Rachel Zilinski was getting married last year and needed ideas for her wedding dress.
The administrator and collections manager for the Wethersfield Historical Society, Zilinski turned to the society’s wedding gown collection for inspiration.
“We discovered all these great wedding dresses,” Zilinski said. “We had to show them.”
The result is “Wethersfield Weddings: Tying the Knot!,” a special exhibit of historical wedding dresses dating from 1837 to 1967. The exhibit will also feature wedding invitations, pictures and assorted nuptial accessories provided by the community.
The exhibition officially opens with a reception from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center. The event is free and will include a tiered wedding cake donated by Shop Rite, society Director Amy Wittorff said.
“The manager tells me that the baker is going all out,” Wittorff said.
The exhibit’s 19 dresses vary from ethereal chiffon to everyday cotton, illustrating how fashions and customs have evolved over more than a century, Zilinski and Wittorff said.
Saying yes to the dress used to be much simpler and cheaper. The oldest gowns from the early 19th century, for example, were so-called “best dresses,” garments that women continued to wear after their wedding to church or formal occasions, they said. Many are not white, a practice that began when Queen Victoria wore a white gown at her 1840 wedding, but only took hold in the late 19th century.
“We have so many wonderful things in our collection that we can bring into context,” Wittorff said. “I’m hoping that people make connections with the past and the present.”
Zilinski said her favorite dress is a blue-and-white striped silk gown with lace trim worn by Wethersfield resident Mary Strong at her 1880 wedding. It features a bustle at the back and panniers, shells of fabric attached to the hips.
“It’s just the colors,” she said. “It’s so funky. It’s appropriate to the time period, but you’d never dream of wearing a dress like this today.”
The dress, like many of the era, required a corset, Zilinski said. Another gown of the same time period features a frighteningly narrow bodice demanding a gut-wrenchingly tight corset.
“There was a lot of criticism of the fashion at the time,” Zilinski said. “It was very glamorous at the time.”
Other dresses include a 1920s flapper-style chiffon gown with lead weights to keep its shape, a 1930s gauzy gown and a late 19th century dark blue frock with bodice and bustle. Blue was a common wedding dress color in the 19th century, which is why Tiffany Jewelers chose the color for its boxes, Wittorff said. The show also includes bridesmaid and mother-of-the-bride dresses.
At least one bride will be on hand Thursday to see her dress on display. Marsha Meehan will get to see the embroidered column gown she wore at her 1967 wedding that she later donated to the historical society.
“I think it feels pretty great,” Meehan said of having her dress in the exhibit.
In keeping with the spirit of the times, Meehan wanted a dress that was nontraditional. She found the ivory gown at Sage Allen. A fan of folk music, she loved the informal material — dotted Swiss — whose use in a formal garment was unheard of at the time.
“It kind of reflected me and the ’60s,” Meehan said.
Also part of the exhibit are historical wedding invitations, which were often handwritten and sent to 10 or so family and friends a week or two before the nuptials, Zilinski said. Ceremonies in the 19th and early 20th centuries were typically more informal than today, often taking place in the front parlor instead of a church, she said. Brides spent more time and money on their “trousseau,” the wardrobe and home textiles, such as quilts, that they brought to their marriage, than their gowns, she said.
It was only in the 1920s and especially after World War II that the big production weddings of today took hold, Zilinski said.
“The economic prosperity after World War II really permitted the idea of the wedding industry,” she said.
The society has asked the public to let them scan their wedding photos as well as lend invitations and other nuptial knick-knacks, such as napkins, matchbooks and menus. The exhibit will include wedding photos from 1863 to the present. One artifact is a late 1950s wedding gown box from G. Fox’s specialty wedding section with the bill stapled to it. The cost of the dress and headpiece: $110.48.
The Keeney Memorial Cultural Center is at 200 Main St. To donate a gown or lend an item for the exhibit or for more information, call 860-529-7656.
