“They’re very classic styles and very dignified styles,” said Scott Wells of Bridal Online Store. “They’ve become popular with our other brides as well.”

Bridal Online Store, owned by Wells and partners Jill Aldineh and Al Short, received many inquiries about dresses that met LDS temple specifications. Though the business is not LDS-run, the partners decided to create a temple-ready line to accommodate these brides.

But the temple-ready line has been popular among the non-LDS community, too.

“Our core market for that line is the LDS bride, but surprisingly those aisles are quite popular in other segments of the population as well,” said Wells. “[For] a bride who just wants a modest look, they’ve been very popular.”

Eternity Gowns, which started as an LDS business, now sells about 65 percent of their dresses to the non-LDS community. Muslims, Jews, and Baptists are among those who buy from the modest line.

“It just makes logical sense that if you’re growing as a religious company you don’t limit yourself to one religion,” said James Walker, owner of Eternity Gowns.

But many people buy modest wedding dresses for reasons other than religious ones. General fashion is moving in a more modest direction, as LDS Living reported earlier this year. This trend supports Walker’s belief that fashion is cyclical, and that the current cycle is pointing to more modest-style gowns.

“We’ve gone through a period of time during the last ten years or so that strapless gowns have been in fashion,” said Walker, “but if we look at the runway of what’s coming . . . modest gowns are becoming more mainstream.”

The new styles in wedding dresses include sleeves, higher necklines, more neck details, simple embellishments, and more attention on the bodice. This is good news for companies such as Bridal Online Store and Eternity Gowns, who already carry modest wedding dresses.

“We already do necklines and sleeves,” said Walker. “It hopefully gives us to a wider audience.”

Ultimately, though, people buy wedding dresses because they are beautiful, and modest dresses appeal to the taste of many women.

“They’re not looking for that exact specification, but they look at it and think ‘that’s a beautiful gown,’” said Wells. “They don’t know where it really came from, but they just see it as a beautiful gown and go with it.”

Although their goal is to produce modest dresses, Eternity Gowns believes in creating beautiful dresses that many women will enjoy. “If we can get to the point where people buy our gowns just because they’re beautiful dresses, then we will feel that we have succeeded in our business,” said Walker.

So is modesty back in style? It looks like it's on its way. And whether it is or not, the modest wedding dress will always be appealing for their classic and simple beauty.

“It’s the classic styles that really stick around,” said Wells.

See eternitygowns.com, bridalonlinestore.com, and templereadygowns.com.