Victorian traditions captivate brides

Antique wedding accesories have taken center stage

By: Dr. Lori Verderame
   Summer is wedding season, and contemporary couples are tying the knot with history in mind.
   Weddings are experiencing an antiques revival, showing that everything old is new again. Antique wedding accessories have taken center stage at today’s wedding showers, ceremonies and receptions. These antique-inspired objects highlight the past, making today’s brides blush with antique style.
   Remembering the Renaissance, when important letters were sealed for security, today’s brides are using white wax and wax seals for correspondence ranging from love letters to wedding invitations. Late 19th-Century wax seals may turn up in grandma’s attic or at your local flea market with price tags ranging from $50 to $500.
   Old-favorite wedding traditions are being reinvented. At the ceremony, an abundance of Victorian-style ribbons and flowers symbolize purity, love and good fortune. Few knew more about good fortune than Queen Victoria. When it came to trend-setting, Victoria was, well, the queen.
   Inspirational today, Victorian wedding traditions are coveted by contemporary brides. Like the wearing of a white dress, the Victorian shoe tradition was established in the mid- to late-1800s. Today, favors in the form of shoes are the 21st-century version of a longstanding wedding ritual.
   In ancient times, a bride’s shoes were transferred, along with responsibility for her well-being, from her father to her new husband at the wedding. This ancient custom grew into the Victorian tradition of tossing shoes at the married couple’s wedding carriage as they departed. Chronicled in the images of 19th-century paintings, guests aimed shoes at the open wedding carriage, blew whistles and honked horns in the belief that the noise distracted evil spirits from the newlyweds.
   The shoes symbolized a prosperous life. During all the post-wedding excitement, if a tossed shoe landed inside the wedding carriage with the couple, then the couple would enjoy a lifetime of wealth and prosperity. Today, the contemporary wedding trend of tying shoes and cans to a car’s fender reflect these wedding traditions. We now use a size 8 slingback to denote prosperity and we add Campbell’s soup cans as noisemakers to car bumpers.
   Some brides who feared getting beaned by flying footwear would instead place a painfully large coin in her shoe. In an effort to insure good fortune, it was worth the discomfort, many 19th-century brides believed. Today, the shoe as a wedding symbol may be found in a variety of forms, from favors to decorations.
   Before flowers comprised a bridal bouquet, brides carried garlic down the aisle. Used to ward off evil spirits, odoriferous garlic was later replaced with flowers, including favorites such as lilies (purity), ivy (fidelity) and roses (love).
   According to floral experts, today’s brides are selecting white flowers for their wedding bouquets. Most choose the ever-popular calla lilies –- a biblical flower that symbolizes the purity of the Virgin Mary. Simple but elegant wedding bouquets that recall the Victorian floral style accompany flowing ribbons and period flower holders called tussy mussys, as seen on period postcards.
   Victorian tussy mussys have become very popular with today’s brides. The antique bouquet holders are now in vogue. If you have your great-grandmother’s tussy mussy from her wedding in the late 1800s, it could range in value from $250 to $1,200, depending on market, condition and type.
   After the nuptials, today’s couples are choosing to mark their ceremonial wedding departure with soap bubbles. Replacing traditional rice, soap bubbles symbolize the brevity of life and remind the couple to "carpe diem" (seize the day!).
As seen on CBS 3 TV and Comcast CN8 TV, Dr. Lori Verderame is a certified appraiser with the Ph.D. in art history. Visit www.DrLoriV.com or call (888) 431-1010.