2015 Exhibition of Wedding Dresses
From Lacey Green History
This Exhibition is mentioned in Social Snapshots 2001-2022 inc.
In 2015 The Local History Group and the Women's Institute arranged what can only be described as a most amazing exhibition involving a breath taking display of wedding dresses, floral displays and other exhibits reproduced here in pictures .A special thank you to Margaret Gray and to the Reverend Canon Tony Bundock for allowing us to use the very appropriate venue of Lacey Green Church. signed, Rosemary Mortham for the Local History Group.
Flower Festival of Wedding Dresses by Mike Piercy
For 20 years Margaret Gray has had a dream of a flower festival based around wedding dresses. Having decorated the church many times for weddings she is somewhat of an expert on the subject. So she put the word out to the ladies of the village asking for wedding dresses from the past century, hoping to get one dress from each decade.
Margaret also got in touch with the Village History Society and the Windmill WI to get their participation. The History Society took over the upstairs of the Church and organised a display about past village weddings with photos, wedding paraphernalia, and copies of the parish wedding registers. The Windmill WI are celebrating their 100th birthday this year, so they joined in enthusiastically, contributing memorabilia for the displays and providing refreshments throughout the weekend.
The request for dresses from weddings held in Lacy Green produced great results and 25 dresses were pulled out of lofts and dusted down. This included two dresses from each decade and two Victorian dresses – one of which belonged to Connie Baker’s mum.
St John’s Church agreed to provide the venue and the festival took place in the middle weekend of July.
Marks and Spencer donated some mannequins and Mike Eden built some hanging stands for the other dresses. Local dress maker Sarah James demonstrated the art of hanging and shaping the various dresses onto the dummies. The older dresses were designed for adults who were smaller than modern brides and the two Victorian dresses had to be displayed on child sized hangers.
Margaret and her team of helpers designed various flower displays to link with the dresses and the decades they were made. Perhaps the most striking theme was the war time display with poppies, wreathes and the Union Flag.
The weekend was fine and over 200 people visited the exhibition. The WI had excellent weather to provide their teas with sitting areas in marquees draped with distinctive bunting. The History Society committee turned out to explain their various records and artefacts to the fascinated visitors.
Thanks to all those who worked together to provide a fascinating exhibition and thanks to Caroline Egerton for the photos.
