Polish Wedding Attire

At a Polish wedding, in her hair, the bride wears a wianek, a wreath of flowers and foliage. Photo by Marta Malina Moraczewska, photo licensed CC by-SA 4.0, international creative commons.   For a Polish wedding, the bride and groom have a lot of options to choose from for their wedding attire. Modern Polish brides can opt for the European style of white dress with white shoes and veil. However, more contemporary Polish brides choose to purchase their dress from a boutique, where colors like sand, champagne, and pale gold are on offer. Still others choose to honor tradition, wearing folk Polish wedding costumes. It is these traditional outfits I want to focus on today. First, though, I share a fairly recent history of the Polish wedding dress.  

A Recent History of the Polish Wedding Dress

Our recent history begins in the early 1800s. Prior to the edict of emancipation, signed by Tsar Alexander I, Polish weddings remained a simple affair. Polish brides avoided white, as this color was associated with Christ. They also avoided dresses inspired by the west. In all likelihood, a Polish bride wore their nicest church dress, in a solid color. Nothing fancy, the pinnacle of modesty. Everything changed in 1863, with The Emancipation Edict of Peasants. This edict freed the Polish population from a life of feudal duty, where all their labors lined the pockets of landowners. Finally able to own and tend their own properties for their own profits, the Polish people celebrated by conceiving elaborate costumes for festivals, and of course, for weddings. Suddenly, the wedding dress became an opportunity to dress in lavish style. Vibrant skirts, embroidered with exquisite floral designs, paired with white blouses became the norm and embroidered black vests became the norm. In addition, brides wore exquisite headdresses. Depending on which region of Poland a bride hailed from, her headdress might consist of a ring of flowers entwined with foliage. Or it might tower high above her head, looking like a cross between an imperial crown and a wedding bouquet. Then, following the devastation of World War II, Polish brides visited tailors for handmade gowns. While these may have been white, they may also have been whatever color the merchants could stock on a regular basis. During the 1970s, Polish brides shifted away from tailors, opting for ready-to-wear white wedding gowns. By the 1990s, no one used a tailor to make their wedding dress. Meanwhile, the trend for ostentatious, showy wedding gowns covered in lace and shimmering with sequins came into vogue. Today, the trend is moving away from ready-to-wear, back to tailored dresses offered in a boutique. The bride sips champagne as expert seamstresses measure her for her couture gown. As I mentioned before, this Polish bride is as likely to choose champagne as her gown color as she is white.  

Traditional Polish Wedding Attire

First of all, jewelry appears absent in most traditional Polish weddings. Instead, the bride and groom adorn themselves with embroidered costumes, flowers and ribbons, as well as hats and headdresses. While each region of Poland offers a slightly different take on the wedding costume, I chose to focus on the overall feel of the traditional Polish wedding costume. So, for those of you reading who are from Poland, I beg your forgiveness ahead of time if I mix things up a bit.

Traditional Polish Bride's Costume

First of all, I draw attention to the bride's wedding costume. Polish brides traditionally wore an intricately beaded and embroidered skirt with an equally decorative white blouse. She might also wear an embroidered black vest over the blouse. The embroidery usually featured a beautiful spray of flowers and foliage. The hems of both skirt and blouse were lined with ribbons. Though the traditional costume called for black skirts, as well as red and green ribbons, a bride's skirt might be white. Furthermore, red ribbons were left out of the bridal costume, as red ribbons on the wedding day were thought to provoke fighting in a marriage.

The Bride's Hair

A Polish maiden wears her hair in braids, signifying the freedom of youthful zest and playfulness. Therefore, on her wedding day, while she is yet a maiden, she wears her hair in braids with a beautiful circlet of flowers and myrtle leaves upon her head. This circlet of flowers represents the innocence of her youth. As I mentioned before, in some regions this headdress remains fairly simple. It might feature sprigs of fresh rosemary, myrtle leaves, and whatever flowers are in season in Poland at that time. However, in some regions, this headdress, also called a wianek, might tower 24" up from the top of her head. These towering crowns of flowers take hours to create. With the loving help of friends, family, and neighbors, this labor became a community event. Once the flowers are firmly in place, colorful ribbons are added as a final flourish. You can see an example of one on this site. Just scroll down until you find the Polish bride. At some point during the wedding festivities, either during the ceremony or at midnight during the reception, the bride's mother will remove the wianek and perform a special ceremony called oczepiny. During this rite of passage, the bride's mother unbraids and cuts her hair, signifying her transition from maidenhood into her new life as a wife.

A Polish Groom's Attire

Traditionally, a Polish groom wears the folk costume associated with his region of origin. Commonly, this includes an embroidered black vest over a white shirt. He might also wear a striped cumberbund and a specifically tailored white long coat over the whole. For pants, he might wear loose striped peasant pants. Or he might wear white or black breeches with high boots. Most certainly, he will wear a hat of some sort. Likely black felt adorned with ribbons and flowers. No matter which regional outfit he chooses, the wedding attendants will outfit him with plenty of floral and ribbon accessories to highlight the festive atmosphere of a Polish wedding. ~Angela Magnotti Andrews