Wedding Dresses in Jane Austen’s World
Though nearly all of Jane Austen’s works end with a wedding, she does not spend much time detailing the weddings themselves, much less the wedding dresses.
Modern brides often spend a great deal of effort and money on the wedding dress and expect to wear it only once. Honestly, it is hard to imagine another event where wearing one’s wedding dress might be appropriate. Not exactly the sort of thing you’d wear to dinner, right?
In the regency era, though, the cost of textiles was so prohibitive that only royals like Princess Charlotte and equally wealthy brides even considered dresses that might only be worn once. A bride, like Charlotte Lucas of Pride and Prejudice or Harriet Smith of Emma, wore her ‘best dress’ for her wedding. A bride with some means, like Emma or even perhaps the Bennets, might have a new ‘best dress’ made for the occasion.
What might this ‘best dress’ look like? Unless one were quite wealthy, it would not be white. White garments required a huge amount of upkeep in an era where all wash was done by hand, so only the wealthiest wore it. Colored gowns were typical, with yellow, blue, pink and green being popular for several Regency era years. Middle and lower class brides often chose black, dark brown and burgundy as practical colors that would wear well for years to come.
Public Domain Images
Fashion plates from Ackerman’s and La Belle Assemblee illustrate gowns used for weddings. Although all these gowns are white, that is more indicative of the white gown being the most stylish of the era, rather than white being the wedding color. All these gowns followed the fashionable trends of formal gowns of the day, but were largely indistinguishable from other formal gowns. The La Belle Assemblee dress above is cited as both an evening dress and a wedding dress. To set a bridal dress apart, finer materials and richer trims might be utilized if the bride could afford them: silks, satins and lace. The trims might be altered for wear after the wedding.
None of these fashion plate brides wore a veil. That fashion, though common in France, would not take hold in England until the Victorian era. Caps, hats, bonnets or flowers in the hair were common though.
“Since wedding gowns were often worn – to the point of being worn out – after the wedding, brides had to cherish something else. Often this was one of her wedding shoes, a natural choice given the lucky connotations of shoes in this context. Many carefully preserved satin slippers remain with notes inscribed in the instep attesting to the wearer’s wedding.” (Reeves-Brown)
Not unlike today, these fashion plates presented idealized versions of wedding gowns. The actual gowns that brides wore were often far simpler that the offerings from fashionable magazines. Here are a few pictures from the Met Museum of actual wedding dresses worn in the Regency era.
Images from The MET Museum, Public Domain
Groom’s Attire
Men’s formal attire, not unlike today, was fairly well established, largely due to the influence of Beau Brummell. White shirts of muslin or linen, with a white cravat, ideally in silk. A black or dark cut away, tailed jacket, with buttons left open to show a waistcoat. (Although some period reports note grooms in light colored suits as well.) The waistcoat might be brightly colored and richly embroidered, the one place on a man’s ensemble where bright colors were widely acceptable. Dark or black knee breeches, skin tight of course! Loose fitting trousers were generally not acceptable for a formal occasion until the later part of the regency. Black stockings and black pumps, never boots and a top hat would finish the ensemble.
So are any of these what you imagined the Miss Bennets being married in?
Find References Here!
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I believe the Misses Bennett might have been married in a gown similar to the first two but the olive is way to drab and the last too far above their station in life prior to their marriages
I agree, the olive is far too drab!
I love the pictures added to give us the visuals. Thank you so much.
I had such fun finding the images, thanks. Deborah!
My first choice for Jane and Elizabeth would be the second one. I would also consider the first one but the third one I could only imagine as a protest by Elizabeth if she had had to marry Mr Collins ?. The last one is hard to see clearly on a hanger but I think it may have possibilities if worn by either of them.
I loved this article, thank you so much Maria.
The olive dress as a protest–what a neat idea! I love it!
I would think that their dresses, especially Jane’s would have a bit more embellishment…she would want to make her mother happy with more lace! Elizabeth, I would like to believe, would have some vines with flowers lightly embroidered around the hem, sleeves and neckline. Thank you for this delightful post!
You know, I always thought you could do a really informative and picture filled book of fashions during Jane’s time and/or the Regency period. I certainly thought that after reading your Courtship & Marriage book! Then, I thought it might take away from all the other books you have to write! LOL!
That is a really neat idea, Carole! I’ll have to keep it in mind for future projects!
The last one is the only one I’d consider as a wedding gown. The olive one done is a pretty color might be acceptable.
They are pretty far removed from what we consider wedding gowns, aren’t they?
These do look rather plain. I have always imagined that wedding dresses was NOT white as keeping them clean would be a problem and I would have assumed that they would be worn more than once as they were so expensive, having all been sewn together by hand. Can’t imagine having to do that for each and every dress we wear…no wonder wardrobes were limited…or that dresses were redone with various ribbons, lace, buttons, etc. Thanks for sharing.
Thinking about dong all that hand sewing really does put it all in a different perspective, doesn’t it?
Excellent explanation, Keep up the great work
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