Wedding kimonos are traditionally made from heavy silk lined with a lighter-weight silk, although synthetic fabrics are becoming more common. The designs may be woven, dyed, or embroidered; sometimes a combination of techniques is used. The most elaborate and expensive are the ones woven in the Nishijin area of Kyoto, where kimono have been created for hundreds of years, although these days most of the kimono are machine woven, not handmade.

Dyed kimono, while popular for everyday wear, are less common for weddings. The yuzen dyeing technique was developed around 300 years ago and involved using sticky rice paste to resist the dyes so that many colours and designs could be used in one piece of fabric. Nowadays, as with weaving, the dyeing process is mechanised. Embroidery is sometimes used to highlight dyed designs and may also be used alone to decorate kimono. Machine-embroidered wedding kimonos are among the least expensive.