A Period Wedding Gown

Since The Dreamstress featured a number of historical wedding gowns lately, I felt that I should respond with one of my own. Sadly, what Viking women wore for their weddings remains a matter for passionate debate (it may even be possible that something like a savanion was involved). So my photograph is of something rather more modern.

  My parents' formal wedding photograph--June 13, 1944          

The photograph shown with this post (click on it to see it larger) is my parents' formal wedding photograph. Yes, my parents had a military wedding--because my father had just volunteered for the Armed Forces (he had to work at getting into the Army, being a bit too short and too old at the time to be drafted). The time was June 1944. This website describes the characteristics of wedding gowns of the 1940s, and the gown my mother is wearing has a number of them, including a very  modest neckline, long sleeves, and a substantial train.

I can't provide you with more information, unfortunately, because I don't have the dress. The reason for that is that it wasn't *her* dress--it was borrowed! Dad was being shipped out so quickly that she didn't have time to get her own gown (even if they had had the money). Instead, she borrowed a gown from one of her future sisters-in-law. The sister-in-law had a more developed bosom than Mom did, so Mom had to wear the dress with a well-stuffed bra in a larger size than she normally wore to make it look as though the gown fit! But she was still a beautiful bride. Don't you agree?