Wedding dress exhibit featured at historical village | Arts & Culture

MT. VERNON, IL (KFVS) - The Jefferson County Historical Village is currently featuring a wedding dress exhibit.

The historical village constructed a parlor-like setting with wallpaper and furnishings to display the dresses. Because the historical village used wedding dresses already in their collection, they say the exhibit does not evenly cover the complete period of Jefferson County history.

The village says that they could not fit the tiny-waisted dresses on their size eight mannequins, so most of the dresses are on hangers.

They offer these historical points about weddings:

• Until the mid 20th century, wedding dresses were in the style of other dresses of the period.
  • Wedding dresses were meant to be worn again
  • Wedding dresses were not necessarily white, but might be a more serviceable color since they would be worn again
  • Brides frequently made their own dresses
  • Frequently, wedding dresses were two-pieced - bodice and skirt. There may have been two bodices - one for the wedding and one to wear later
  • Brides often just wore the best dress they had
• Brides were married in their own homes (the parlor) until the early 20th century, when church weddings began to be popular
• In the mid 20th century, the “white wedding” became standard with what we think of as a traditional white wedding dress, which only minimally reflected the current style of dress

For more information about the exhibit, you can call the Jefferson County Historical Village at 618-246-0033.

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