Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life and your wedding dress will reflect your personality and style. Ball gown wedding dresses offer an assortment of choices from a variety of necklines and sleeves to different materials and colours. These dresses reflect the Victorian era wedding ball gowns that are still popular over one hundred years later. Queen Victoria wore a white wedding dress to go with her favourite lace that she had previously chosen to wear for her wedding day. Wedding dresses had been made in any colour the bride and her family wanted, but Queen Victoria made the white gown the staple colour even to this day.
Grace Kelly the famous American movie actress made the ball gown wedding dress very fashionable when she wore this beautiful gown to marry Prince Rainer III of Monaco on April 19, 1956. This gown has a high collar and long sleeved top made of lace with the billowing skirt being made of silk taffeta. MGM Studios and their designer Helen Rose created this dress for Grace Kelly. This particular dress still has impact on gowns for brides today and had some influence on the wedding gown worn by Catherine Middleton when she wed Prince William on April 29, 2011.
One of the most popular and elaborate ball gown wedding dresses was worn by Lady Diana Spencer when she wed Prince Charles on July 29, 1981. This ivory coloured gown consisted of silk taffeta, lace, embroidery with sequins and pearls. The train was 25 feet (over 7 metres) in length.
Here are few Ball Gown Wedding Dresses just for your Big Day
Ruffled Gowns
These styles of wedding ball gowns are designed with ruffles. The ruffles can be large and loose and gathered to one side or all around the dress. The gown in the photo above has the skirt gathered in uneven, large ruffles. The top of the skirt appears to be pinned in place with a jewel brooch over an embroidered bodice with a sweetheart neckline. Many wedding dresses are designed without sleeves because it is easier to adjust for fittings on the bride.
This ball gown wedding dress is created with organza and taffeta. The material is wrapped tight around the bodice and then allowed to expand and ruffle outwards for the skirt over top of other layers ruffled of material. The ruffles in this gown are smaller with many more bunches than the previous photo. Ruffles can be done in any size or amount you wish for your dress. Here again we see the sleeveless, sweetheart neckline that is popular for wedding dresses today.
Embroidered Gowns
You may choose a gown that is previously embroidered or have personal embroidering done for your wedding day. Ball gown wedding dresses can be embroidered in numerous ways. You can have just part of the bodice decorated or the entire bodice or the skirt or both done. The picture above shows the design has been stitched over the bodice and the skirt. Most of the embroidery has been done on the bottom of the skirt with spaced lines leading up to the bodice where most of the decoration is emphasized on the neckline. Although most of the pattern has been created at the bottom of the skirt, the lines on the skirt help to draw the eye upwards towards the bride’s face. This is important as she is more important than the dress itself, however the dress still plays a major role in most women’s weddings.
The back of this ball gown wedding dress has been embroidered to follow the natural line of the bride’s spine and follows this line down to the bottom of the dress which has a small train. This effect adds height to help make the bride seem taller and slimmer, despite the pouffy quality of the ball gown skirt. When looking for ball gown wedding dresses, try finding one that not only suits your personality and style, but that flatters your body shape. Keep in mind that a bride looks best in something elegant, tasteful and classy and try to avoid anything too revealing, improper or indecent. This is a special occasion and usually a religious affair with many people attending, so you will want to look your best to impress everyone. Make sure you are giving off the correct impression.
A Touch of Color
Wedding dresses, ball gown style were made popular during the Victorian era and white gowns especially, since this showed off your wealth, because it is a difficult colour to keep clean. There is no rule that says your gown must be white. Many brides are opting to include some other colours with their dresses. This may done with a coloured sash tied around the bride’s waist or over a shoulder. In the photo above, red has been added to the gown with embroidered roses and around the neckline. Many eastern brides wear red for their wedding dress, so this is one way to combine the western and eastern colours and ideas into one look for that special day.
Other colours can be used to create highlights or patterns to ball gown wedding dresses, such as black in the photograph above. You can use any colour you prefer and some brides have their bridesmaids wear this colour for their dresses, and the grooms party wear this colour as well, so that the entire wedding party matches.
Ball Gown Wedding Dresses with Tulle
You may desire to have your ball gown wedding dress made with the light-weight, extra fine netting of tulle. This material is often associated with ballet dresses and the picture above shows a dress which very much looks like a ballet styled wedding dress. The champagne or ivory coloured embroidered bodice with the cap sleeves is emphasized with the ballooned white tulle full length skirt. Many layers of tulle are needed to create this look and to give the full colour of the cloth and to prevent it from being see-through. Tulle is a wonderful flowing material that is light and airy, making it a beautiful choice for ball gown wedding dresses, especially for a spring or summer wedding.
In this picture, the tulle has been gathered and bunched to create a blooming rose petal illusion around the skirt. This gown has a v neck line which adds a slimming quality, with wide spaghetti strap sleeves created with the tulle over the sweetheart neckline bodice which can be seen peeking through the thin, airy tulle.
Not Just White
Many brides are bringing back the styles of wedding gowns being in other colours rather than just white. Contrary to popular belief, wearing a white gown on your wedding day does not signify that the bride is virginal, and very few people pay attention to that sort of thing nowadays anyway. Blue is the more traditional colour for purity, and a shade close to the colour of the sky is considered heavenly, pure and divine. Hence the something blue, part of the bride’s attire. As more cultures meet up and interlace throughout the world, more options are becoming available to brides of the modern day. If you wish for traditional Victorian wedding dresses, ball gown design, but want a change from the ordinary white, than try a dress in a different colour. If you don’t want to steer too far away from white, then pick a pale, soft colour that can still have a traditional feel to it. Ball gown wedding dresses in blush pink, like the one in the photo above, make you look like a princess and can have an alluring effect on your big day.
If blush pink is too riské, then perhaps you would feel more comfortable in an ivory or champagne coloured gown, similar in colour to the wedding dress worn by Princess Diana back in the 80’s. This gown is a gorgeous twist of champagne coloured satin with bustiere detailing created with sequins.
For a more regal feel to your ball gown wedding dress why not try pale gold for the colour. This dress would be perfect in a large, ornate religious setting. The gold embroidered lace is the outmost layer overtop of the dress itself and as the sleeves for the top section over the pale gold coloured sweetheart neckline of the gown underneath. A touch of white has been added with the veil. A very thin, gold ribbon has been added for extra detailing around the waist.
Princess Ball Gown Wedding Dresses
You will look and feel like a fairytale princess in any of the ball gown wedding dresses available today. This sumptuous gown is an ivory coloured sweetheart neckline gown with lace overlay on the bodice and sleeves. The skirt material has been gathered together to create soft pleating in a grecian style with flower bunches created also for further decoration and elegance.
In the photograph above, we have an example of more formal styled princess ball gown wedding dresses. This gown is an off-white colour with lots of ornate embroidery on the bodice and skirt. The back of the gown has a relaxed, bunched and pleated bustle as the train. The bustle is a Victorian era style that can look stunning for bridal gowns. The floral and ribbon branch in the picture is a simple and yet ideal style of bouquet for the bride, to add a touch of nature and yet not take away any attention from the gown itself.
This designer gown created by Pnina Tornai is a champagne coloured hoop skirted ball gown wedding dress. The underskirt is pleated with sharp, formal lines, while the layering of lace on the overskirt is wrapped around the bodice and parted over the skirt to give a contrasting softness. At the gathering of the parted material is a bunch of flowers with full skirt length sheer lace or tulle ribbons hanging down from it over the pleated underskirt, again adding an air of softness. The sweetheart neckline has embroidered detailing. The faux half sleeves of lace and ribbon add a traditional and delicate feel to the overall look.
Princess ball gown wedding dresses do not have to be large, billowing affairs, but can be stream-lined like this a-lined pleated gown in the picture above. The a-lined pleats draw the eye in at the waist of the gown helping to create a smaller looking waist. The jewel encrusted band around the waistline helps to emphasize this area. This ivory coloured silk satin gown has a sweetheart neckline.
Lace Ball Gown Wedding Dresses
Lace Ball Gown Wedding Dresses
Many women dream of having a lace bridal gown. The straight cut neckline of this dress is covered over by a one shoulder sleeve lace overlay. The entire length of the gown is covered with this lace and the lace is longer than the gown underneath, so it sweeps gracefully over the floor. This gown also has a jewelled band at the waist to hold the whole look together and to help the lace skirt balloon outward.
This bridal dress has embroidered edging lace as the top layer of cloth for the skirt with matching lace used on the veil. This white wedding gown has a wide elaborate, embroidered design from the waist to just under the bustline. The top of the bodice is emphasized with a satin material in a scalloped, pleated neck line. The overall look is enchanting.
Jewelled Bridal Gowns
Many ball gown wedding dresses include jewels somewhere in their design, whether it is a small brooch or a jeweled band around the waist. Perhaps you would like more jewels added to your bridal gown and want them to be an intrical part of your dress design. The gown above in the picture has the bodice covered with gems in a fancy pattern. The skirt is done in a softly, pleated, airy tulle to be plain enough to give the attention to the jewelled bodice, and yet elegant. This style of dress with jewels would look dazzling for an evening or night time wedding as the gems would shine in the lights beautifully.
This is another example of a jewel covered ball gown wedding dress. The top of the gown is encrusted with jewels and the pattern continues partially down the skirt section. The back of the gown is open and surrounded by jewels. The jewels are on the surface of the tulle material used to make this bridal dress.
If you like the idea of ball gown wedding dresses for your wedding day, then take a look at the thousands of pictures available online to find different styles that appeal to you. Try on many dresses before settling on the one that is perfect for you. Just because a dress may look perfect in a photograph or a shop window, does not mean it will suit you and your body type, so don’t be too rigid with your choice. Shop around and take your time and keep an open mind when trying on gowns. What may not look too good on the clothes hanger might look perfectly gorgeous on you.