Wedding Fashions circa 1920

[curiouswombat]

When I attended the family wedding last week I was talking to someone whose uncle married my great-aunt. I mentioned that I had a picture showing the great-aunt, and this gentleman asked if I could possibly send him a copy.

However, I could do better - I have a copy of their wedding picture and, having scoured the house looking for it, finally remembered where it was this evening, and scanned it and e-mailed it to him. (And how amazing would that idea have been to the people in this picture back in 1920 or so?)

I thought it worth posting here - the glamorous lady sitting to the left is the bride's sister, my great-aunt Emily (who sadly died when I was an infant), the rather handsome young man standing at the left is their young brother - John, about 20 years old here. I don't know who the other bridesmaid is, but the gentleman sitting on the right, with his waxed moustache and spats, is the bride's cousin Charles Augustus, brought up by her parents and so more like a brother. He was a fascinating person - I must gather his whole history together some day.

But in the meantime - Aunty Nellie and Uncle Bobbie's wedding picture for your edification...

Comments

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

What great picture! I love old pictures like that. I find them fascinating.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have quite a few from that era - and earlier as well. The lady in this icon is my grandmother - older sister to the bride and bridesmaid.

I can't help thinking that they were a good looking family.

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

They are a very good looking family. You look a bit like your grandmother.

I have boxes full of old photos from my family. The oldest from the early 20s, I think.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that the female genes down this particular line are pretty strong - I look quite a lot like my grandmother's mother, too. But I think they have met their match in those of my husband's family, as my daughter looks quite a lot like his sister - more than she does like me, for sure.

It's lovely to have those old photos, isn't it?

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

Your husband sister must be very pretty if D-d looks like her.

Yes it is. I love my old photos to bits.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I don't have many pictures of my sister-in-law. But here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/voirreys_pics/4983716065/) is one with her, S2C, and their mother - just not very flattering, I fear!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

I can see the resemblance. S2C looks like his mom.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

He does, doesn't he? I think D-d has done well - she seems to have got the best of both sides as I think she is a little prettier than her aunt...

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

She is prettier than her aunt.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I rather like the idea of a nice suit (new, if you can afford it, but who cares, really?) and family gathering, rather than the sort of affair that takes a king's ransom and 4,000 pins on Pinterest to plan. Yes, it's a special day and all, but really, it's just a part of life.

I'm very grateful to have been married prior to the days when a big sit-down dinner was the "normal" thing to do.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sit down dinners have been the norm here since before my mother and father got married in 1952 - we have pictures of all the family and friends gathered at tables eating ham and salad followed by, I think, trifle.

When my aunt and uncle married during the war - 1943 I think - she wore her best suit, but by the time Mum and Dad married my Mum had a new, ballerina length, white dress and a short veil.

But all the top hat and tails thing is very much a modern phenomena for anyone other than the upper classes. And rather a waste of money, I think.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

On what scale, though? Surely it wasn't the lavish banquets that seem to be the norm here in the U.S. today. What a huge waste of money--all that indebtedness, and for most young folks getting married here, that's on top of student loans!

I had a formal wedding gown, but honestly, I bought it at a second-hand store and made alterations. Cost me all of 86 bucks! :-)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think there were probably about 50 at Mum and Dad's wedding - and I would guess there would not have been wine, but simply tea to drink with the salad as it was in a cafe not a hotel - I must ask her what they did about the toasts.

I was not unlike you - I bought my dress in the sales and I think it cost about £40.00.

The modern fashion for meals for 150 people at £30 a head and wedding dresses costing anything up to £1,000+ is just ridiculous, I think - so many more things that could be done with the money.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I love this. They look so serious, as if they're aware of the importance of the moment. Not that (some) people now aren't aware of it, too, but there's something here I don't see in contemporary wedding photos somehow.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean - I think that not only did they actually believe their vows meant till death did them part, but everyone but the younger brother were survivors of WW1 - including Aunty Nellie and Aunty Emily, who both served in France, as far as I know.

[desdemonaspace]

Lovely old pic. My mother got married in a brown dress. White wedding dresses weren't so done in 1935, at least, not in my parents' class, it being the middle of the Depression here, too.

How lucky you could lay your hands on the pic, scan it, and send it to the old gentleman.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Smart suits or dresses, that would be very useful for the next few years, really seems much more useful than today's extravaganzas that will only be worn once.

I was really pleased to be able to pass it on to him - I'm wondering now how long it takes him to check his e-mails and find it!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

It must be wonderful to know your family. Although I do know parts of my adopted family's history, I know nothing of my own at all. I love the fact that you know who most of these people were and are passing that information on.

- Erulisse (one L)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have never really thought about how fortunate I am to know so much of my family background - I find it difficult to imagine not knowing.

We are quite hobbitty about families - and keeping stuff - my mother's house is the mathom house for the family I think!

I actually had this picture because it has Charles Augustus Christian on it and a researcher at our museum was very interested in him - so Mum and I went through the photo boxes looking for pictures of him.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I love old photos like this and wish I had old family pictures with me here in Spain. My sister has them all and she and I are not on good terms. Sad.

You're right about weddings being so extravagant these days. I never understood that. A cousin of mine made my wedding dress and my bridesmaids made their own dresses. We had a small wedding and it was just fine.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That is sad, about your sister having the pictures and not sharing them.

I bought my dress in a sale, and my mum and I made the bridesmaids' dresses - my sister bought her dress second hand, and... my mum and I made those bridesmaids' outfits too.

So many of us who have long lasting marriages spent more of our money on the marriage than the wedding - the way it has become almost a competitive sport to have the biggest, most extravagant, wedding is doing the actual marriages more harm than good, I think.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

A handsome group.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Weren't they just?

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. They would indeed be amazed by our technology!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I tried to imagine what they would have made of it - that I could just send a copy of the picture to Uncle Bobby's nephew from my sitting room to his in five minutes, including scanning it!

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I was thinking Uncle Johnny and Charles Augustus looked especially spiffy in their 3 piece suits!

[debris4spike]

That is a great picture - I love those old photos and seeing the clothes ... especially those superb hats.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They all looked very smart - I'd love to know what colour the bride and bridesmaids wore.

[clodia-metelli.livejournal.com]

What lovely flowers - and hats!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They all look rather spiffy - I am especially taken with the flowers and Charles Augustus' spats!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Absolutely lovely!

I much prefer a small wedding like that than these days of wedding-one-upmanship that seems to be the norm. I'm grateful that my nephews who had grand weddings are still happily married, but too often it seems like couples get so enraptured by the idea of a lavish wedding that they forget that after it's over, there's a marriage to manage!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

These days weddings seem to be almost a competitive sport - I also sometimes get the feeling that they are putting more into the wedding than the marriage.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

In the 1960s, none of my friends had large weddings and none, to the best of my knowledge, wore white wedding dresses. So the huge wedding industry hadn't taken hold yet.

Thanks for sharing the photo. You do, indeed, have a good looking family.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I can vaguely remember white weddings in the 1960s - but at the one that comes to mind the bride wore a white mini dress.

My mum had a white wedding dress in 1952 - but it was ballerina length and she then bought the same dress in lilac and pink for her two bridesmaids - all 3 certainly wore them afterwards to go to dances.

But the white dresses that could not be re-worn without dying or shortening, or could not be reused for anything sensible at all, seem to have filtered down to everyday people by the 1970s here.

I was really taken, looking at this, by how good looking those relatives were - it had never really occurred to me before. Perhaps because the good looking young man on the left is, in my mind, a distant memory of a man in his 60s to late 70s, and the bride (who this picture doesn't flatter) a plump elderly lady, who always wore a wrap around apron, and had a cat called Mackerel!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Photos like this are priceless!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They are, aren't they? My Mum has a lot of them - her house is the family mathom house! We are trying to make sure as many as possible are named.

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

I find it fascinating to look at old photos, and the fashions in this one are very smart, and the wedding party is a very good looking group of young people. You must be very happy to have it in your collection.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They looked really smart, didn't they? And it only really struck me, when I looked at it this time, how good looking my great uncle Johnnie was as a young man.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

oh the hats - i love the hats - and the loose beautiful bouquet. what a great image to have.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They are rather smart, aren't they? I must find my grandmother's wedding picture, too - she had a rather nice hat as well, if I remember correctly.

[peabodyblue.livejournal.com]

Great photo! I love looking at pictures like this of my own family as well. Sometimes, wish I could go back in time to meet them!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I actually did meet three of these people - I remember the bride and groom, and the young man on the left - but they were somewhat older!