Weddings: White: So Worn Out

This June, when Amanda Moore, 25, gets married in Beverly Hills, Fla., she intends to wear a black gown with pink daisy accents. Black, she says, is slimming, and pink matches a special necklace from her great-grandmother. "My mother-in-law was the only one who was, like, 'Oh, my gosh, you have to call the church and make sure it's OK'." (She did. It is.)

Moore's not alone in bucking altar etiquette. Jeffrey Moore, a senior vice president at wedding-dress superretailer David's Bridal, says 20 percent of its gowns now include color; they were all white (or ivory) just three years ago. The stores now carry 32 accent hues, including apple red and pool blue. (Toni DeLisi, owner of Memorable Events in Ramsey, N.J., says half of her brides accent with colors like ice blue.) There is color in 16 of 31 gowns in Vera Wang's spring '06 collection.

Weddings aren't as traditional now, and that "trickles down" to apparel, says Moore. The trend in "destination weddings" also helped spur the pro-color contingent. Typical brides pay $1,056 for a dress, according to the Conde Nast Bridal Group's American Wedding Survey. At that price, the desire to look good trumps tradition, and blinding white may not be a bride's best color. Lynna Heathman, 47, of Wentzville, Mo., wore a red gown for her beach wedding in Hawaii. "There are certain colors you feel happy in," she says. And it's OK if white's not one of them.