By the early to mid-1800s, the style and color of the wedding dress began to change with 1840 marking the official year for the white wedding gown. This was the year that Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert of Saxe and wore an extravagant white wedding gown. At the time, this raised a lot of eyebrows but soon after, it started the white wedding gown trend and brides throughout Europe and in the United States started to choose the color white for their special day as well.