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Saturday 5 October 2024

Focus on Wedding Fashions - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Satuday's October theme is "Special Occasions" which this week focuses on Weddings, with the prompt photograph showing a bride arriving at the church with her father.    

Where do I start on this topic, as I have no shortage of images! So I am focusing  on fashion.Takea look at styles down  decades from 1879 to 1971 - and read the stories surrounding the events.


One of my favourite photographs as it is so typical of its period - 1929,  According to her daughter, Jennie Danson (my great aunt)  by her late twenties decided she had had enough of fulfilling a domestic role for her four brothers,  following the death of their parents.  The  brothers   showed no inclination to marry and set up their own homes.So  1929 saw Jennie marrying Beadnell (Bill)  Stemp at St. Chad's Church,  Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   This move prompted her brothers all to get married in the following few years! 

A local newspaper report gave an  account of  Jennie's dress. Written  in an effusive, over the  top   journalistic  style,  it makes entertaining reading:

"A wedding of much local interest took place in the Poulton Parish Church on Saturday afternoon the bride being Miss Jennie Danson daughter of the late Mr and Mrs James Danson, Bull Street and the bridegroom Mr Beadnell Stemp, son of Mr and Mrs B. Stemp, Jubilee Lane, Marton.
The bride,  who was given away by her brother Mr R. Danson,  was stylishly gowned in French grey georgette, veiling silk to tone.  The bodice which was shaped to the figure was quite plain, with a spray of orange blossoms at the shoulder, while the skirt, which was ankle length, was composed entirely of five picot edged scalloped circular frills, and the long tight sleeves had circular picot edged frilled cuffs in harmony.  Her hat was of georgette to tone with uneven pointed dropping brim, having an eye veil of silver lace and floral mount.  She carried a bouquet of pink carnations with silver ribbon and horsehoe attached."

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 Here is the 1931 wedding of Albert Leslie Williams and Hilda Florence Coombs in London, the parents of my cousin's Stuart's wife.  It is two year's after my great aunt's wedding above and in another part of the country, but Dutch style hats for the little bridesmaids were still in fashion.

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 My mother's cousin Annie Danson  married on 4 October 1928 and the local press report again provided a fascinating picture of the fashion of the day.    Do take time to read it as it gives such a colourful and evocative description of the dresses, with the headline "Gowned in Delphinium Blue".

“A member of an old Poulton family Miss Annie M Danson, daughter of the late Mr and Mrs J Danson was married in the Parish Church, Poulton. 

The bride, who was given away by her uncle Mr R. Danson, was gowned in delphinium blue georgette, the sleeveless bodice being plain, while the circular skirt was side slashed and bordered all round with deep silver lace.  Her hat was ruched georgette to tone and she wore silver shoes and hose to tone.  Her bouquet was of pale pink chrysanthemums. 

The bridesmaids were Miss Jennie Danson (aunt) and Miss J Ditchfield (sister of the bridegroom).  Miss Danson wore pale shell pink georgette over silk, the picot edged skirt having shaded crystal motifs at intervals.  Her hat was of fine black felt with alternate shades of pink chiffon velvet on the drooping brim to tone with the gown.

Miss J. Ditchfield was in mauve taffeta, veiled with fine Brussels lace, with a hat of fine grey felt.  Both bridesmaids carried bouquets of russet chrysanthemums.

The reception was held at the home of the bride’s uncle, after which Mr and Mrs Ditchfield went to New Brighton for the honeymoon, the bride travelling in a dress of rose-rust silk, with ecru lace en relief, over which she wore a cost of dove grey, with fox fur trimming and hat of grey felt”.   
 
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  Isn't this hat magnificent?  This was the wedding photograph of George Butler and Sarah Alice Oldham who married in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1910.   Sarah's husband George worked for the Oldham family's  coal merchant business.
 


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Below is a charming photograph of the marriage of Sarah's sister Beatrice Oldham and Jack Clark on 26th December 1919.

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9sqghIuCxbifncIai7tjS_rWbINYcLOJqbwnvDOOUZqbwFYyKgeqgLyPhKcJkcfoJKfpBG8MsyX2KJQvWvXwXAmu9jLHVgcV61wbpUrDzfiRXVf8BXIkBNw-OP9WfKEr2I65qCsHnWLj/s1600/Beatriuce+Oldham+%2528Wedding+Day%2529%252C+1919.jpg
 
 
I feel the significance of the date after the First World War is reflected in the fashion,   where there is a certain air of informality (shorter skirt, trilby hat etc.)  It contrasts with the very formal opulent dress of  Sarah's wedding above nine years earlier in 1910.
 
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 Back some 40 years to more opulence depicted in a    copy  of "The Illustrated  London News", issue no. 2074 ,  March 15th 1879.  Many years  ago when in London I discovered a pile of the magazines in a shop by the Victoria and Albert Museum and bought several editions, as I love the old engravings.
 


The occasion featured  here was the marriage in 1879  of Queen Victoria's third son  Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert,  Duke of Connaught to Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria, third daughter of  Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia.

The wedding report was very lengthy and extremely fulsome in style.  A short extract is given here:  The princess's dress was described as
 
"made of thick white satin, the waist trimmed with lace 4" wide, the skirt also trimmed with lace 12" deep with bunches of myrtle.  The train was 13 feet long, with a rich lace flounce 3 feet wide, upon which was laid a branch of myrtle......
The pearl necklace worn by her Royal Highness  was a wedding gift from her most illustrious and venerable uncle King William I,  emperor of Germany.........

The bridal veil was richly decorated  with real point-de-gaze lace, ornamented with flowers, crown and the royal coat of arms  of Prussia, in relief, all worked with real white lace.  The order was given at the beginning of July last  and the work has been done by the hands of 300 peasant girls  in the mountains of Silesia".  
 
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Onto a century  later  - and my own wedding in 1971,

 Here with my father arriving at  the church - my nearest image   to the prompt photograph below.  I was wearing a simple empire line dress, with a headdress in the style of Ann Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII.   Tudor styles were all the rage at the time, with dramas on TV and in Hollywood films.  

To be honest it not a good omen, given that Ann Boleyn suffered the fate of being executed by the monarch.   But my husband and I survived and have recently marked our 53rd anniversary! 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share
their family history and memories through photographs


-l

Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers

are marking SPECIAL OCCASIONS. 

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1 comment:

  1. How enjoyable to go through the ages and see the fashions as they changed, or stayed the same! So glad your marriage has now celebrated 53 years...congratulations! I didn't get to doing a Sepia post this week...life interrupted!

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