This was the time I was first getting into stuff like this. I would look through Mom's magazines and catalogs and dream. Bridal and Formal always caught my eye and made me dream.
Unfortunately the 1970-s were far from the most elegant, necklines were high, styles were cut to hide, rather than show off the figure curves, and the only color you saw was plain white. Now white can be a very pretty, even sensual color, but the 1970-s just went to the extreme.
These are typical gowns for the 1970-s. Sometimes it seemed that the veil was more elaborate than the dress.
While I didn't find the 70-s gowns really exciting, there are many that are just plain cute, and very nice to see, and to wear.
The 1970-s is what gave bridesmaids dresses the bad reputation.
These were typical Bridesmaids of the 1970-s. They were long, almost always with the empire waist, where the waist of the gown was raised right up under the bust, hiding the natural waistline and the shape of the hips. These were almost always a bright, but matte cloth.
Nobody ever wore these again.
Notice the big floppy hats. These were the trend for summer weddings in the 1970-s.
Here are some more of the 1970-s
Here are some gowns at the turn of 1979-1980. See, they're showing more of what you will see in the 1980-s.
Look at the gown on the right. I can just hear my older sister say and complain that you have to wear a strapless bra with it. I say more like you get to wear a strapless bra with it.