by David Flint
The Stephentown Fire Hall looked more like a bridal salon last week as the Stephentown Historical Society put on a program on historic wedding dresses. Anne Kiely, Past President of the Grafton Historical Society, was the emcee, ably assisted by Dianne Mosher who teaches occupational education and advises the Drama Club at Berlin High School. With Dianne’s help the Society had borrowed and assembled more than two dozen wedding gowns from different periods and with quite a diversity of styles.
Kiely was a font of facts and legends on the history weddings as well as the garb. Did you know that the term “groom” originally meant a male child, whereas a “bride” was one who cooks? Weddings were traditionally arrangements intended to promote families and ensure the longevity of the community. The bride and groom had little to say in the matter. In fact most often the groom would see his bride for the first time at the wedding. Some say the purpose of the veil over the bride’s face was so that the groom would not bolt before the ceremony got under way when he discovered that the face of his about to be spouse was not exactly that of Helen of Troy.
In earlier centuries the color white often symbolized mourning. The custom of the white wedding gown goes back perhaps to 1499 when Anne of Brittany wore white at her wedding to Louis XII of France. The tradition was solidified by the later weddings of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Empress Eugenie and especially that of Queen Victoria, which was photographed. In colonial America, however, since white was the color of everyday wear, many brides opted to show off in red. Actually any color was OK, Kiely said, except black or green. However, one of the gowns on display at the Fire Hall was in fact black; it was worn by Lily Hewitt’s grandmother about 1900. And another one, from the Arrowhead collection dating from 1850, was of green embroidered silk.
According to Kiely, it was the Italians who came up with the idea of the multi-tiered wedding cake. The newlyweds were supposed to kiss over the cake. If they didn’t wreck the cake in the process it augured well for a good marriage.
Kiely noted that the planning and carrying out of weddings today is a 25 billion dollar industry. Eighty percent of young women in the U.S. still opt for a big wedding to which they invite an average of 200 guests.
The oldest gown on display, a silk dress from Arrowhead, was made about 1815. The second oldest was a cream colored, flowered, satin gown worn by a Sarah Hastings at her 1837 wedding in the First Church on Pearl Street in Albany. Other gowns on display included one worn by Grace Zema, five foot one inch and 96 pounds, when as Crescenza Mastropietro she married Matteo Zema in 1954. There were two from 1915, one of them a white satin and lace gown worn by the mother of Selma Shill who donated it to the Historical Society and another, a white silk gown worn by Irene Botts’ mother. There were a number of dresses from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The sole entry from the late 70s was of course a white mini dress with lace up boots.
“Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue – and a sixpence in the shoe.” Blue, Kiely said, symbolized the presumed purity of the bride, and the sixpence indicated the hoped for prosperity of the married couple.