Here Comes the Bride: Weddings in America

Weddings are an almost universal human ritual. For thousands of years, we’ve marked marriages with a ceremony, exchanged gifts, worn finery, and celebrated the occasion. Whether a coming of age ceremony or just a rite of passage, we look at weddings with a romantic nostalgia, sometimes tinged bittersweet. The importance of the ceremony is confirmed by the many mementos we keep of it. The Neville’s collection includes hundreds of wedding-related items—wedding dresses, tuxedos, veils, bouquets, even wedding gifts. This spring, much of that collection will be unveiled in conjunction with a traveling exhibition, Here Comes the Bride: Weddings in America. The exhibit explores the history of weddings in America from Colonial times up to the present day. Themes include the wedding dress, ethnic wedding customs, courtship, the honeymoon, and wedding gifts. Artifacts—many never on display before—will be drawn from our collection to highlight the exhibit themes. Nine magnificent wedding gowns (dating from 1853 to 1978) will be the stars of the show. Other intriguing items are a wedding cake, wedding invitations, bridesmaid dresses, and a wonderfully complete collection of items from a local wedding in the 1950s. Visitors can learn a little about local wedding customs, and polka dancing is encouraged. This exhibit was produced by the Rogers Historical Museum, Rogers, Arkansas, and supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.