had a blue tulle underlay added to her white wedding gown by Princess Bridals in Farmingdale. Credit: www.jorgerodriguez.photography/Jorge Rodriguez Photography
Christina Marotta, 28, says she couldn’t see herself in a traditional all-white gown. Originally from Amityville and now living in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, she married her wife, Morgan, also 28, in Cancún, Mexico.
“We were obviously already not having a traditional wedding,” Marotta says. “We wanted to break a couple of rules.” She adds, “I went on Pinterest and loved the ideas but I knew I didn’t want anything prommie. I needed some color in there to say yes to the dress.”
Marotta purchased her gown at Princess Bridals in Farmingdale, where she tried on an all-white dress that she liked but it didn’t do it for her in its original form.
“We added two layers of blue tulle throughout the whole skirt — like a Tiffany blue,” Janalyn Thurber, a bridal consultant at the shop, explains. The hue complemented Morgan’s blue suit.
