Episode 41 "Til Death Do Us Part: The Dark, Royal, and Rebellious History of Black Wedding Gowns

Description

💍 Episode Summary:

In this hauntingly elegant episode of Every Body is a Bridal Body, Natasha and Kassidy dive into the shadowy, symbolic, and surprisingly traditional history ofblack wedding gowns. From medieval vows to royal mourning fashion, you’ll learn why black has always been more bridal than you think—and how today’s brides are reclaiming its power.

We trace the origins of the phrase “Till death do us part,” explore the bold brides of 19th century Spain and Finland, and discuss why wearing black down the aisle isn’t rebellious—it’s a return to legacy. This episode blends fashion history, feminine insight, and a touch of gothic glam to help you rethink everything you know about “the bridal look.”🖤

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The religious and political roots of “Till death do us part”

• Why black was the wedding gown of choice for centuries in Europe
• How Queen Victoria’s grief turned mourning into fashion
• What black symbolizes today—and why more brides are embracing it
• How to reclaim tradition on your terms
• 📚 Sources & References:
  The Knot – The History of “Till Death Do Us Part”
• ICOM Costume Journal – Brides in Black: Finland’s Black Gown Tradition
• Reddit – Spanish Black Bridal Fashion from 1800–1960
• Vogue – Can You Wear Black to a Wedding?
• Smithsonian – Mourning Attire & Queen Victoria
• 📱 Connect With Us:
  💻 Website: www.va-bridal.com
• 📸 Instagram: @va_bridal
• 💌 Email: everybodypod@va-bridal.com
• View the latest from Amy Mair Couture for avant-garde inspiration

See how black wedding dresses stand out on their own in this instagram post



Episode 41 "Til Death Do Us Part: The Dark, Royal, and Rebellious History of Black Wedding Gowns

This automatic transcript is brought to you by  AI technology.

Testing testing, is it working, Let's see. I see it's recording SWT. Sorry, We've had to restart this about five times. You know.

Even though I love my Apple products, Apple does not like non Apple, and so when I use non Apple sometimes it just randomly says, let's disconnect and go to your iPhone and I'm like, please, don't use my iPhone to record. I know it's weird, but so today, while I was getting ready for work, I was listening to my favorite girlies, my morbid girlies. I'm pretty sure Ashin Alena do not listen to me, and that's totally fine. A girl can day dream about it.

Fine. I was listening to an old listener tells because I have so many like non listen to podcast episodes because I'm just I try not to be consistent for my mental health, even though hey, that's just my default. Well and at times it's just hard to keep up on things, same way I am with Tony and Ryan. Yeah, but that was hard.

But the listener Tells was just like spooky ghost stories and things. And today is a really dark outside day with like heavy rain clouds, and even though it's technically our birth month starting tomorrow, Yeah, and it's May. It's gonna be May. It was raining pretty hard today, it has been today, So I've just been in a spooky kind of mindset and I'm just exhausted.

Yeah, you sure are. Went to the Post Malone Jelly Roll concert last night, came home after midnight, got to bed maybe around four or five am. You're a wild human being. It was worth it, though.

I looked like a blastom, so jealous. So much fun. And my mom giving her those tickets her Christmas was the best thing ever. And seeing her cry last night because she loves post Alone so much was the best.

I just think it's adorable that your mom loves him so much. Oh yeah. Throughout the entire concert, she would just say he's such a genuine human. Oh And I was like, I love you, mom, and I'm glad that I could give you these tickets.

Yeah that's really cool. Yeah, so I'm glad you guys went. Yeah, it was lots of fun. Your mom seemed so excited when she came to get you from the store yesterday.

Oh oh yeah, she's so freaking cute and she looks so good in her boots. She was all excited. Is so great. But I will say when we got back to the car afterwards, she couldn't get him off, so I had to run around the car and pull them off.

So did her feet swell on them? I have not successfully worn Cowgirl boots. Yeah, granted I have that bone spur on my left foot, so like that leather can just hurt with the she has to be very specific because of her bunion. It makes sense. Yeah, yeah, that's why I just stick to fred certain freebirds and then my dogs.

She's got those two. Yeah, your mom's got all sorts of shit. I know. I was passing the store in fashion Place and I was like, hey, you want to know sound crazy, mom? You've got like three pairs.

Never been in there, can't afford it, won't go in there. I only shop online. Yeah, they have their crazy like end of season sales. When because both pairs that I have were like normally four hundred dollars pair of boots, and I think both of them I each got for like one hundred bucks.

That's insane, and that's what I wait for. Like, I don't look for a specific style. I'm just like what's available. I just don't know what size i'd be.

You have to read the reviews, which is hard, but yeah, they seem to run accurate because I think both a minor are size eight and they fit me well. I just don't know what to base it off of, my bigger foot or my tighter heels. Sut Like, it's hard. This is what you do.

You go in there and you try on a bunch of shit and say I'll think about it, yeah, and then ghost them. Where we just pitching about people ghosting? Yeah, yesterday, Yeah, look out for that episode in the future, were gonna talk about ghosting. Yeah, but I think that's a great segue into our topic today, spooky moody. So today's episode is till death do Us Part? The dark royal and rebellious history of black wedding gowns.

Whoa wo, we are not the same birds. I love it. Okay, let me get on my podcaster or voice. Should I put on my picking up the phone boys? Yes, please welcome back to everybody as a bridal body.

I'm Natasha and I'm Cassidy Entdy. No, don't talk like that. Don't do that. Don't do that to anybody.

No one asks for that. Rewind Redolet's redo. That was too high picking up the and I'm Cassidy. In today's episode, it's a little darker, a little moodier, and a lot deeper than your typical wedding talk.

That's right. We're pealing back the lace curtain on the phrase till death do us part and diving into the forgotten and frankly fascinating history of black wedding gowns. If you thought wearing black to a wedding was edgy or non traditional, get ready, because it turns out that in many cultures back black was the original bridal statement. Yes, I'm so excited, guys.

Black is just great on everybody, it is I and white is hard. To pull off. You know. I've wondered that, in like today's world, if I would wear a white dress, or if I would do like a nude undertone or a color or more color.

Yeah, you know, but I'm glad that there's so many people who want something non traditional. Oh yeah, and that's one of the areas we thrive in as a business. So that's why I thought this episode would be fun. Yeah.

Okay, So the first part of this episode, we're going to talk about the vow of finality. So we're gonna start with those famous words till death do us part. Most people know them from church weddings or rom comms, but where did they actually come from. The phrase dates back to fifteen forty nine Book of Common Prayer, written during the English Reformation.

It was part of the Anglican. Oh Anglican Yes, I think you got it, Casca. Didn Tasha, You couldn't ask chat TPT for easier words. It's telling a story and everyone wants to hear us struggle because it's hysterical.

How bad we are at reading. I'm seeing some more words that I'm scared of. Anglican marriage liturgy, liturgy liturgy. Wow, you guys, I'm so sorry.

I may be graduating from college. But mmm, anyways, the original phrasing was till death us depart in older English department separate. So marriage, in the eyes of the church was a spiritual and legal bond that only death could serve. Sever yep, man, you are exhausted today.

I yes, I only got like three hours of sleep. Okay. So this wasn't just poetic It was a contract of permanence, often tied to land, property and legacy, and in some cases, especially among nobility, while you're rubbing off on me. It came with enormous political pressure.

That's the worst. Yeah, you didn't just marry for love. You married to secure bloodlines, align kingdoms, and often to keep secrets buried with you. Ooh, tell me your secrets.

Secrets? What are we lying about? What are we pretending? Did it happened? But really did? I feel like that's something people don't talk about, the secrets they marry for. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure it has to do with being like, oh, you were knocked up outside of marriage. It's like something stupid, something stupid.

I love that. Anyways, there is a reason it sounds a little ominous. Weddings, especially in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, were just as much about duty and mortality as they were about joy. The Church made it very clear your vows weren't meant to be broken.

Only death had permission to part. You could do We imagine living in a time that you just had to endure whatever marriage was handed to you. Yeah, it especially the amount of arranged well. Yeah, and I mean I understand certain culture cultures still do arrange marriages today.

Yeah. I have a friend who yeah, successful love it. Yeah, and I love that, like it's great to hear that in certain cultures they still do those things. Hopefully they've modernized in the practice of how they choose.

But I think back to history, and I mean King Henry the eighth right, my thinking of the right king, the one that had ten of wives and kept Hettingham. Yeah, he completely created his own church so he could divorce. That's funny because his first wife that he had his daughter with, who later became queen, it was frowned upon to divorce and she wasn't able if I remember right. Granted it's been a long time since I've done this history lesson, but if I remember, his first wife was unable to continue to bear children, which is why he was, you know, fancying around with others.

That's how Anne Boleyn came into the picture, because she had a family who really wanted to politically be at a higher status than what they were, and so they got her in front of the king and all of the things. So the reason there was a different church made in England was so that he could legally divorce his wife, because the church that they were married under said you can't divorce ever. So essentially it's like just you know, have a side piece, but he really wanted an heir to the throne that wasn't a female, and his wife couldn't give that to him. And so that's why he needed to marry someone new so that it would be like a like under the eyes of God, an actual heir to the throne rather than a bastard.

Is that why he killed a handful of his wives is to get out of the marriage. You know, he's just an absolute, absolute psychopath. So who knows, right, I mean, he like it, but it's wild to think that, like there was a time that you could just create your own goddamn church to say, you know what, divorce is now legal in the eyes of God. Yeah, because I.

Think it was divorce beheaded died, divorce beheaded survived or something like that. Yeah. So he had a I mean, he had all sorts of children, but with his first wife is who he had the first Queen Elizabeth with, I'm I don't know, we'd have to go down a hole ass rabbit hole. So sorry about that rabbit hole.

But like really that's what I think about whenever people talk about how you know the premise of till death do Us Part is in a sense of like I will be married to you until I take my last breath, Like there will be no one else in my life but you. Yeah, which super romantic for all my dark romance you know, book Talker release. But there was a time that like that would be the most terrifying thought. Ye, to know that this person could do horrific things to me and no one would care.

Yeah, they would just be like, well, you're the wife, so like shut the hell up. And then two, Honestly, if I was a person back then and I was stuck in a marriage like that, the way I would pray to whatever God would hear me to let the person I was married to just fucking die so I could just be a spinster the rest of my life. Yeah, I would. I'm sure there was an easy way to kill them off back then.

Yeah, they know why so many women got into plants, well, to make poisonous teas for their husband. Yeah, because back then, I don't think they had toxicology reports. That shit is so modern, No way, Yeah, they didn't know shit. That's what I would get into or run.

Yeah, you'd run. I E all right, guys. Okay, So our next segment of this podcast episode is about mourning and matrimony. So for today, a bride in black might get some raised eyebrows.

But for centuries, especially across Europe, black was a color of pety pety, modesty, and even royal status. So let's talk about Spain. In Spanish Catholic tradition, from the eighteenth to early twentieth century, it was common expected even for brides to wear black lace mantillas and full black gowns to church weddings. Why because black symbolized eternal devotion.

A woman more black to show that this was her only marriage, that she would not remarry even if her husband died. Some cobbin romantic they're like, hey, you've already got that wedding, just dee ward, that's black. Your husband dad put it back on. I mean, could you imagine in like the eighteenth century, so in the seventeen hundreds, like Marie Antoinette time, you're sitting in like a like over the top like ornate Catholic church in like Barcelona or somewhere, and then down the aisle comes this dramatic black gown with this whole long girl.

Oh my god, that is I would love to see that. That would be so pretty stunning. Hey, listen, can somebody do a whole house runway in a fucking Catholic church in Barcelona with like please, black gowns, please, black flowers, please, we need someone. Yeah, it's a dream anyways.

It was like saying, even in mourning, I remain yours, a romantic gesture, a haunting one, and one laced with deep religious symbolism. Then there's Queen Victoria, our favorite queen who has done so much for us in fashion history, a showstopper. Everyone knows her for popularizing the white wedding gown in eighteen forty, but after Prince Albert died in eighteen sixty one, she wore black for four decades, like only only every day for forty years. She wore black because that was the love of her life and he was gone from Why is she an idol? She is? Her influence over fashion was immense, So while she gave us the white dress, she also brought black morning attire into every day elite fashion.

It became a language of grief, devotion and memory. I love that she is just one of the coolest people in history. I love that she started the white wedding dress trend as well as black for funeral. Yeah.

Well, and in my Serbian culture, like when my Dada died, Yeah, my Bubba for it was only supposed to be for twelve months. She was gonna wear black every day. Really, so for six months as his grandchild, I was supposed to wear black every day for six months. Wow.

Granted I was the seventeen year old in my senior year of high school. I didn't have anything like that was very bubblegum, grilla pop kind of thing. So was Bubba mad at you? Yeah? What she gave me is I do have a bracelet from one of the Orthodox churches over there that's black, and it's like a woven one and then it kind of has two little points that come off it so that it kind of symbolizes a cross, and it has a bead. But you have to get that thing super saturated, wet, and then you have to like force it on to stretch it, and then when it dries, it shrinks and it can't come off.

I don't like that. I don't either. That kind of stuff gives me anxiety. Girl, How do you think I feel? Yeah? I know, I know you being afraid of being stuck in things.

Oh, fear so. But she honestly, I wore black every day for years, Like I swear it was like five years my grandmother dead. It was a long time. Bubba doesn't strike me as a person to wear black, no she.

I mean she's not a bright colored person. But she does like patterns, yeah, a lot. And maybe that's just her age. She's eighty four this year.

Yeah so, but yeah, black was that way with our family with mourning. So did any other family fully follow that, like your dad or aunt? Vestna did? My aunt did? Well, it makes sense because they're sisters. And that was I don't know, like I don't know. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, my daddy, so yeah, my dad's sister.

No, this is my dad's sister. Oh your an my aunt? I was thinking his aunt. No, No, So I'm urry my aunt did. And Bubba was really on it.

And anyways, my dad was just like, I'm not buying a whole new wardrobe for my children, like and he's like, and I don't think my dad cares, like if there is a heaven, because that's when my dad started to lose his belief in anything. He was just like, I even if he does have a spirit. I don't think he is pissed that you're Yeah, he's not going to care that you're not wearing black. So it's funny when I read that earlier today because I didn't know that about Queen Victoria.

So that was a fun little tidbit to get in like the research. But I thought it was really neat that for four decades, for forty years, she wore all black. A icon. I know, dream she's amazing.

Okay, So for this next segment, we're going to talk about rural brides, practical black and hidden loreo spooky. So beyond royalty and religion, black was often just practical. In nineteenth century Finland, for example, black was the standard for peasant brides. Why because it was one of the only dresses they'd own and it needed to serve for both weddings and funerals.

Isn't that crazy? I love that. Which we've talked about the practicality of wedding dresses and why they were everything but white. Yeah, So in these communities, weddings and funerals weren't seen as opposites. They were rights of passage transitions between states.

The black dress traveled between them. It honored the sacredness of life, love and death in one garment. I love that is so poetic. I want that on a shirt.

We should put that on a shirt. Oh FYI, guys knowing ever share this stuff. But we do have t shirts in store that say till death to us part. Yes, so bridal era, We're going to the chapel and we're gonna get married.

Sweatshirt and then a trucker hat. Come get come get yourself. Cute stuff. Yeah.

Anyways, and in folklore, especially Eastern European and Celtic stories, there are tales of brides who die before their wedding day and become symbols of unresolved love. Think of legends like the White Lady or even corpse bride inspired tales where the bridal gown becomes a shroud. In many older superstitions, black was actually worn to protect brides from spirits or to defy bad omens. See, so black on your wedding day is not unlucky.

No, it is not a sign that you were gonna die before he sees you. You are to protect yourself because just think demons and all of those like dark entities and spirits they live in a dark world. So when they want purity, yeah, and it want that white, they want to fuck your life. Oh one hundred percent.

So listen, listen to your aunties here when we tell you we're black on your wedding day. Yes, also you could take after me. I walk down the aisle to Corpse Bride, so oh god, I. Love Corpse Bride so good.

That is one of I think the most beautiful movies ever made. Absolutely, it's funny the vows. In it and the whole moral behind the arranged marriage and all of that when both of the families end up not having money, I know. But my favorite thing is how when Victor's in the living world, it's great, it's dark, it's black and white.

But when he's in the like underworld with Emily's it's colorful. Yeah. And I was like, hell, yeah, let's go to that underworld man. Yes, I love it.

I should watch that movie. So segment four we talk about the comeback of black. So fast forward to today. Black wedding gowns are reclaiming their place not just as alternative or goth, but as a fashion forward, historically rooted, and deeply symbolic choice.

Designers like Vera Wang, Julie Vino, and even Catore houses in Paris are creating black gowns that are dramatic, modern, and unapologetically elegant. And also shout out to Elizabeth Lee, who does all of our favorite black dresses as well. So good, chattobut didn't know to put you in there, So I'm gonna do a shout out. Absolutely Elizabethe can put almost any of their gowns in any color.

Oh, I love it. So let's be honest. Black can feel incredibly empowering. It's timeless, flattering, and makes a bold statement without saying a word.

When a bride chooses black today, she's not just being edgy. She's joining a lineage of queens, warriors, and women who honored love, loss, and loyalty all at once. God, that's so good. I'm so crave myself the chills.

All right, guys, So here's our final thoughts. Whether you decide to walk down the aisle in ivory silk or in a black lace, know that bridal fashion is richer and darker than most people realize. And if you ever hear someone say black isn't bridle, just smile and remind them that tradition has always had a darker side. One hundred percent.

You know what, people just think they know everything. People don't do research to understand how things came about, and they think. That what they have been passed down is the right, yes, rather than educating themselves. Yeah.

If somebody in a different generation above them told them that this is fact and this is how we do things and you don't deviate, they believe it as gospel truth. Yeah, which we earn out those people. So yeah, just keep being yourself. If you have family that struggles with the fact that you don't want to wear a white gown, know that you're not alone.

You can always reach out to us and ask how do I have this conversation, or if it's easier on you, come shop ahead of time without your family. Really get grounded and understanding you and your personality and what makes you feel the most beautiful, so that we can prepare for if you want to include those family members to see you transition into the bride that you've always dreamt of being and we can advocate for you. Or if you're the one paying for it and you don't want to hear all of their negative comments, just buy it. Without them seeing it.

Yeah, one hundred percent honesty. You tell me to feel bad doing that, and sometimes it's fun to shock them the day of Oh my god, the way I would want to be a fly on the wall when you were oh that shit. I will clap for you, be like a man. Ghosty claps, yes, Ghosty claps all right, loves Well, thank you for listening to this episode of Everybody Is a Bridal Body.

To see some of our favorite modern black gowns and explore custom options, be sure to visit our website right at vadash bridle dot com and. Follow us on Instagram at va underscore Bridle for behind the scenes, bridal stories, gown inspos and upcoming episodes. Until next time, dress for yourself, not for the expectations. Peace out, and just remember everybody is a bridal body.

Bye bye,.