Asia offers a wide variety of dazzling cultural dresses that continue to be worn for wedding ceremonies today. Many brides throughout Asia wear their country's traditional cultural gowns in addition to the white, more Westernised dress.
Below are traditional wedding dresses of some countries in the region including a little bit of information about them.
In a traditional Japanese wedding, the bride typically wears a pure white kimono for the formal ceremony, which symbolizes purity and maidenhood. After the ceremony, the bride will change into a red kimono that symbolizes good luck, according to Bored Panda.
Weddings are a $20 billion industry in Japan, where the average cost of a wedding for 50 to 100 people is $30,000 and can even exceed $100,000. A wedding that costs between $10,000 and $20,000 is seen as cheap. Because of this, some families will go into debt in order to have a lavish wedding.
Most people dream of traveling to Thailand, a lush Southeast Asian country, with its tropical beaches, ancient palaces, and smiling people. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Queen Sirikit was a major influence on fashion in Thailand and was considered the best-dressed woman in the world by Thai citizens. She is credited with reviving the status of Thai silk, often used in Thai national dress.
The official Thai national dress is known as Chut Thai Phra Ratcha Niyom, and it can come in various styles, depending on the occasion including wedding ceremonies.
The traditional Vietnamese wedding is influenced by Confucian and Buddhist ideologies. Back in the day, parents or extended family arranged the weddings without consulting with the children. Sometimes, the bride and groom would meet for the first time on the wedding day.
The date of the wedding is typically decided by a Buddhist monk or fortune teller, but this could be different if the family is Catholic. During the ceremony, the bride and groom would wear a variation of an “Ao Dai,” which is a silk tunic worn over the pants and is Vietnam’s national costume.
On the big day, the bride is dressed with a traditional Lao silk Sinh (Lao skirt), and silk blouse, and has her hair tied up in a special way with gold decoration. This ensemble is finished off with a gold necklace, bracelets, earrings and a bell.
The groom also gets dressed up usually with white or cream coloured silk shirt and a traditional silk Salong (a pair of baggy pants). Sometimes grooms wear normal pants and suits as some find Salongs uncomfortable.
In Indian culture, pink or red wedding dresses are often the garment of choice for brides. Married woman in the north of the country can often be identified by a red dot in the middle of their forehead.
In a traditional Tibetan wedding, the bride wears a white, woolen wedding dress layered with brightly colored aprons and robes. In ancient times, most weddings in Tibet were arranged, however, that has fazed out in modern times.
As the biggest archipelago country in the world, Indonesia is blessed with a diverse culture, each region even possesses its own unique wedding customs. Traditional Indonesian weddings are festive and vibrant, mainly thanks to its beautiful attires. Another spotlight on certain wedding ceremonies would be on several stunning wedding headpieces and crowns that can be found across the country.
One of the heaviest traditional Indonesian headpieces, the sunting or suntiang is worn by Minang brides from West Sumatra. The traditional suntiang gadang crown is put together from up to 11 layers of flowers, gold, and aluminum, no wonder it can weigh as heavy as 5 kg! These days, however, it can be easily find as lighter, more practical, yet still, beautiful suntiang made of brass.
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Discover traditional costumes in Asia
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