VINTAGE WEDDING EXHIBIT AND TRADITIONS

Less than a week after the American Girl Doll Tea, Hearthside House hosted a new exhibit of Vintage Wedding Fashions.  Thanks to Lady Estelle T. Barada for taking the lead and organizing the exhibit in such a short time period.  It was very well attended and was featured in the Providence Journal as one of the top 5 things to do the weekend of June 11-12.  Rhode Island Monthly also featured a blog about the exhibit the day before.  We appreciate these boosts of publicity! Special thanks to Diane Adam for the lovely display of her aunt's wedding gown, Beverly Cournoyer for her grandmother's, and to Carolyn Sloat and Audrey Godin for donating their ancestors wedding gowns, as well as their own, to Hearthside's collections.   The informational panels were created by RIC student Nat Cokely.   We now have an exhibit which may return again next June! 

 

 Photos by David Cruz.

Lady Estelle T.Barada was in her glory among all the vintage dresses in her display.

 

Wedding dresses belonging to sisters Audrey Godin and Carolyn Sloat.

  Carolyn was married in a satin dress in 1957 that had been worn by her aunt, Joyce Stochton-Binyon in 1950.

Audrey and Carolyn are the great,great granddaughters of Daniel & Louisa Meader who owned Hearthside in 1890.

   

 

 

  Audrey's dress was a replica of the one worn by her grandmother, Esther Meader Binyon in 1916.

 

 

 

Visitors were surprised to see a brown plaid taffeta dress that had been a wedding dress for the marriage of Josephine Rogers Elliott to Frank Meader, son of Daniel & Louisa Meader in 1886. The Meader family lived at Hearthside from 1890 to 1901.  

 

 

 

Roger and Jean Rainville loaned their mother's 1950s satin wedding dress, which is volunteer Diane Adam's aunt.  

 

 

 

 Visitors enjoyed the more familiar white satin wedding dress and tuxedo from the 1950s.

 

 

 A full Victorian wedding outfit with full veil was representative of the first white wedding gowns made popular by Queen Victoria. 

Antique wedding shoes help illustrate the story about the tradition of stealing the bride's wedding slippers.

 

 

 

 The dining room table was set for a formal reception. Place settings of antique china were donated by Mary McKenna, the silverware by Christopher Willigan, and the water goblets by Charles Cox, all of which are now in our collections.