Weddings are a traditional rite of passage; ceremony overlaid with religious significance and cultural expectations. Befitting the occasion, bridal clothing may be ceremonially symbolic in colour, textile, or style, but also follows the fashion of the day and evolves, as traditions do, over time.

This exhibition features a selection of bridal wear from our collection, representing wedding fashion from the late 1800s and through the twentieth century. Discover the beauty and craftswomanship of home- or dressmaker-made garments, embellished by hand. With a focus on the wearers of these dresses and Aotearoa wedding traditions, we see how the wedding dress reflects changes in fashion – both in aesthetic style and our social customs.

Displayed across two exhibition spaces, Dearly Beloved also presents the Ashburton Bride of the Year 1970 winner’s gown – an unusual, though at the time, very contemporary wedding dress – alongside related objects and photographs from the Gordon Binsted negatives collection.

Image: Photograph, wedding of Elisabeth and Antony Quaid on 14 November 1992. AM&HS Collection; 05.2013.1033