








Hello, welcome and thank you for taking the time to read my latest blog!
This time, I thought I would take a look at some (in my opinion) of the most iconic celebrity wedding dresses of the 21st Century.
You may, or may not already be aware that the fashion for wearing a white wedding dress originated with Queen Victoria (those Victorians were responsible for so many things we enjoy and have today, not just Christmas cards, their engineering feats were incredible, from funicular railways to the Velocipede, but that’s a whole other blog!!)
Continue reading “My favourite Celebrity wedding dresses and a brief history of why we wear white!”
Hello again and welcome back to my Maria’s Bridal Boutique Blog! This time I wanted to delve a little into the evolution of the Wedding Venue and when it became possible to marry at a location other than a Church, or Registry Office.
Nowadays, the choice of Wedding Venues is huge! It is possible to get married almost anywhere, with almost any type of theme! From traditional, rustic and country style weddings, to Disney, or Harry Potter themed extravaganza’s, the world, literally is your oyster!
So how did we come to get all these opportunities to make our wedding fantasies become actual reality?
Welcome lovely people to the first of my bi-weekly blog posts! I will be covering a range of topics on all things Bridal and can’t wait to share these posts with you all!
For my first post, I thought it would be nice to step back in time and find out what getting married was like for my Grandma (102) and my Mum, bearing in mind our current restrictions and compare their weddings to those of today.
My Grandma was married on June 19th 1943 (during the 2nd World War) at Brentree Church in Bristol. She was 25 and my Grandad was 32. There were no coupons for white material, so Grandma spent 8 Guineas on a beautiful pale blue suit. There were 25 people at their wedding. Definitely comparable with our current numbers and more like the norm for that time. Grandma had 1 bridesmaid, who wore pink. Following the church ceremony, they had a 2 course sit down meal at The Carlton Hotel in Kingswood. There was white wine for the meal and toast. They were incredibly lucky to have that much food and alcohol bearing in mind rationing. There was no partying late into the night because of air raids and no lights were allowed after dark, so Grandma and Grandad caught the train from Bristol Temple Meads later that day to their honeymoon destination of Ilfracombe, where they were staying for 4 days. (They couldn’t stay any longer, because Grandad was a fireman and couldn’t get leave for any longer). Why catch a train to Ilfracombe instead of driving? There was no petrol!
Similarities with weddings today? Grandma and her bridesmaid had bouquets of English flowers created by the local florist. She had her hair done at the local hairdressers and they had a car for her to arrive at Church and take them to the Hotel for the meal. She also employed a cake maker from Bath to make their wedding cake (a gift from her sister in law). Although the wedding dress boutiques were off-limits, she still managed to save enough to go to an upmarket dress shop to purchase her suit. On return from their honeymoon, they moved into their new house in Brislington, located 2 doors down from Grandma’s parents! It was their first experience of living together, not being allowed to move in with each other until they were wed.