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Wedding Styles

A Victorian Affair

Transport your wedding guests back in time with a romantic, nineteenth-century-style event.

If you want to plan a perfectly proper Victorian wedding, you'll need to know about customs from the 1800s. So here's a detailed description to help you pick and choose the traditions you'd like to use.

About Victorian marriage

Love legitimately entered the realm of weddings when Queen Victoria, unlike most members of her royal family, married purely and outspokenly for love in 1840, thus kicking off an era of idealized romance and bringing the notion of a woman having the right to choose her husband into the mainstream.

The lore

A Victorian wedding is infinitely more sentimental than a modern affair. Brides and grooms filled their days with thoughtfully coded messages of love: engagement and wedding rings often consisted of a row of gems whose first letters spelled out a word, and flowers in a bride's bouquet often spelled out the groom's name. Women of the late 19th century, especially brides, emphasized their femininity as much as they could by binding themselves with corsets to create hourglass figures and wearing high-necked gowns, richly trimmed in lace. The whole era exudes romance.

At the dawn of the new millennium

SETTINGS
There should be no problem finding an appropriate reception site for celebrating a Victorian wedding. Buildings that were erected between 1837 and 1901 are regarded as Victorian, and you can pick from such styles as Gothic and Queen Anne. In addition, you may have an outdoor celebration. Although the Victorians would not have held a wedding out-of-doors, they adored nature and loved having outdoor parties of many types.

FOOD
While most Victorian weddings were held at lunchtime and consisted of a sumptuous repast, served either as a buffet or as a regular sit-down meal, a modern wedding can take place at whatever time of day you desire. One option is an afternoon tea, consisting of finger sandwiches and different types of fresh-brewed teas.

For those that desire heavier fare, it is not so much what you serve, but how you serve it. Table settings were very particular, carefully arranged displays. To accompany the meal, serve a light, dry red wine, which is a good approximation of a claret (the most popular wine of the time). Champagne was also very popular, and cocktails really took off at about this time as well. Mint juleps, daiquiris and even rum and Coca-Cola were invented during the Victorian Age.

MUSIC AND DECOR
Music and decorations can also give a decidedly Victorian feel to any event. Popular music of this era consisted of the works of composers like Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Bach. For your wedding reception, you might also select a musical ensemble that specializes in Ragtime music, which is upbeat and fun. Flowers were also very important to Victorian brides. Since each bloom has its own meaning, a bride put very careful thought into each flower chosen.

CLOTHES
The attire of Victorian brides was surprisingly simple. Today's bride looking to create a romantic look may choose an ivory gown with a fitted bodice and a high-necked collar composed of lace to give an antique look. Large-brimmed hats trimmed with flowers and silk-floral wreaths with veils of all lengths are popular headpieces. Or take your cue from the Queen herself by sporting a lace veil and a ring of orange blossoms, which are considered a symbol of fertility.