Author: Annamaria Bazzi
Thank you so much, Rachelle, for hosting my blog
tour stop for The New Girl in Town. I must say that I’m having a great deal of
fun learning about the Regency Period.
As a history lover, one of the most exciting parts
of writing the White Swans series is all the research needed for creating an
accurate setting with precise details.
It is unknown how common the white wedding dress was
during the Regency Era, but some think it might have been more popular than we
believe. Back in 1814, even Jane Austen’s nice, Anna, married in a white muslin
wedding dress. Although some did wear a white gown, the actual veil did not
become popular until later in the century. Usually a bride wore flowers in her
hair or a bonnet trimmed with lace. Flowers at weddings date back to ancient
Greece when the women wove flowers into wreaths and placed them on the brides
head, a token of good luck from Mother Nature.
Princes Charlotte wedding gown
It was customary for royalty to wear silver on their
wedding day. Princess Charlotta in 1816 conformed to the practice. Queen
Victoria, on the other hand, established the new tradition of wearing white,
stepping out of the usual convention. When she married her beloved Prince
Albert, she decided not to wear the royal silver. Instead, the queen wore a
simple white satin dress trimmed with Honiton lace, with a Honiton long veil,
and an orange blossom wreath on her head to symbolize purity.
White became the fashion, and it was made easy and
inexpensive with the introduction of machine made lace and dresses.
In the Regency Period, even more important than the
wedding was the announcement printed in the newspapers. If a wedding was not
announced properly in the paper it would almost be like the matrimony never took
place as Jane Austin wrote:
“The latter writes me word that Miss
Blackford is married, but I have never seen it in the papers, and one may as
well be single if the wedding is not to be in print.”
During this period, ordinary folks celebrated weddings
in the morning. The reception would consist of eggs, ham, a roll or buttered
toast and wedding cake. The more well to do had a more elaborate menu to feast
on like white soup, chips and dip, celery stalks and possibly spiced wine.
The wealthy and royals had fancy, formal dinner
parties with famous chefs preparing the meals, which might have consisted of at
least fifteen different courses, including, perhaps, roasted chicken, rabbit,
quail, steamed vegetables and gooseberry tart.
Indeed, the research revealed many little details I
knew nothing about. I hope you have enjoyed discovering some of these facts
with me.
Again, thank you so much for hosting, and I hope
your readers will enjoy learning a little bit about weddings in the early 19th
century.
Some of the sources I used for this research:
Although born in the
United States, Annamaria Bazzi spent a great deal of her childhood in Sicily,
Italy, in a town called Sciacca. Italian was the language spoken at home.
Therefore, she had no problems when she found herself growing up in a strange
country.
Upon returning to
the states, she promised herself she would speak without an accent.
She attended Wayne
State University in Detroit Michigan, where she obtained her Bachelor of
Science in Computers with a minor in Spanish.
Annamaria spent
twenty years programming systems for large corporations, creating innovative
solution, and addressing customer problems. During those years, she raised four
daughters and one husband. Annamaria lives in Richmond Virginia with her small
family where she now dedicates a good part of her day writing.
You can visit
Annamaria at:
Twitter : @AMBazzi
Please visit Annamaria's Amazon Author's Page
, Smashwords Author's Page or Barnes & Noble Author's Page for a list of her books!
, Smashwords Author's Page or Barnes & Noble Author's Page for a list of her books!
Interesting post, Annamaria. I don't write in your genre, but I certainly appreciate the research involved in writing period pieces. All genres call for research, of course, but what fun it must be to go back in time and gather so many details.
ReplyDeletethank you, lucie, for stopping by, and when you love history it's even more fun to do the research.
DeleteInteresting. I love historical fiction. I will have to check out this book. Congrats, Annamaria.
ReplyDeletethank you rebecca, i'm glad you enjoyed the post, and thanks for stopping by
Deletethank you so much, rachelle, for hosting the stop. it was great coming back to our blog
ReplyDelete