For decades it was one of society’s biggest taboos: the bride with the baby bump having a shotgun wedding. And of the avant-garde brides who would admit to being in the family way, few of them, if any, would have dared walk down the aisle in a white dress. But times, it would seem, are a-changing. Last year, an estimated 20,000 brides in Britain were pregnant on their wedding day, accounting for 10 per cent of all first-time brides under the age of 45.

And if soaring sales at maternity bridal boutiques are anything to go by, more pregnant women than ever are opting to wear a traditional white wedding dress.

Most of the brides are aged between 25 and 29, say the figures from the Office for National Statistics, and are around three to five months pregnant on their wedding day.

And it’s a trend among couples that shows no sign of slowing down.

More and more younger couples are choosing to live together before they marry these days. And when they do get married, it’s more acceptable for the woman to wear white, even if she is pregnant.

Our ever-changing society, has a major part to play in the increase.

Before if a couple fell pregnant, they might have thought about postponing the wedding, but now there’s so much pressure in our society, they don’t think they’ll have time after the baby to organize a wedding.

And, she says, the stigma of wearing white as a pregnant bride is so much less.

A few years ago you’d have struggled to find a white maternity wedding dress. Now, you can find one easily – and people are much less embarrassed about wearing one.

The dresses are specially tailored to accommodate the baby bump, and designers are trained to estimate how much a bump will have grown by the big day, with extra fabric added into the dress to help with adjustments if a bump grows faster than expected.