In our more than 10 years of business dressing flower girls, ivory dresses maintain popularity among the many color palettes available to brides today. Why is ivory so often selected for a flower girl dress when pure white is the historically correct color since Victorian times? Also, why are ivory dresses still a favorite color when todays selections are virtually without end? Why are there so many ivory flower girl dresses?

Ivory is a most pleasant and soft color that reflects and absorbs light. While white is perhaps the symbolic palette of innocence and virtue, it is a color that is stark and somewhat cold as it reflects all light and absorbs little. While white is the bright, but bare, light bulb of the color world; ivory is the light bulb dressed with a dainty shade to disperse and soften light. Thus, ivory is a romantic flicker of a candle and white is a bright, penetrating light. So, the mood a couple wishes to invoke at their wedding ceremony will very often influence whether to use ivory dresses or white dresses. The bride most likely has considered the differences in white and ivory when selecting her own wedding gown, and the flower girl dress is most often selected to coordinate with the wedding gown. Ivory is a romantic color, so it is a favorite for brides.

In our experience, ivory dresses are often selected for both the wedding gown and flower girl dress when the wedding ceremony is an evening event, a cool season affair (fall or winter), or a candle light affair. In these settings, white can be too bright and out of place. However, white will be selected over ivory dresses in nautical weddings, outdoor day-time weddings, and very traditional church weddings in daylight hours.

Another wonderful thing about ivory dresses is that so many charming personal touches can be added to an ivory dress. As the color has an antique quality in its varying hues of pale yellow to slight tea stain, ivory dresses lend themselves well to hand work and embellishments. Ivory, by far, is the most popular color for dresses that display intricate hand work of lace, crochet, ribbon embellishments, and floral accents reminiscent of times past. For this reason, we find ivory dresses most popular for vintage inspired and historically themed weddings. The color has an aged feel, like the charming patina of pages in an old book or petals from a pressed flower.

A challenge our brides have often discussed with us concerning an ivory dresses for flower girls is how to match it exactly to an ivory wedding gown. Quickly, we would like to share our advice on this topic. You will save quite a bit by purchasing your flower girl dress online or off the rack in comparison to special ordering the ivory dresses with the wedding gown (your only chance at having an exact match of color shade and material texture for the flower girl dress). For this reason, our advice is that ivory dresses for flower girls are perfect a shade or two lighter than the ivory of the actual wedding gown. When in doubt of finding an exact color match for the ivory of the wedding gown, settle for ivory dresses lighter in shade for the flower girl dresses.

By: Patricia Pirkis