The Gilded Marigold. Sunshine hues enhanced by Gotta Patti on Viscose Dola.
Wedding outfit of dress, bonnet and cap worn by Sarah Fletcher and wedding waistcoat worn by James Kenyon, 1844
These clothes were worn by the couple for their marriage on 27th March 1844 in Bury Parish Church. The fashionably shaped but modest dress is typical of wedding clothing in the early Victorian era, and the dress also comes with an accompanying bertha and pelerine cape. These accessories would have been used to alter the look of the dress slightly and allow it to be worn in a few different styles. It was common to wear the wedding dress again after the wedding perhaps as a formal afternoon, reception or dinner dress. Queen Victoria is credited with a rise in the popularity of white wedding dresses after she wore a white gown for her wedding in 1849 but even after this middle and working class brides would often still choose a more practical colour that could be worn again afterwards more easily. During the 1840s soft pinkish browns like the shade seen on this dress were popular alternatives to white as were purplish greys, soft greens and pinks.