Very few things can get a woman’s blood pumping quite like a beautiful wedding dress. So to see how the wedding dress has evolved over the past century is a real treat.
#1. 1840.
Surprisingly enough, brides didn’t always wear white to their weddings. It was Queen Victoria who started the trend, inadvertently spawning the tradition.
#2. 1850.
An early daguerreotype photo of an unidentified bride posing on her wedding day.
#3. 1878.
A typical Victorian wedding dress featured a bustle, which was usually adorned with flowers.
#4. 1900.
Actress Dorothea Baird’s wedding portrait.
#5. 1905.
Eleanor Roosevelt in her wedding dress, photographed in New York City.
#6. 1910.
The Ernstein newlyweds.
#7. 1912.
Miss Ruby Ray in bridal attire, featuring a long train and a feather headdress and veil.
#8. 1915.
Flight Commander Sipper with his new bride Miss D’Arcy in her fur-trimmed wedding dress.
#9. 1918.
Lieutenant Wissler looks on as his bride, Miss Annie Hodge, cuts their wedding cake with a sword.
#10. 1920.
Canadian-American film actress Mary Pickford is pure radiance in her wedding dress.
#11. 1922.
A young African-American couple sit for their wedding portrait.
#12. 1922.
Princess Mary’s wedding dress was designed by William Wallace Terry, London’s leading court dressmaker.
#13. 1924.
A newlywed couple’s wedding portrait, featuring a parrot.
#14. 1925.
Mademoiselle Loewenstein in a white wedding dress with a very long veil.
#15. 1926.
A wedding dress from the Solosign fashion house.
#16. 1927.
The new Mrs Hampton in a wedding dress with an embroidered headdress and long lace train.
#17. 1928.
“Before the dress was given to the NHA in 1987, it was altered and worn by four other young women in the family.” This was written about the dress that Arline Wilma Preston wore when she wed Clark Wallace Bishop.
#18. 1929.
A bride in the late 1920s.
#19. 1930.
Mr and Mrs Lewis Johnson cutting their wedding cake together. She wore a simple wedding dress with gloves.
#20. 1931.
Society bride Inez McNamara after her wedding to William McNamara in London. The cross she is wearing on her chest is made of diamonds.
#21. 1933.
Actress Ann Todd models her own wedding gown, which was designed and made by Helene Galin. It includes a long train edged with lace that belonged to her great-great-grandmother.
#22. 1937.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the Chateau de Conde in France after their wedding.
#23. 1938.
A wedding gown made of forty-eight yards of satin and twenty yards of tulle, modeled at London’s Grosvenor House.
#24. 1942.
Official wedding portrait of Gov. William Scranton’s bride, Mary L. Chamberlin.
#25. 1944.
Actress Elyse Knox had a wedding gown fashioned with the fabric from the bullet-riddled parachute that saved her fiance’s life when he was shot down over China.
#26. 1945.
Hazel Scott on her way to wed Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
#27. 1946.
Actress Martha Vickers’s portrait in her wedding gown.
#28. 1947.
Dancer Josephine Baker married orchestra leader Jo Bouillon in a simple suit.
#29. 1950.
A bride posing in her dress with a bouquet in hand.
#30. 1951.
A flowing wedding dress with lace sleeves designed by Mercia.
#31. 1952.
A satin wedding dress with a long veil, also by Mercia.
#32. 1955.
A model posing in a typical 1950s wedding dress.
#33. 1957.
A model posing in a wedding dress and veil in the late 50s.
#34. 1960.
British actress Jackie Collins in her wedding dress.
#35. 1962.
A young Colin Powell with his bride, Alma.
#36. 1964.
A gown from French designer Yves Saint Laurent’s spring collection in 1964. Made of white damask cotton, the dress is accessorized with white elbow gloves and a long tress trimmed with flowers.
#37. 1966.
A white silk wedding dress from the winter collection of French designer Hubert de Givenchy. It features a matching cape, a white mink tail hat, and white gloves.
#38. 1969.
A very daring wedding dress that was well ahead of its time (and still is). It was made of white rose petals and had a large tulle veil in the shape of a cape.