Bride from Zürich, from Theatrum Mulierum

Hollar's etching is one in a large series recording all manners of dress throughout Europe. Gowns worn for weddings were finely made with rich velvets, satins, brocades, laces and elaborate embroidery, but they were rarely white. Traditional colors for gowns were blue, pink, or cream. Widows who remarried while still in bereavement wore lilac, mauve or gray. Attendants sometimes wore white. The "white wedding" with veil was an invention of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and was popularized by Queen Victoria when she wed Prince Albert in 1840.