I wore a crimson dress to a friend’s wedding a few years ago. She caught my attention as I was waiting to throw sprinkles at our newlywed friends outside the venue and wearing a white lace dress. I rolled my eyes inwardly. What was she contemplating, I wondered. Does she not understand good manners? The wedding pictures appeared on Facebook many weeks later. It wasn’t the white clothing there in the photos that disturbed me anymore. I owned it. There, my iconic red was more than a little distracting among a sea of white, black, and blues.

White has historically been the sole hue that is forbidden for wedding guests, for obvious reasons—nobody wants to draw attention away from the bride. But things are shifting. Nowadays, a lot of individuals don’t consider wearing white to be a huge issue. Some engaged couples are completely okay with it. For the rehearsal dinner or the ceremony, they may even ask that everyone wears white to maintain the monochromatic colour scheme, a practise that has been seen at both royal and famous weddings.