#history Perhaps the first vestiges of the bridal dress are found in Babylon, Sumer and Assyria, where young women were taken to be sold in a kind of wife markets. Women were chosen by their future husbands according to their beauty. It is almost impossible to conceive that they were not dressed in a special way to highlight their attributes and, thus, increase their value.

But the first to use a real special ceremonial dress to celebrate the marriage union of couples seem to have been the Chinese. About three thousand years ago, the Zhou Dynasty imposed an obligation to use certain colors in marriage celebrations: bride and groom had to wear black robes with red tucks over a white undergarment, always visible. This imposition continued under the Han Dynasty (which came to power around 200 BC).) which also introduced the use of different colors for the different seasons: green in spring, red in summer, yellow in autumn and black in winter. And even today, Chinese brides wear, as a kind of talisman, the famous scarlet “phoenix suit” on their wedding day.
It wasn't until 1840, when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, that white became the rule.

Wedding dress story