Wedding Dresses of the Century

Oelwein Area Women's Club is sponsoring a "Wedding Dresses of the Century" event Sunday, April 19 from 1:00-5:00pm at the Williams Center. Proceeds from the event will be given to Oelwein graduating young women in the form of scholarships. Tickets are on sale at Community Bank, Fidelity Bank, Regions Bank, Sam's Clothing, VanDenover Jewelry, VG's, Flowers on Main, Buds'n'Blossoms, Mercy Hospital Auxiliary Gift Shop, the Chamber in Oelwein, and at Tiedt Photography in Sumner ($7.00 in advance and $9.00 at the door). Performing during intermission will be the Steil Dance Studio dancers. Door prizes will also be awarded during intermission, and VanDenover's Limousine Service will be on display. Various vendors (photographers and cake decorators) will be displaying their products in the lobby. General chairperson for the event is Kathy Steele Adams. For further information, contact her at kamac@mchsi.com or 319-238-2657.

There is still a need for dresses from 1910-1925.

Doesn't this sound intriguing?

This dark wine velvet jacket dress with cream colored bodice was worn at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Hazleton, Iowa in a 1933 wedding. In those days, ladies had to wear something on their head in the Catholic Church, so the bride wore a matching velvet tam. The happy couple went to Marshalltown for their honeymoon.

The dress description has me asking, "Is this bride Irish?"

This bride was married in 1926 at the Lutheran Parsonage in Cresco after having migrating from Denmark to Ellis Island, New York in 1923 and finding her way to Riceville, Iowa, where she eventually met her husband. Her street length forest green wedding dress featured a lowered waistline with a sligthly gathered skirt of velvet fabric in the front. The body of the dress was shiny rayon fabric with long fitted sleeves and velvet cuffs, velvet trim on the open narrow collar, and velvet long narrow yoke in the front. Three sets of three brass buttons down the front completed the dress which was bought at Black's Department Store in Waterloo. The back of the dress was straight and plain. She and her husband were married 58 years before her husband died and she wore her wedding dress at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration.

To view this lovely wedding ensemble and many others from the years 1909-2009, be sure and attend the "Wedding Dresses of the Century" event at the Williams Center April 19, 1:00-5:00pm.