Today’s classical wedding dresses became popular only in the 19th century, thanks to Queen Victoria. She was the first woman to wear a white bridal gown. Before her, women would choose a traditional garment or a dress that fit the fashions of the day.

In Western cultures, brides traditionally wear a white dress on their wedding day. Look beyond the west however and you’ll find a wide variety of wedding attire according to different countries and cultures. Some brides adorn themselves in colorful garments, others paint their hands and face in accordance with local traditions, and some hide their faces completely behind layers of jewelry or veils.

#1 Indian Wedding

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In Indian culture, pink or red wedding dresses are often the garment of choice for brides. Married women in the north of the country can often be identified by a red dot in the middle of their forehead.

#2 Nigerian Bride

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Nigeria is a big country with around 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages. Wedding ceremonies, therefore, change according to region, religion, and ethnic background. However, Nigerian brides often wear brightly colored wedding clothes. They also often wear a Nigerian head tie called a Gele.

#3 Traditional Wedding In Ghana

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Traditional weddings in Ghana are often very colorful, and each family has its own cloth pattern that features on the bride and groom’s wedding outfits.

#4 Mongolian Bride

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In a traditional Mongolian wedding ceremony, the bride and the groom each wear what’s known as a Deel. A Deel is a form of patterned clothing that’s been worn for centuries by Mongols and other nomadic tribes in Central Asia.

#5 Japanese Wedding

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For a traditional Japanese wedding, the bride often wears a pure white kimono for the formal ceremony, which symbolizes purity and maidenhood. After the ceremony, the bride may then change into a red kimono to symbolize good luck.

#6 Kazakhstani Bride

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In a traditional Kazakh wedding, brides typically wear a headdress known as a “Saukele” as well as a facial veil. The Saukele is usually prepared long before the girls reach the age of marriage.

#7 Scottish Wedding

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Men in Scotland traditionally wear the kilt of their clan for their wedding. After the ceremony, the bride wears a shawl emblazoned with her new husband’s clan colors to signify her transition into his family.

#8 Hutsuls Wedding In Ukrainian Carpathians

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The Hutsuls are an ethnocultural group of Ukrainians who have lived for centuries in the Carpathian mountains. The traditional wedding clothes are very colorful and the weddings themselves are very lively and full of dancing, games, and jokes.

#9 Romanian Bride From Oas Region

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Weddings in Oas are an important event in the northwest part of Transylvania. The wedding is organized by the parents as well as the bride-and-groom-to-be and various different rituals are involved including the preparation of the dowry and the costumes, choosing the godparents, and preparing the wedding flag.

#10 Bride In Gora Region Between Kosovo And Macedonia

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The Gorani people are Muslims by faith, but their traditions and customs contain various pagan elements. The bride is carried on a white horse covered with a scarf and a specially decorated umbrella during wedding festivities, and she accompanies her family to the neighbor’s house of her husband-to-be.

#11 Chinese Wedding

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In China, the color red is considered to symbolize good luck. The color is also believed to keep away evil spirits. It’s, therefore, no surprise that traditional Chinese wedding outfits almost always feature the color red.

#12 Yakan Bride

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The Yakan are an ethnolinguistic group that mostly inhabits the island of Basilan in the Philippines. Traditional weddings usually consist of two ceremonies, an Islamic one, and an older, pre-Islamic ritual. The weddings are arranged by the parents and both the bride and groom wear face paint for the ceremony.

#13 Matyo Bride From Hungary

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In traditional Hungarian weddings, a bride’s attire usually includes an embroidered dress with floral patterns and three bright colors. She often wears many underskirts as well as an elaborate head-dress with wheat woven into it.

#14 Traditional Peruvian Bride In Sacred Valley Near Cuzco, Peru

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Traditional Andean wedding outfits are often bright and include woven cloaks and hats adorned with tassels and reflective material. A special skirt and poncho are made for the bride and groom’s wedding day.

#15 Traditional Wedding Costumes And Bridal Crown From Norway

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In Norway, the traditional wedding costume is called a Bunad. It can also be worn for other occasions such as christening parties.

#16 Indonesian Wedding

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Indonesia has over 17,000 islands and so weddings here vary greatly depending on where people live and which of the 300+ ethnic groups they belong to.

#17 Hamar Woman In Traditional Dress

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The Hamar people come from Ethiopia. Unmarried women wear large collars made of red, green, and black colored beads, and married women wear two distinct metal collars. First wives also wear a leather band with a large visible disk attached.

#18 Korean Traditional Royal Wedding Costumes

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The Korean national costume is called the Hanbok, and a variation of this can be worn at traditional weddings. According to an ancient tradition in, the groom should carry his wife around the table on his back. This is so the bride knows that her husband is reliable.

#19 Traditional Wedding Costumes In Veliky Novgorod, Russia

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Russia has over 185 different ethnic groups, and many of these have their own separate wedding traditions. However, many Russian weddings last for at least two days and some go on for as long as a week.

#20 Afghani Jewish Bride

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Jews are believed to have resided in Afghanistan for nearly 1,500 years. Now however there is only one Jew remaining in the country (Zablon Simintov, who was born in Herat in 1959). Traditional wedding ceremonies saw the bride covered with a veil and garments, and she also wore henna on her hands and feet and sequins on her forehead.

#21 Weddings In Jakarta, Indonesia

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As in other parts of Indonesia, traditional wedding attire in Jakarta includes plenty of gold, intricate patterns, striking colors, and ornate headwear.

#22 Malay Wedding

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Most weddings in Malaysia are held according to Muslim tradition. Brides often wear wedding dresses that include colors such as purple, violet, and cream.

#23 Balinese Wedding, Indonesia

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Traditional Balinese wedding clothes are often vivid and richly decorated. The bride and the groom often wear crowns of gold on their heads during the ceremony.

#24 Uzbek Bride Wearing Traditional Clothes

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In traditional Uzbek weddings (Nikokh-Tui), the bride wears a colorful outfit hand embroidered with intricate patterns. The wedding ceremony plays an essential role in Uzbek life.

#25 Turkmen Bride

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In Turkmenistan, the traditional wedding ceremony sees the bride dressed up in a red dress made from silk homemade fabric studded with silver or gilded pendants.

#26 Polish Wedding From The Lowicz Area

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A Polish bride will traditionally wear a white dress and a full veil (welon). The groom will often wear a buttonhole flower to match his bride’s bouquet. If you notice a bride subtly moving a part of her wedding dress to cover the top of the groom’s shoe, she may be following a traditional belief that this will give her a position of dominance in the relationship.

#27 Palembang Wedding, Indonesia

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Palembang is the second-largest city on Sumatra Island in Indonesia. In traditional weddings, brides wear what’s called an Aesan Gede, which is a rich and striking costume that evokes the grandeur of the Srivijaya empire.

#28 Sami Wedding

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The Sami are the indigenous people living in the far north of Europe. The area is called Sápmi and it stretches across parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula. Their traditional dresses explain a lot about the wearer. For example, single people wear belts with circular buttons, while square buttons mean a person is married.

#29 Maasai Wedding In Kenya

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At a Maasai wedding, the bride is required to wear a bold and colorful necklace made of beads and shells. On the night of the wedding, a party called the “kupamba” takes place. During this party, the bride is allowed to take off her veil and show her hairstyle and jewels.

#30 Bedouin Wedding Veil In Israel

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In traditional Bedouin wedding ceremonies, Bedouin brides often wear a heavy and ornate face veil comprised of various pieces of jewelry.

#31 Javanese Wedding

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Traditional Javanese wedding outfits generally include a sarong, a high-collared shirt, a jacket and a blangkon (a traditional Javanese headdress) for the groom, and a sarong, a kebaya (long-sleeved blouse), and a selendang for the bride. The woman’s hair is often put in a flat bun called a Sanggul.

#32 Yemenite Jewish Bride

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In a traditional Yemenite Jewish wedding, the bride wears jewelry and an elaborate headdress decorated with flowers and leaves. These are believed to ward off evil. Gold threads are also woven into the fabric of her clothes and wedding celebrations traditionally last seven days.

#33 Traditional Bride In Ribnovo Region In Southwest Bulgaria

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The wedding customs in Bulgaria’s Ribnovo region are influenced by Islamic traditions. Festivities last for five days and include lots of singing and dancing. On the second day, the bride’s face is painted white and adorned with sequins.

#34 Traditional Bride Costume From Schaumburg-Lippe, Germany

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In Germany, traditional bridal headdresses vary from region to region. In the Black Forest valley, the headdress is large and decorated with hundreds of beads and glass balls, while in Buckenburg the emphasis is more on flowers than beads.

#35 Bride In Eritrea

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The Rashaida are a Muslim tribe populating Eritrea and northeast Sudan. When a Rashaida woman is to be married, she stays in seclusion until her wedding, and the Rashaida only marry their own. A Rashaida bridal veil contains rows of metallic thread embroidery and pearls which are geometrically arranged.

#36 Tibetan Brides

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For a traditional Tibetan wedding, the bride wears a white, woolen wedding dress which may be layered with brightly colored aprons and robes. Often there are so many layers that it can sometimes be difficult to see the bride underneath!

#37 Avar Bride Wearing Traditional Costume

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The Avar is a Caucasus native ethnic group living in the Russian republic of Dagestan. Much like their wedding outfits, their traditional wedding ceremonies are also quite elaborate and are generally accompanied by folk dances and music.

#38 Kinnauri Bride

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The Kinnauri people come from the Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh, India. In traditional Kinnauri weddings, the bride wears a heavy layer of gold and silver ornaments and a handmade garland made from dry fruits. The bride also wears a hand-woven dress with a brightly embroidered hand-woven shawl to cover the shoulders.

(h/t,Boredpanda)

Also Read More: 29 Indian State and Their Unique Traditional Dressing Style