Photo Credit: www.cchicdress.com

This being the 21st century, many brides and designers are deciding that white, off-white, and ivory are being overdone. So, they’re starting to either add more colors as touches to wedding dresses or, in some cases, actually designing and making wedding dresses in bold, new colors that aren’t close to being traditional.

If that’s the case, then why not an orange wedding dress? It sounds strange when one first thinks about it, but how many colors are there that are both loud and vibrant at the same time?

The thing about orange is that it’s not necessarily new, at least in other parts of the world. Many Asian countries have used orange as either parts of their wedding ensembles or as the color of the entire wedding dress for centuries. Indian brides are known for their colorful attire, and having the entire wedding party dress up in colors that are close to what the bride is wearing isn’t uncommon.

Reem Acra Orange Gown

Many designers who like to style wedding gowns in colors have been creating muted autumn colors over the past 10 years, and orange has been a part of that trend. But that’s muted. Reem Acra is probably one of the best known top designers who, in 2009, showed off a bright orange satin jacket to go over one of her white wedding gowns during her wedding gown show. It wasn’t an embroidered jacket either, but it was fitted and bright and definitely an eye catcher.

Another designer who has created a few bright orange wedding gowns is Lynn Lugo, whose wedding dresses can be found in many wedding boutiques around the United States and Canada. Her wedding dresses run the gamut from looking like traditional satin wedding dresses with big princess silhouettes, all in orange, to orange wedding dresses that could be worn to dinner parties. She’s one of the modern breed of designers who’s not afraid to use bold colors for any type of wedding dress to make a statement.

There are also many boutiques and online wedding gown makers who will take any design you wish and create wedding dresses in whatever color a bride wants. Orange certainly makes a bold fashion statement, and it’s a color that works well with some of them. Why not think about orange for your wedding dress.

See more:
Wedding Traditions in Asia
Ideas for an Autumn Wedding
Pink & Orange Wedding Theme

Vera Wang Wedding Dress

As the economy has wavered and spending on weddings has gone down, even the top designers are starting to feel the crunch a little bit.  Wedding dress designers, like everyone else, realize that they have to modify what they do to still be able to keep up with market trends, even if those trends are heading towards less expensive gowns.  In the long run, it may be one of the smartest moves they could ever make.

In her Spring 2010 Wedding Show, Vera Wang showed a high number of gowns at prices less than $2,000, and other gowns that were priced much lower than what she would have exhibited in the past.  Changing up on materials and some of the styling, Wang has shown that she can still create styles that have her distinctive touch, while finding a better use of less expensive materials.

The same can be said for Reem Acra wedding dresses, who has cut back on some of the embroidery she’s known for, has also still been able to put out wedding dresses women have been clamoring for, yet made them more affordable than even some of her previously worn wedding gowns, which often retain their value better than the gowns of most other designers.

All of this was done to try to offset a prediction by Los Angeles-based market-research firm IBISWorld back in February that there would potentially be a decrease in the sales of wedding gowns by 2.8%, and that the amount spent on wedding gowns would decrease by 8%.  With the rise in renting wedding gowns, designers couldn’t rely on only the richest of their customers to help keep them afloat, as they also have to compete against discount wedding outlet stores that are often selling used wares with their names on them.

How well it will all work won’t be known until the end of the year, but so far, the designers have stated that sales have remained steady, and across the industry, almost no one has said that they’ve had a reduction in sales, which may mean that bringing down the prices has been enough to stem the predicted losses.

No matter what, it’s the women buying wedding gowns that have won this year, and will continue to win as we move into 2010.

See more:
Vera Wang Wedding Dresses
Pictures of Designer Wedding Dresses