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THE UNCONVENTIONAL BRIDE What does being an unconventional bride mean to you? This is such a personal question because the answer really depends on what kind of brides you saw growing up, and what types of weddings you attended leading up to your own big day. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the word “unconventional” as meaning “not conventional: not bound by or in accordance with convention: being out of the ordinary.” To most people, an ordinary bride is a bride who wears the traditional long white gown, white shoes, white veil, and perhaps a little white jacket or stole if she’s a winter bride.
There is a range of what one could consider to be a departure from convention, and some aspects of bridal fashion can be a subtle departure from the conventional, while others can go all the way. My earliest memory of an unconventional bride was when Sarah Jessica Parker married Matthew Broderick in 1997, and she wore a black wedding dress. In 2006, she told Marie Claire that she regrets having worn black on her wedding day, explaining that their wedding was a surprise event, and she didn’t want to attract attention by
shopping for a white dress. Her choice was a black ruffled Morgane Le Fay gown, and she has been consistently quoted as saying that choosing to wear black is the one thing she regrets about her wedding day. In fact, in 2009 she told Harper’s Bazaar that if she and Matthew were to renew their vows today, the one thing she would do differently is that she would wear a white wedding dress: “I’d wear a beautiful, proper wedding dress like I should have worn that day.” That is a powerful statement, coming from an actress known for taking fashion risks both on and off-screen.
