PapersPast: What did Olive Wear to Her Wedding?

On 2 April 1913 my paternal grand parents got married in Wellington, New Zealand. They were Olive Constance Beatrice IRELAND (1887-1969) and Charles Adolph KITTO (1883 – 1953).

I recently searched for details on Olive and Dolph’s wedding. A good repository is the large digital PapersPast archive from the National Library of NZ. I am fortunate that my KITTO family or others often submitted material. This was papers such at the Evening Post and other local Wellington newspapers.

Newspapers are valuable source that can help your research.

In this  one article I found:

• research new family members,
• family relationships,
• details of what the bride and others wore,
• who gave away the bride,
• the gifts given to the bride’s attendees by the groom,
• the church,
• residential streets,
• and more.

I wonder if the wedding gifts included items we saw about Grandma’s house like the silver fruit bowls or white damask table linen.  Or perhaps some of the many piece dinner sets with matching large oval meat serving plates. The newspaper said the gifts were “numerous and costly presents”.

What did Olive Wear to Her Wedding?

Have a read of the transcription or original below to check out what Olive wore to her wedding. The article also covers what others in the bridal party wore to the wedding.

PapersPast Transcription:

Women in Print from Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 79, 4 April 1913, Page 9

On Wednesday, at the Primitive
Methodist Church, Webb-street, Miss
Olive Ireland, second daughter of Mrs.
M. S. Ireland, of Wallace-street, was
married to Mr. Adolphus Kitto, second
son of Mr. Kitto, of Austin-street. The
Rev. Mr. Potter performed the marriage
ceremony. The bride, who was given
away by her brother, Mr. E. J. Ireland,
looked charming in a gown of white
satin charmeuse, with square court train,
richly embroidered with pearls. She
also wore the orthodox veil and orange
blossom, and carried a beautiful shower
bouquet. The bride was attended by
four bridesmaids—-Miss Doris M‘Intyre
(niece of the bride}, Miss Rene Kitto
(sister of the bridegroom), and two little
girls, the Misses Ainslie and Gwendo-
line Bell (also nieces of the bride). All
wore dainty white muslin frocks and
quaint mob caps. Their gifts from the
bridegroom were: to the two elder girls,
silver purses, and gold brooches to the
younger ones. The bridegroom was at-
tended by Mr. W. H. Pollock as best
man. A reception was subsequently held
at Godber’s. Mrs. Ireland, the bride’s
mother, wore a very handsome dress of
black silk and a black toque, with
ospreys. Mrs. Kitto, the bridegroom’s
mother, was in a navy tailored costume
and a smart black hat. The bride and
bridegroom were the recipients of nu-
merous and costly presents. The honey-
moon is being spent in the North.

(Look out for a post later in the week on how I quickly transcribed this text from PapersPast The Lazy Genealogist way.)

Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19130404.2.128

Charmeuse (wikipedia link) is a very light fabric with a satin weave. Probably silk at the time of this wedding as polyester usage is a more recent event.

I wonder if I will ever find a picture of the happy couple with family all dressed up as described?

The wedding of Olive IRELAND and Dolph KITTO based on PapersPast is part of My Family History Series for the date 2 April 1913.

Make me jealous and link any of your own blog posts with wedding photos or comment about your newspaper discoveries. I love to read about others researching family history.