Ring Bearer Costumes: Specific Weddings


Figure 1.--This formal American wedding took place in 1935. The ring bearer wore a late-period Little Lord Fauntleroy suite with a ruffled collar.

Some images are available at actual weddings from various eras. HBC has just begun to collect information on these weddings. In some cases only the image is available. In other instances some information is avaialble on the wedding. Some HBC readers have provided infprmation about weddinggs that they or their parents have participated in and we this have more details about these weddings. There are also some famous society weddings which we also eventually hope to add to this section. Currently we only have information on American weddings, but we hope to eventually add information on foreign weddings as well. We are organizing this section chronlogically.
The 1900s


The 1910s

1910: United States

This formal wedding was held in 1921 or 1922. There are four children in the wedding party. One girl carries the train of the bride's dress. Two nore are flower girls. There is also a boy about 5 who serves as the ring bearer with a large white ring pillow. All the childreb and women are dressed in white outfits.

1915: England

Formal weddings in the early part of the 20th Century used a wide variety of costumes for the boys who participated as ring bearers or pages and ushers. Here are the children participating in the wedding of of Helen Violet Asquith, daughter of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, to Sir Maurice Bonham Carter, her father's Principal Private Secretary. Helen Asquith was created a Baronesss in her own right to sit as a Liberal Peer in the House of Lords (1964). She is the Grandmother of Helena Bonham Carter the Actress. The wedding took place on November 30, 1915. One of the boys here is Randolph Churchill, Winston's Churchill's son. HBC suspects that some other little girl was selected to be the flower girl, but they wanted her to have an important role in the wedding. Little boys like the two here could serve as ring bearers or pages. As they are two boys, pages seem more likely. What we do not understand is why they are all dressed alike. Normally girls are assigned different roles in a wedding and dressed in very different outfits. We do not yet know the details concerning the wedding here and what role the children had and why they are dressed in identical outfits.

1910s: United States

Here we see an unidentified wedding in America. We would guess the portrait was taken in the 1910s. The earlt-20s is possible, but the 1910s seems the most likely. Here there are two children involved. They are both dressed in white. The older child is clearly a boy. He seems to be wearing a fancy blouse, but we can not see the rest of the outfit. The other child is probably a boy, but we can not be sure. He seems to be wearing a tunic suit. Both child wear white long stockings and black strap shoes. They look ti be about 3-5 years old. They are holding flowes in the portrait. The older boy was probably the ring bearer in the wedding servive. The rest of the wedding party is not dressed so informally.

The 1920s

1920s: United States

HBC has no details on an image of a ring bearer and flower girl. It is an American image which we believe it is a wedding portrait. It was probably a 1920s wedding, but this is only a guess on our part. The image is not real clear, but sone details can be made out. The long white stockings help to date the image.

1921: United States

This formal wedding was held in 1921 or 1922. There are four children in the wedding party. One girl carries the train of the bride's dress. Two nore are flower girls. There is also a boy about 5 who serves as the ring bearer with a large white ring pillow. All the childreb and women are dressed in white outfits.

The 1930s

About 1930: United States

This formal wedding was held about 1930. The boy wears short pants for his sation ring bearer costume. Fancy outfits were common for these outfits, but boys generally wore kneepants or longer shorts in the 1920s, leading us to believe the wedding took place in the late 1920s or late 1930s. The clothing worn by the adukts suggests the early rather than than the later 1930s. Also the little girls long dress suggests the early 1930s, Shirley Temple popularized shorter dresses which were more common in the later 1930s.

1935: United States

A HBC reader reports, "The ring bearer at my parents wedding wore a Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit. They were married in 1935. The location was a rural community about 60 miles north of San Francisco. The ring bear was about four years old and according to a newspaper description, his suit was black velvet. By the way the ceremony had to be stopped to retrieve the ring after it fell off the pillow. The poor little boy was reduced to tears."

1936: United States

Dudley Walker Morton known as "Mush" was the most famed American submarine commander of World War II. Morton was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He graduated from the Naval Academy (1930). While at Anapolis he acquired his nickname 'Mushmouth' later shortened to Mush. He married Hariet Nelson Avent in Tsigtao, China, a treaty port (1936). He commanded the fleet sunmarine USS Wahoo (SS-238) during the peak of the Pacific War, taking her on five combat patrols. The Wahoo sank at least 19 Japanese ships, more than any other submarine during a comparable period. Morton and Wahoo never returned from the last patrol.

The 1940s

1940s: United States

Here we see an unidentified wedding scene of the bride, two maids of honor, and the ring bearer, presumably her little brother. For some reason there is no flower girl. We know nothing about i except that the photograph was taken in the 1940s. It looks American to us. The ladies wer long white dresses. The ring bearr wears a rather plain short pants satin suit with white anke; socks and plain dark shoes.

The 1950s

We are currently processing additional information on weddings.





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Created: March 16, 2000
Last updated: 8:51 PM 3/11/2011