Almost two years ago, I wrote this very short post about wedding photographs which show a bride wearing a dark dress with a white veil. Here is that post….with some additions.+
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While searching for a historical occasion that occurred on this date, I ran across the death date of Ida Emilie Martha (Mueller) Doering…..April 5, 1894. She was the first wife of Wilhelm Doering. A few days ago, I posted a photo of Wilhelm’s second wedding to Maria Schmidt and asked about Maria’s white veil worn with a dark dress. Well, lo and behold, I found a photo of Wilhelm’s first wedding to Ida Mueller (the left photo), and it once again shows a “black and white” wedding.
I welcome any comments you might have as you compare these two photos which include the same groom, but different brides.
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I have a very limited time for a post today, and I am also away from the museum’s resources, so I’m going to cheat a little. In the course of writing for this blog, I have run across quite a few of these wedding photos which show the bride wearing “black and white”. I thought today I would put them all in one place and let you look at them. So here is my “Black and White Wedding Gallery”. You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.
I even ran across this photo which has two couples in which only one of the brides is wearing black and white.
Once you get into the twentieth century, this fashion trend seems to fade away.
I will just leave these photos for your viewing pleasure without any additional comments and without identifying each couple. I would love to get comments from our readers though. I guess it will be up to you to see if you recognize anyone.
I also cannot resist. The old Math teacher in me just has to make a reference to the fact that today, 3.14 (March 14), is Pi Day. I will also send you back to another old post that I wrote a year ago. It was titled, Baking Up a Good German Lutheran Pi. So I leave you with a little special dessert today. Happy Pi Day.
It was traditional in the close-knit German communities for widows to wear black wedding gowns upon remarrying. White signified previously unmarried brides. Not at all unusual back in the day.
I, too, have heard that, but I also know that many, probably most, of these photos are from first marriages. Also, I’m betting that some of these dressers were some other color, not necessarily black.