By Anne Foster

You've found the perfect wedding gown, long-sleeved and high-necked, maybe even bustled.  The high-heeled, button boots are ordered.  You even manage to talk your future husband into wearing a cutaway tux and brocade vest.  What else could you possibly need for the perfect Victorian wedding?

Flowers, an entire room-full of them.  Every Victorian bride, no matter how small the wedding, felt "bowers" and "banks" of flowers a necessity.  If California hot house flowers shipped to Arizona by the wagonload were out of her price range, she made due with native plants from the Verde Valley.

And there's more.  What follows are a few suggestions drawn from very real 19th century weddings described in Prescott's newspaper of the time, the Journal-Miner.

Flowers surrounding the altar and every pew, window, and pillar were not enough.  Most couples married under a canopy of flowers, often fashioned into the shape of a traditional good luck symbol.  F.M. Murphy and Ethel Meany were married in "the most brilliant society event that has ever occurred in Prescott" under a "wedding bell, made of rose buds, the whole descending from the ceiling in the front of the chancel..."

Flowers were not the only way to construct the bell.  The wedding decor of two couples from Solomanville and Holbrook included, "constructed from pure white muslin, a large canopy, resembling a huge bell hanging mouth down...and within the big bell was a smaller one made of immortelles and delicate artificial flowers and in the mouth of the smaller bell flashed a 20-candle power incandescent electric light, giving the effect of flowers in flames that did not scorch or wither."

If a bell is not what you had in mind, you could try a horseshoe.  Edith Talbot and Will Croft Barnes decorated the church with a "pendant horseshoe of flowers set off by a mass of white roses, arranged directly behind the minister..."

The bridesmaids were often not dressed identically, although some care was taken to coordinate: "The maid of honor, Miss Bertha Rockwell, wore pale green chiffon, embroidered in white Edelweiss, and a white tulle veil.  Miss Edwards wore a graceful gown of white chiffon, Miss Overton, a white satin striped gauze, and Miss Mary Rockwell, a pale green gown of Philippine jusi.  Each carried a shower of ferns."

A new fad for a "Rainbow Wedding" began in the 1890s.  Prescott's rainbow wedding of Helen Wells and Henry Heap was explained by the Journal-Miner:  "The bride, who is a tall, graceful demi-blonde, will wear a bridal costume of pearl white satin, over which will fall the misty folds of a tulle bridal veil.  The three bridesmaids on the right will wear pink, the first of a deep hue, the second a shade lighter, and the third a soft, delicate pink, having its texture a suggestion of white.  At the left of the bride three other attendants will stand.  These will be gowned in dresses of greenish-yellowish chiffon, shaded like the pink ones, from a deep hue to a very pale and delicate hue."

Another popular trend was to dress the entire bridal party in white.  For the Meany-Murphy wedding, the "bridesmaids were dressed in the white, the flowers of Miss Wells (the maid of honor) being sweet peas and the others coronation pinks."

Instead of flower girls, the Edith Albers and Bert Harmon Merchant wedding had "two ribbon-bearers, Misses Elenor Stohm and Jean Beatty, gowned in white swiss, and carrying broad streamers of white satin ribbon, forming a pathway through the reception hall to the graceful canopy of green in the drawing room."

Not every Victorian bride was "given away."  Ethel Meany arranged her procession so the four groomsmen entered the church and files down the aisles, taking their positions to the right of the groom.  Following them closely were the four bridesmaids, taking their position to the left of the groom.  Next to enter were the two flower girls, and after a brief interval, came the bride alone, carrying in her hands a beautiful white prayer book, and following her were her parents."

The reception, too, had some unique traditions.  Most couples received their guests while stationed under a canopy of flowers.  Edith and Will Croft Barnes "received under a canopy of smilax and sweet peas."  Every reception of any size or consequence featured Chinese lanterns to illuminate the festivities by the 1890s, the most up-to-date displayed electrified versions.

Ice cream was immensely popular in the 1890s and was the featured refreshment at nearly every party.  Weddings were no exception.  The reception for Florence Rockwell and James R. Edwards included "coffee and sandwiches and ice cream in the form of hearts, bow-knots and turtle doves."  Even Mrs. Cleveland included "fancy ice cream" in her wedding lunch when she married the president.

Are all these frills and furbelows just not your style?  How about a more Western theme based upon the August 16, 1890, wedding of Thomas Beach and Maggie Meadows and Charles Cole and Julia Hall.  Described by the Journal-Miner as "a most unique double wedding,"  the event was the talk of the town:

"At the appointed time, about noon on Friday, the guests assembled on the main street of Payson to the number of fully 200.  Everyone, man or woman, was mounted.  When all was ready, the couples rode on spirited steeds to the center of the gathering, the brides dressed in riding-habits, the grooms in regular cowboy regalia of big hat, leather leggins (sic) and spurs."

"The local Justice of the Peace, Judge Birch, also bestride of a horse, was awaiting them, and, in the briefest of a legal ceremony, spliced them as fast as the law could do it.  He followed up with a fatherly speech and only omitted the usual custom of kissing the bride."

"After congratulations had been extended to the happy couples, the presents were announced. One of the presents, offered by Charles Meadows, brother of one of the brides, was as many head of his cattle as the married pairs could find and brand between then and sundown.  The chase was at once begun, the young women, who are expert riders, carrying the branding irons and assisting in tying down the cattle.  A large number of the wedding guests followed and highly enjoyed the sport, though taking no hand in it.  As a result of the roundup, each married couple secured eighteen head of stock.  In the evening, a breezy ball wound up, in true frontier style, the festivities of the day.

Anne Foster is former Assistant Archivist at the Sharlot Hall Museum and is now a historian in Montana.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:() Reuse only by permission.

This black and white photo does not do justice to the bride, Helen Wells and her bridesmaid, Emma Dutcher in October 1899.  Wells had chosen a "rainbow wedding," where each of the bridesmaids and the decorations reflected colors of the rainbow.  Dutcher's dress here is "a deep hue" of pink.