Vintage maternity wedding dress

Vintage maternity wedding dress

There’s more than one bride who has had to accommodate a growing bump in deciding on the style and fit of her wedding dress.

We don’t often think about after-baby wedding dresses though but, clearly, judging from the vintage maternity wedding dress from the 1800s, shown it is an age-old concern.

The vintage dress featured at the recent Bridal Fashion through the Years show, held recently at Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore.

A beautiful dress in its own right, and a style worth adapting for modern times if you’re slender of neck, love vintage Edwardian style, or just want to stay warm, it raised much curiosity.

It features cunningly concealed buttons and snaps at the front that allow for breast-feeding, but it’s clearly an after-the-event dress as it’s quite slim-fitting. Most intriguing.

What it did do though was set us thinking about maternity wedding dresses for pregnant brides.

If you are expecting and want an accommodating dress, check out this site from across the Tasman, www.maternitybride.com.au. The range isn’t huge but the styles are varied and could just suit, or even just inspire if you’re planning a locally made custom gown to accommodate a bub-on-the-way.

For more inspirational vintage wedding dresses through the ages, from the show – they range from the 1800s through to today – check out the picture gallery at photographer Neville Bailey’s website.

Styles range from elegant, clingy 1940s numbers to a short, sixties-style lace dress to a curious 1970s dress featuring a hoodie and much more. Today’s love of beach weddings is also hinted at with a simple camisole-style early beach-wedding dress.