Wedding Dresses - When Did Communities Start Using Them?

[vee]

As i write this today is Victoria Day in Canada.  Queen Victoria's 1840 wedding was credited with popularizing our modern idea of a white wedding and white wedding dress.   My question is what were nuns wearing until then?  Did she give them the idea of a white wedding dress or were they wearing it prior to her?

[dominicansoul]

My guess is that she may have heard of nuns wearing white bridal gowns to marry Christ, and she decided to give it a try.  I don't think she can be credited with having influenced the cloistered nuns...

 

 

but i don't know...

[dominicansoul]

I honestly thought wearing white bridal gowns was several centuries old...

[vee]

nope

[Chiquitunga]

good question! I did not know this regarding Queen Victoria.. very interesting indeed! here's what Sr. MC said regarding when Dominicans wore them for a brief time. perhaps they were not, or not always, white to begin with..

After the French revolution [1789–1799] reflecting the tenor of the times Dominican nuns in many places began wearing the wedding dress, having the ceremony of the choosing of the crowns and being clothed in the choir after Mass. It was a big, showy ceremony. The wedding dress phase didn't last long. I don't know if it was expressly forbidden or the monasteries realized that it is not part of the Dominican customs. I think only 1 or 2 of our early postulants used it.

 

 

 

[elizabeth09]

http://www.fromtimespast.com/wedding.htm

 

[MarieLynn]

In the very late 1950's I was at a school attached to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy, and I distinctly remember the postulant mistress, asking any girl who had an older married sister, if the older sister could consider lending her wedding dress and veil to one of their postulants to wear at her Clothing Ceremony. I believe that it was the responsibility of the postulant's family to provide the wedding dress etc. for the ceremony, so that is why many were borrowed for the day, instead of going to the expense of either buying, or having one made especially. As our netball court overlooked the postulants' recreation room, it was not uncommon in late November each year, to see the dresses hanging up, ready to be worn on December 8, which was always Clothing Day.

I believe that for those girls whose families could not access, or borrow a
dress, there were always one or two white 'community' dresses and veils available. A few brides had donated their dresses to the Convent after they were married, so I guess these were what they referred to as 'community dresses'.

I had a great-Aunt, - a Sister of Mercy who had entered in the 1920's, and she told me she borrowed her older sister's dress, so they were wearing them back then!

Just my 2c worth.

[Chiquitunga]

As i write this today is Victoria Day in Canada.  Queen Victoria's 1840 wedding was credited with popularizing our modern idea of a white wedding and white wedding dress.   My question is what were nuns wearing until then?  Did she give them the idea of a white wedding dress or were they wearing it prior to her?

 

just remembering that monjas coronadas thread - http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/115891-monjas-coronadascrowned-nuns/  that video was pretty strange/over the top, but anyway, she was wearing a fancy orange dress before she was clothed. Perhaps the film-makers of that 1978 documentary did some research in choosing that garment.

 

At least in French Carmels during a certain period, that was often how it was done.. that you left and re-entered the enclosure for the clothing ceremony (for St. Therese and Blessed Elizabeth at least ... although in St. Teresa's time there wasn't any type of postulancy according to what one Carmelite told me, you were just clothed right away)

 

I believe part of the tradition was to wear your finest, as St. Clare did, to really emphasis ones leaving the world. Somewhere this was probably combined with making it like a betroyal to Christ (like the early virgins, I wonder what they traditionally wore at their consecrations) and since this would be the last time you would wear worldly attire.

 

but yeah, so St. Clare was back in the 12th century, so I would guess there was a tradition of this perhaps around that time, or after her at least. but I would guess the white wedding dresses probably only began when it became common wedding attire after Queen Victoria in 1840.. unless perhaps some communities used them to signify purity maybe.

 

all very interesting to think about/research more about .. thanks vee! :like: