Welcome to the second part of our adventure of dressing the 1940s German Bride. In my largest photo album, there are two weddings, and this is the second one. If you look very carefully, there are some people in the first wedding that make an appearance in this one too! I think this wedding is more into the 1940s based on the attire of the wedding party but based on the markings on the back, this was held in the city of Dresden. Dress hemlines have risen to a more fashionable length seen in this decade. This wedding only has two photos, one of the bride and groom and another of the wedding party.
This bridal gown holds so much visual interest. Her dress features a deep ruffle at the hem, tucks, and a sheer panel at the bodice front (you can see the outline at the neckline). Her gown also has a small collar and these amazing dainty floral wreaths. The wreaths, or rings, are hanging from her sash, adorn the front of her gown, and even form a sort of necklace. These rings are a motif I have seen in other German bride photos from the period.
So, what do the rings mean? When I started seeing these over and over, I asked myself what the significance of these rings was. When a reader shared with me his family wedding photos from the same period and there were these floral rings I had to ask. The answer? Even he did not know! But we did take a guess and we came up with that they symbolized eternal love. Keep in mind, that's a guess.
Sometime later, the meanings of the rings still bugged me, and I enlisted a friend help me out. After some extensive searching we finally got an answer. Called "kranzbinden" these bridal rings were part of a tradition that was preformed about a week before the ceremony. The bridesmaids would make them, especially those who were unmarried, and then after the wedding ceremony, the bride would toss them into the crowd, whichever bridesmaid caught them was next to be married. In other parts of Germany, only one wreath was made and it was hung over the door on the day of the wedding. There, mystery solved.
Back to the bride. . . I love her veil! If you look closely the edge is scalloped and has a floral motif worked onto it. If you look super close, her gown is not quite floor length, and you can actually see her shoes but cannot make out what her shoes are.
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