Our guest speaker Kath Reynolds gave an interesting talk on weddings through the years and all things related to that special day. It’s amazing what you need for a wedding. It seems like the list has got significantly bigger over the last hundred years. If we look back at weddings from the 1920s, the Wartime and the Great Depression shaped modest practical weddings. church ceremonies were the normal type of weddings which were usually small, family-focused event. The list wasn’t that big at the time and neither was the budget. There was non of this spending thousands on a wedding dress or on the wedding reception for hundreds of people. The bride’s dress were often homemade or borrowed, with a modest veil and bouquet, which was also, homemade from local flowers. There was no honeymoon then, maybe a local trip if the was lucky. Wedding gifts were often practical gifts, like linens or food. In 1947, Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding saw the rise of consumerism influenced couples. Church weddings were still dominant, but more couples began having larger receptions. Registry office weddings grew more common, especially for civil ceremonies. White wedding dresses became the ideal (inspired by royalty). Engagement rings became standard (thanks to De Beers’ UK marketing). De Beers’ marketing efforts in the UK, spearheaded by the advertising agency N.W. Ayer, focused on establishing the diamond engagement ring as a symbol of lasting love. This included creating the iconic slogan “A Diamond is Forever” in 1947-1948 and providing newspapers with details of diamonds worn by Hollywood stars and wives of political figures to serve as aspirational role models. This also saw the rise of wedding cakes with tiers. Honeymoons became an important part of a wedding, which were often UK seaside destination or if they were lucky, a short trip to France.
Princess Diana’s wedding in 1981 changed everything, with the puffed sleeves, cathedral-length trains, and big budgets became fashionable. This saw the rise of television and magazines promoting dream weddings. Weddings from this point grew in scale, cost, and expectation dramatically.
On the 1920s guest count would be 20-25. By the time we got to the 1980’s it was more like 80-100 guests. From 2000 up to now, it’s more like 100–200 (with evening guests often added).
Kath Reynolds is very knowledgeable in all things to do with weddings and the audience was most taken with it, she’s been a few times with talks to the Society members and always been well appreciated.
