Exhibit Opening and Vintage Wedding Dress Fashion Show

Thursday, January 10, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Historic Wedding Dresses Coming to the Montana Historical Society!  Weddings are both profoundly personal and intensely public, reflecting every couple’s own wishes and the times and culture in which they live. Throughout Montana history, couples have wed in large community celebrations and small family gatherings, in formal church ceremonies and simple courthouse proceedings, in fancy outfits and everyday dress.  “And the Bride Wore: Montana Weddings, 1900-1960,” the Montana Historical Society’s newest temporary exhibit, will examine how history has shaped weddings—and particularly wedding fashion—during the first half of the twentieth century. Sixteen delightful and diverse dresses will be on display, including a hand-stitched dress made of white lace and yellow silk ribbon (worn in Butte in 1907), a Crow elk-tooth dress (worn in Lodge Grass in 1945), and a ballerina-style white dress of synthetic satin, lace and tulle (worn in Hardin in 1957).  An opening reception will be held January 10, 2013, from 6:30-8:00. The opening will feature a wedding dress fashion show, a 1950s style cake and punch reception, a book signing by Martha Kohl, author of I Do: A Cultural History of Montana Weddings, and Slovenian wedding dance music.   Don’t miss the fun! Viewers will be asked to participate in the exhibit by voting for their favorite ensemble and trying their hand at an old-fashioned Singer treadle sewing machine.  The dresses will remain on exhibit through November 2013.