Bridal Fashions

My blogging friend CM, of MyRealitty and Leftcoastmini, is going to be the Mother of the Bride this month. She invited me to take some photos of my bridal pairs - you might remember Bridezilla from the second pair, who was determined to win the game of musical chairs at the fancy dress party last year!

Several of my Erna Meyer dolls are getting married:

18th century style

1950s or early 1960s

1970s

Thinking about bridal fashions made me think of the wedding photos I have of my parents, grandparents, and earlier ancestors.

The earliest wedding photo I have is one of my great-great-grandparents. They were both Scottish, although one was born in Jamaica and they lived in India; they married in Munich, in Bavaria (Germany), in 1859.


While this bride opted for the full white silk and lace deal, her daughter, my great-grandmother, had a rather different kind of wedding. My grandmother described it like this:

“My mother was married in her best green costume to her cousin Henry Dunlop one day in 1895, with no-one knowing. She went out for the day, came home as usual; a week later her mother found a note in an empty room saying - “I have gone to America with Henry; Gracie”

Not surprisingly, I don't have any photos of the best green costume!

My grandmother (this great-grandmother's daughter, and my mother's mother) also had a slightly unconventional wedding. Neither the bride's parents, nor the bridegroom's, were present; the bride was given away by her brother. I only discovered some photos of the wedding among a distant cousin's collection inherited from my grandmother's father - my grandmother didn't keep any.


Here they are in 1927, cutting the cake - I believe the dress was pale pink.

My mother had been a bridesmaid at several weddings:

1941

ca 1945

1955

But when she herself got married in 1961, she chose a nice gingham frock for her wedding dress. Like her mother, her brother was present but not her parents, but she refused to be given away, saying she was a person not a present.

That's Mum and Dad on the right, with my godparents on the left.

Here's a photo of my father's parents on their wedding day:

Casino, NSW, Australia, 1935

I've already shown you my maternal grandfather's parents' wedding, in Calcutta in 1903:


Another white lacy wedding dress! This is my Californian great-grandmother, who married an Englishman; her father refused to attend the wedding, so only her mother was present. (Both the groom's parents had already died.)

So, two of these brides went for the white silk, satin and lace - the others were dressed in green, blue, pink and (I think) brown & white. Some were solid colours, one flowery and one check ... Really, based on my family's traditions, I could photograph any of my nicely-dressed dolls as bridal couples!

101 Followers! Giveaway!

Dear blog followers, readers, lurkers, visitors and especially fellow bloggers, I am delighted to have passed 100 followers! And I'm a little ashamed that this milestone comes when I have not been keeping up with all of your blogs. I shall try to catch up, now I'm home and over the first week back at work ....


To celebrate having so many followers, I have a little giveaway. Longtime readers of my blog know that my favourite dolls house dolls are by Erna Meyer - they live in lots of my houses, and I have so many that quite a few live in a large box (a special one for conserving textiles). Among the box-dwellers are some old store stock dolls which I bought in a live online auction some time ago. Because they're old store stock, there are quite a few duplicates, and I would like one family to have a new home with one of my followers.


If you are one of my followers, and you would like a chance to win this family, please leave a comment saying so below. (If you want to comment but don't want to go in the draw, just let me know - I will enter the total number of people who want them into a random integer generator, so I just need to be able to distinguish between people who'd like to have them and people who just want to leave a nice comment ;-) Thought I'd mention that, as I don't always comment on giveaway posts - but now I've used random.org, I know it works on a number, not the actual comments.)

Please note that ONLY the dolls are included in the giveaway - the red leather Lundby lounge is NOT included, it's just so they didn't all have to stand up. It also gives you an idea of their scale: the adults are about 12.5 cm tall (5 inches, or just a little less if their hair wasn't so fly-away), the boy is 8.5 cm (about 3 1/4 inches) and the girl is 8 cm (3 1/8 inches).

Here is Mrs Meyer's twin sister in my 1960s Lundby house:


So, a big welcome to my new followers, and big hugs and thanks for your support to my fellow bloggers over the past couple of years! Good luck in the draw :-)

MORE INFO: I forgot to say when the draw would close! Please leave a note by the end of Wednesday 2nd February if you would like to enter.

Also, some collectors who are followers here usually read my posts on facebook, and they have left comments there. I will include them in the draw (I did just say 'below') - all entrants will be numbered following the order in which you commented (I have the exact date and time of each comment, so that's easy!), and I'll enter the total number into the random integer generator.

Checks, Red & White

"Hello Aunt Jenny, what are you doing today?" asks Lois.

"I have to go to the supermarket, dear. The boys are coming with me to go to the fossil and mineral museum."



"Yeah," says Paul, "come and look at the insects in amber with us."


"No thanks," says Lois, "I'm going to the corner shop for lollies."

"Why are you holding that old parasol?" asks Bruce.


"It's not a parasol, it's an umbrella. It's going to rain - look at those grey clouds over there."

"Hah, that old thing won't keep you dry! And anyway, it probably won't rain for ages, we'll be right."

"Maybe you're right, dear," says Aunt Jenny, "but we don't seem to have any umbrellas or raincoats. They don't seem to make them in our size - but I'll have another look in the supermarket. Or maybe a mail-order catalogue would have them."


Jenny, her niece Lois and her nephews Bruce and Paul live in Bathurst, in NSW. It rained quite often while I was visiting them - though not as often as in Darwin, and not nearly enough to cause flooding like in Queensland, Victoria, northern NSW and Tasmania.
I'm afraid Jenny's right, that they are sadly under-supplied with wet weather gear. I will have to see what I can do about it!

Mrs Santa delivers

Santa is so busy delivering presents all around the world - of course, Mrs Santa also goes out on delivery runs.

I hope Santa and Mrs Santa bring wonderful gifts for you this Christmas!

A fancy dress party

To celebrate the end of a school year, the children are having a fancy dress party. Everyone has come dressed up, including the adults!

In one room, there is a game of pass-the-parcel. An older boy, dressed as a sailor, provides the music on his accordion. He stands in the doorway between classrooms, so that the children in the other room can hear the music too.




In the other room, there's a game of musical chairs.

What is a lamb doing, playing musical chairs?



Oh! It's Mary, and everywhere that Mary goes, the lamb goes too.


Back in the other room, the first and second layers of paper have come off the parcel, and around it goes ...





Oh dear! Clown's big feet have tripped up on the lamb's lead! Who will be able to get up first and join in again?


Mary is more concerned about her lamb, so clown is still in the game.
That little bride looks very determined, doesn't she?




It's fun ripping paper off the parcel, and everyone is getting a turn ...







Only five children are left playing musical chairs .... Woops, one little girl sat down on the floor, instead of a seat! Four left now ....




The parcel is getting smaller, but still there are more layers ... Who will find the last layer?






Only two chairs left ..... around they go, and then Mr Tim takes away one chair. Now only one is left - who will sit down first when the music stops, the bride or Little Red Riding Hood?





We've reached the final layer of paper in the parcel, and the chimney sweep unwraps it - it's a mouth organ! He is very happy.



And the game of musical chairs has ended too, with Red Riding Hood getting to the chair first!



Phew! Time for the children who played Musical Chairs to play something quieter - they go into the other room, for a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.


Mrs Thomas (dressed as a queen) gives each child a tail, and then a mother dressed as a maid ties on the blindfold ... and takes it off again, so they can see how they did ..



Oh dear! That tail is at the right height, but it's not really on the donkey, is it?


Sally the painter gets her tail closer ...


Clown makes the children laugh - his tail is right in the middle of the donkey's belly!


So Sally is the winner - her prize is a tiny, bouncy rubber ball.


In the other room, the children have been playing Blind Man's Bluff:



Then it's time for judging the best fancy dress costumes.


The couples join up, and the children who brought accessories for their costumes pick them up again. Mary, of course, has had her lamb with her all evening!



There are prizes for the couple with the best costumes, the best occupational costume, the best folk costume, the best fairy tale character, the best nursery rhyme character, the best historical costume, the boy with the best costume, the girl with the best costume, the scariest costume, the sweetest costume, and the funniest costume.

Who do you think should win each prize?

Are there any categories I've forgotten?