Weddings in Victorian times (1837-1901), at least for the well-to-do, spared no expense.
Beautiful, frilly gowns; lavish, multi-tiered cakes decorated with thick braids of frosting; and flowers overflowing every vase. A lot like our weddings today, actually. In looks, anyway.
“This is probably more subtle than it really would have been,” said Gary Parks, director of the Slifer House Museum in Lewisburg, indicating the lushly decorated living room in the museum’s “Will You Marry Me” exhibit. “There would have been garlands, more flowers on the staircase, everywhere.”
Viewing the wedding gowns of past days, seeing what was then thought to be stylish and fetching, gives you a feeling of romance and nostalgia, and a little bit of humor, too. I mean, plaid? In a wedding gown?
“Prior to 1910, the wedding dress was anything but white,” Parks said, and he has the top-of-the-line-of-their-day gowns to prove it. Turquoise blue, pale green, even a coppery brown number from 1783, and yes, a brown taffeta outfit with lace cuffing and plaid panels in the bodice and skirt.
“In this case, the bride wore plaid,” Parks quipped, explaining that after the circa 1875-1880 wedding of Mrs. Emma Rockwell Luce, of Girard, Pa., the taffeta outfit was likely worn to church and other social functions. Not everyone in Victorian days was wealthy, and if they couldn’t afford a new dress, they had to wear their best dress.
“Ladies were a little more practical,” Parks said. “They couldn’t just buy a dress and then let it hang in the closet.”
But if the gowns look a little dated, the cakes … ah! The cakes look good enough to dig into!
“In Victorian customs, you might have had three or four cakes,” Parks said, indicating an impressive, four-tiered cake just dripping with garlands of beaded white icing and sprays of pink flowers. And sometimes, he said, one of the cakes would have baked into it little charms tied to long blue ribbons that trailed out of the cake. Ladies pulled a ribbon to see what prediction their charm held for them.
“If you pulled out a thimble, you’re going to be a spinster,” Parks said. A horseshoe brought good luck, and so on.
Even the wedding gifts were somewhat similar to today’s weddings, except that they were intended primarily for the bride — silverware, china, linens.
“But don’t feel sorry for the groom” Parks said. “He was told the bride was his present.”
The bride and any land or wealth she possessed “belonged” to her husband — a custom we’re thrilled to leave in Queen Victoria’s time.
But the glamorous dresses and veils. Fragrant bouquets and garlands. Crazy little superstitious games. And those delicious, sugary, towering cakes — 19th century weddings sound like our kind of fun.
“The Victorians carried everything to excess,” Parks said.
Well, you can’t hate ’em for that.
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Discussion
Victorian weddings: Blowing out the big day
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