Marriage Among the Ton

In 1816 (a banner year) there were 1,063 weddings, including nine on Christmas Day! The aristocracy often chose to forego St. George's in favor of the chapel on their own estates; or sometimes they married in their home in a small, private affair with just a few witnesses. Even Lord Byron was married in such a way.  

A few infamous weddings are detailed on

this page 

of St. George's website, where, by the way, you can find contact info. to schedule your own wedding if you happen to live in London and wish to be married!

Celebrating  

There seems to have been little protocol regarding how to celebrate a wedding during the regency, at least in the fashionable world. People might hold a breakfast, lunch or supper for their friends and family, or they might not.

The poorer classes, on the other hand, were likely to celebrate with parties before, during, and after the nuptials took place. In Scotland, the "penny wedding" could include the whole town, and at least two days of revelry.

A White Gown?  

The white dress for women was not in vogue specifically for weddings, likely because white gowns had long been popular evening-wear for any formal occasion.  According to

English Women's Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, "The  symbolic significance of white is well known and of great antiquity; we may note, however, that while a girl's first ball gown was generally white, the bridal dress was by no means invariably so."

For the year 1816 it states,"Note: Wedding dresses appear indistinguishable from evening dresses." 

Women of means would wear the fanciest fabric they could afford for their weddings, and not only in white. The custom of putting away the gown after the ceremony didn't exist, and so wedding gowns were chosen with future use in mind.

For regency men by 1820 a proper "wedding suit" would be "a blue dress coat with gilt buttons, white waistcoat, and black or dark gray breeches."*

Was There a Veil?  

There was no custom of veiling the face for a wedding, although veils were popular. A short lace veil might be part of a bonnet for walking dress, for example. Likewise, trains were used for evening dress, assuredly not only the domain of weddings. 

Perhaps the most telling feature of historical costume concerning weddings during this period is that while you can find multitudinous examples of

morning, walking, evening, full, promenade, half-dress, riding, carriage and even

opera, etc., one never comes across a category for wedding dress. It simply did not exist. (In

English Women's Clothing

it is found as a category by 1851.)

This ought to be good news for authors of regency romance, like me: instead we yearn to find the "right" way to portray a bride, when in fact there was no single right way.

To show how many of the ball gowns of the day look suspiciously to us like wedding dresses to our modern eyes, take a look at some of the illustrations  below, for example.

    Comptesse--1810

  Dolley Madison, Amer., same era

Above, and right, 1816

Just the same, any or all of the above could theoretically have been worn for a wedding.

The first bridal dress portrayed in

English Women's Clothing

is dated 1848 and is of white satin, very ornamental, and with a veil that falls down the back, not over the face. 

Are you interested in more details on wedding costume during the regency? On actual weddings that took place, or exactly how the marriage banns were worded? If you think you might purchase my upcoming ebook,  The Making of A Match: A Regency Wedding Compendium, please take this short survey and let me know! It will help me gauge interest, and know exactly what to include in the ebook.  Thank you!   

*Emily Hendrickson 

Reading the Banns: (What's it All About?)

 Any reader of regency romance knows the requirement could be avoided if the groom is able to procure a "special license," and hurry the wedding. But the purpose of the banns was for the protection of the couple, particularly the woman.

(It was leaked information about his upcoming wedding that ruined Rochester's hopes of marrying Jane Eyre, for example. And such cases were exactly why the custom existed.)

If anyone hearing of the intended marriage knew of a reason why either party was not free to wed, they could come forth and prevent the nuptials from taking place.

Some reasons could be intended bigamy, (a previous marriage, as in Rochester's case); illness; not being a resident of the parish; a prior engagement; or marrying without parental consent.   

You can still have banns read for your wedding, and unless I'm mistaken, your marriage is legal after the banns are read three times publicly, with or without an additional marriage license. At

St. Andrews in the UK, 

you can apply for Banns for 37 pounds, which is likely typical for churches today.  

To learn more about Banns, see actual certificates of them, and the exact wording of the banns as they were read, stay tuned for my upcoming ebook!   

And remember to take this short survey and help me prepare the best ebook possible on the subject! Thank you. : )  

Last Issue's Contest:  

Subscribers were asked to forward this ezine to a minimum of five people, either copying me in on the forward, or using the embedded link (above).  From those who did so, one winner was chosen using random.org.

And the Winner Is:

Ira Renn!

Thank you, Ira for forwarding to five people. I'd like to recognize Jennifer Nicole for forwarding to 19 people!

(Thank you so much, Jennifer, you get the "good person" award! ) 

JUNE CONTEST:  

"Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor--which is one very strong argument in favor of Matrimony."

WITHOUT using the internet to help you, tell me if this quotation is from:

a) Sense and Sensibility

b) Pride and Prejudice

c) Persuasion, or,

d) a letter of Jane Austen's

You're on the honor system here. Anyone can look up the answer, but I'd prefer you take a stab at it without doing so. Send your answers to:

Linore (at) Linoreroseburkard (dot) com

In addition to the winners of the Jane Contest, each  month two new subscribers are randomly chosen to win a copy of my self-published edition of Before the Season Ends.

May winners: 

#1 silviasmachado@....

#2 retrk14@.....

 Thanks to the 50 of you who have recently signed up and Congratulations winners! Please send me your full mailing address so I can send you a book.

Winners were generated using random.org 

As in months past, here's a partial list of my recently acquired Kindle ebooks.

Prefer print books? Search for a title at a discounted price at CBD.com in this search box, below.

Search: Title Author/Artist ISBN CBD Stock # Keywords Publisher

2.  FUNNY thoughts on marriage by Bob Hawkins 

3.  The Power of Words. A short You-tube video. The way we use words makes a difference.