Friday 17 January 2014

More vintage wedding photographs part three

Recently I was lucky enough to find a few more vintage wedding photographs. I snapped them up; I enjoy looking at them so much. I always wonder about the stories that they are telling: how did the bride and groom meet?, how long had they been together? did they marry for love? who is everyone? how are they related? did the bride make her dress? what did the bridesmaids think of theirs? I wish it was possible to know some of  the answers. The most pertinent question is were they happy? I hope that they did all live happily ever after.


I was really pleased to spot this large group photograph, 4 bridesmaids, a flower girl and a page boy is good going. I think this dates from the late 1920's or early 1930's. The bridesmaids all have shawl collared dresses, the collars are edged with frills as are the bottom of the dresses. I think it is very interesting to see that they are all wearing the same hat but have styled them quite differently, like a bit of their personalities peeking through. I think I like the one on the far right best.

It is very hard to see much detail of the bride's dress. There seems to be quite a lot going on with the bodice and she possibly has a belt on. What amazes me is her tiara/headpiece. It is huge, really like a full on crown. I wonder if it was heavy? The glimpse of lace in her floor length veil looks gorgeous and very intricate.

The groom and the two men on the right are clearly related, they have the same nose and mouth shape. All the men have three piece suits on with differently patterned ties and in one case a bow tie. I wonder if he insisted on being different?!

The woman on the left interests me for a couple of reasons. Her dress is more 1920's in style than the others. It could just be an old one? If you can see her expression she actually looks quite cross! Was she? Or did she just not like having her picture taken?


This is only a tiny little snap that is a bit creased and wrinkled. I very much like it because it is such a candid shot. I like how it captures the bride and groom just as they exit the church, having a little chat or a joke before heading off to be congratulated and to pose for photos. I think this is from the 1930's although it is hard to tell with so little detail of the outfits visible.


This is a lovely picture, everyone looks happy, even the girl on the left who isn't beaming but does have a little smile going on. I think this is from the late 1930's/the early 1940's. Both men have very dapper double breasted pin striped suits on and very well stuck down hair!

The two older bridesmaids are in the same dresses, puff sleeves, centre button bodices and what look like large collars with small ruffles that tie with a bow. I think that it is interesting that they have tiaras similar to the brides and which have small veils at the back. The other two bridesmaids have floral headpieces and no veils. The bridesmaid with glasses has a Peter Pan collar dress and the youngest bridesmaid has lots of ruffles. I am wondering if the dresses are different by design or if it was because it was wartime and you had to take what you could get.

I think the bride is very pretty and looks radiant. Sadly we can't see many details of her dress because of the enormous bouquet and the lucky horseshoe. Her mid length veil seems to be made of a stunning piece of lace.

Oh. Did I mention the bridesmaids shoes? No? Take a look at their shoes!



I was very pleased to find these two pictures as I am always happy to find more than one photograph from the same wedding. It makes me feel like I am getting to see more of the story. The first picture contains the bride and groom's parents, the second just the bridesmaids and best man. I think that these date from the 1940s.

The bride's dress appears to be quilted on the yoke and shoulders and also appears to have amazing big 1940's shoulder heads on the sleeves. The dress has a collar and maybe has a pattern down the centre of the bodice but that is all the detail that it is possible to see, again, due to the enormous bouquet. This contains a lucky horseshoe or two and also a lucky black cat. Her veil is almost floor length and has floral motifs around it's edges. She looks very beautiful.

All of the bridesmaids are in different style dresses which makes me think it is wartime. I didn't see that at first, somehow my eye merged them all into something similar until I took a closer look.  Maybe the fact that they all have gathered muffs with flowers in the centre helped bring it all together. These are quite amazingly poofy! The bridesmaids have two different headpieces - a floral garland and some sort of wire work tiara. Look at the expressions of the bridesmaids on the left in the second photo!

I do like the groom's happy expression and the fact that you can see his and the best man's jumpers sticking out of the tops of their jackets. Maybe it was a cold day and the gathered muffs were not just for decoration.

I have really enjoyed looking at these photographs. I hope that I find some more soon.

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your observations on these photos very much, thank you for sharing them with us. I am struck by how elegant the women are, and how much the brides covered themselves up - no bare arms or plunging necklines here. It makes them look more prim than I imagine they really were. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are elegant aren't they?! There really is very little skin on show. It is such an interesting contrast to modern wedding photographs. I picked up a couple more photographs yesterday so I will be sharing them soon.

      Delete