Wedding Feature
Love is a wonderful gift
So, you’ve met your soul mate and the two of you are tying the knot … congratulations!
If you’ve set the date, your thoughts will now be turning to your big day and how this will be celebrated.
Your wedding is one of the most important days of your life. Fortunately, here in North Canterbury there are many venues, services and suppliers available to take the stress out of your wedding plans.
Our advice is to start early with some simple decisions, such as how formal you wish your occasion to be and the size of your guest list. Take a good look at your budget as that will help shape your plans.
Have you thought about your preferred church or ceremony location? It makes sense to find out early whether the venue is available when you want it and to meet with the minister or celebrant to discuss your ideas.
This is not the time to seek help from amateurs: make no mistake – professional florists, reliable suppliers and caterers, the right beautician and hairdresser, a fashion specialist with a flair for wedding parties, and an experienced wedding photographer will all be of huge benefit.
Have you chosen the place for your reception and the entertainment you want? There are plenty of options to meet your requirements.
We know the bride will be gorgeous on the day. But make sure the groom and the rest of the bridal party also have their ensembles sorted out in plenty of time.
Wedding Rewind
Once they wore black!
Traditional white dominates our thinking on wedding gowns, but black and darker coloured gowns were once worn too. Nineteenth century brides on a budget sometimes preferred wearing a coloured dress that could be worn for best again after the wedding. In the days before modern cleaning technology, it would have been easier to keep a darker dress looking good too!
Rangiora’s Northbrook Colonial Museum has a collection of historic wedding gowns that includes a Victorian-era black wedding dress, with a white crochet lace collar, and another late nineteenth century coloured silk taffeta wedding gown. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, brides often wore pale green, said to be the colour of fertility.
Flashy ‘50s
The 1950s brought a new extravagance to bridal fashion, which in the immediate post-war period had been plagued by material shortages. Who wouldn’t want to wear this lavish bridesmaid dress of the 1950s? - NZ Home Journal, April 1957
Questions they asked in the 1950s to find out if you were in love:
Every man and every woman has his and her own conception of love, and most agree on only one thing – that to play with love is to play with fire. There are, however, some who claim that the certainty of being loved is not indispensable to loving; on the contrary, they say, reciprocated passion is a drawback, bringing monotony to the emotion. Love, say such people, is a superb and perpetual struggle in which it is necessary to conquer the beloved anew every day.
But everybody cannot possess such a grand conception of love. Generally speaking, there are two classes of lovers – those to whom the certainty of being loved is almost a condition of life itself, and those whom such a consideration is of no important.
This test says ‘Marie Marchand’ will enable you to discover to which group belong. Answer a plain Yes or No to the following questions:
- Are you suspicious?
- Have you a jealous nature?
- Can you forgive your partner if from time to time, he argues with you over insignificant issues?
- Does it upset you to see your husband or fiance being particularly friendly with another woman?
- Do you consider it imperative to know what he is doing when he is not with you.
- Do you feel the certainty that he loves you?
- Do you believe seriously in the eternal character of love?
- Have you ever felt that love was lacking in, your life?
- Is it important to you that your partner tells you ardently and repeatedly that he loves you?
- You are about to go away, say for a year. Do you think he will remain faithful to you?
- Could you forgive him if he left you now?
- Are you happy in the knowledge that you love him?
- Do you also wonder if he is happy loving you?
- Are you upset if he fails to notice you are wearing a new hat?
- Would you renounce his love if you thought his happiness depended on it?
- Do you think more about him than about yourself?
- Would you love him just as much if he spoke a foreign language and you could not talk to one another?
- Would you be deeply affected if you were obliged to break with him?
- Are you happy to be a lover
If you have replied Yes to 10 or more questions, you are animated by deep feelings, you are ardent, but highly emotional; you need to be loved as well as loving, and you need to be constantly told of your lover’s affection.
If you have answered No to 10 or more questions, you are too wrapped up in yourself to worry about anybody except you. It is sufficient for you to love someone and to have that someone accept your love. But you are not truly happy because you lack the fore of true love.
Thanks to Richard and Dawn Spark at Northbrook Colonial Museum for letting us view and photograph their historic wedding gowns and for the loan of the 1957 NZ Home Journal. The museum is open by appointment at Spark Lane, Rangiora. Ph (03) 313 7427 or email info@rossburnreceptions.co.nz
