Wedding Paraphernalia Collection

The second part of our field trip was to a chateau that houses a collection of wedding paraphernalia from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection of wedding crowns is especially large; there was an entire room filled to the brim with them. They are all behind glass, which made them tricky to photograph, but here's some of the better shots:

Honestly, I found the wedding crown collection a little creepy...seeing all those dried flowers behind glass, without their brides...

I much preferred the wedding dresses.

Here are some examples from the 19th century. I'm assuming the shoes are appropriate to the period indicated...not sure if they were originally worn with those dresses or not.

Circa 1840:

Circa 1850:

Circa 1860, with lace made by nuns:

Circa 1885:

I don't have the date for this one:

And, finally, some 20th century examples:

There was very little information regarding the provenance of these dresses, other than the fact that they come from France. Still, I think they are well-preserved, n'est-ce pas? ;) And it's interesting to see how the style changed over time.