Here comes the bride, all dressed in...
a neutral color? Well, that would make more sense if the bride was marrying someone who is currently an imprisoned person.
But why no white for the blushing bride on her wedding day? The answer is simple: white is considered a gang color by most prisons, and those wives-to-be who choose to sport the hue on the day of their prison wedding risk not being able to go through with the ceremony altogether due to this clothing color violation.
In other words, a girl wearing white is considered marrying into one of the inmate gangs the color represents, which can spark an inmate riot if it somehow offends one of the members from an alternate prison gang who finds out about the holy matrimony.
Yet, a woman who mistakenly wears white on her visit (or the day of her wedding) is not out of luck, as prisons have ample experience handling the color issue and have since introduced the prison fashion room.
In a hidden area off the main admitting entrance to the jail is a little room where a female employee sits, ready to assist the "offending visitors" with a change of their prison wardrobe should the ladies wear an inappropriate shade or style of clothing.
To add insult to injury, outfits available in the prison fashion room have been worn by numerous others without being laundered first - therefore, rescheduling the visitation (or wedding) altogether and wearing one's own approved garments next time around seems the most simple solution to a common visitor violation when it comes to prison visiting rules.
Not to worry about what is on the "approved garments" list though since the female employee in the fashion room will readily hand over the list of prison clothing permitted for visitation, should she be asked to do so! Rumor has it that a prison bride one day walked into the facility, very excited to have her wedding to the man with whom she had been carrying on an inmate romance for the past three years.
Everything seemed to be going fine - the day was sunny and warm with a slight breeze blowing, she had hit almost no traffic on her hour-long drive to the prison facility, and she had even saved enough from her latest paycheck, with a bit of money to spare, to purchase the new black outfit she was now wearing in honor of the day.
Upon arriving on the grounds, she exited her vehicle and walked into the Administration Building for check-in.
She was immediately given a withering look from the prison correctional officer behind the glass partition, causing her to wonder what she had already done wrong - after all, she wasn't wearing anything white! The woman was told to report to the prison fashion room immediately, at which time she dared to inquire what the issue was with her new outfit.
The Correction Officer informed her that a sleeveless tank top was not permitted on prison property, even if it was covered over by a button-up sweater.
The woman's mistake had been to combine the two pieces of clothing, thinking it would turn into an appropriate outfit if her shoulders were covered by her modest sweater.
She didn't realize the gray area in the prison clothing rule: putting two forbidden items together for one outfit does not all of a sudden make the banned clothing approved for an inmate visit, much less a wedding.
The sweater was on the "no" list due to its buttons - a prisoner could tear the buttons from it at any time and then yank her sweater off her thin frame, thereby making the prison responsible and risking a lawsuit filed on the female visitor's behalf.
A tank top was definitely not on the list of permitted garments since a shirt such as this one was too easy for a violent inmate to grab at her with a successful attempt.
Needless to say, the moral of the story is: for whatever reason you are going to a prison, be sure to follow the dress code without failure or else you can prepare yourself to go through a similar experience.
As for what happened to the couple - they didn't get to hold their prison wedding on that particular day because the bride opted out of being married in overly-borrowed clothing.
But, the woman did go back to the prison fashion room before leaving to ask the female employee for that coveted list of accepted clothing.
List in hand, she then went out and bought herself another new outfit with her leftover spare funds, and is now married to whom she claims is the "love of her life.
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