Thursday, May 2, 2013

#GuestPost: A Regency Era Wedding by Annamaria Bazzi, author of the White Swans Series

Book: White Swans: The New Girl in Town
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:

About the Author :
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 PageSmashwords Author's Page or Barnes & Noble Author's Page for a list of her books!

5 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. thank you, lucie, for stopping by, and when you love history it's even more fun to do the research.

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  2. Interesting. I love historical fiction. I will have to check out this book. Congrats, Annamaria.

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    1. thank you rebecca, i'm glad you enjoyed the post, and thanks for stopping by

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  3. thank you so much, rachelle, for hosting the stop. it was great coming back to our blog

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