Details

Parent Category: Europe

There is a cute and meaningful tradition in Ukraine – to belt the bride with a ceremonial towel instead of an ordinary belt. We can see this in the central and northern regions of Ukraine in the 19th century. Of course, a towel is much wider, longer, and brighter than any belt, so it adds color and opulence to the bridal outfit. Today, this wedding tradition is practically forgotten, brides don’t belt themselves with embroidered towels anymore. Some people would even say that it’s weird to use a towel as a belt. But why did they do it?

Details

Parent Category: Europe

In modern European wedding tradition, groomsmen usually dress in suits or tuxes, but what did they wear 100 or so years ago? Here’s a spoiler: in Slavic countries, they wore bizarre outfits, something opposite to imposing suits. To convince you, we’ll show a piece from a museum collection – groomsman’s attire from Carpathian Ukraine. One garment in this set is particularly interesting.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

Among the traditional wedding headdresses around the world, there are many oddly-shaped, unique, or eye-catching pieces. Our modern veils, pillbox hats, and other wedding hair accessories can’t even be compared to some of that vintage folk headgear. And here are two examples of such bridal headpieces from Ukraine, the late 19th – early 20th century. Can you imagine wearing something like this for your wedding?

Details

Parent Category: Europe

Wedding fashion changes so rapidly that we sometimes can’t recognize the wedding clothing popular a decade ago, so it’s not surprising that garments worn by the bride and groom 100 or 200 years ago might seem weird. This item is one of such curious outerwear pieces. It is called “manta” and used to be worn by grooms in the 19th – early 20th century in Ukraine. Here you are a few detailed photos and some info about manta, odd but ornate and beautiful outer garment.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

Ukrainian brides used to wear wedding wreaths for their big day. This tradition existed for several hundred years. Today, women in Ukraine rarely wear wreaths for the wedding, so this wedding tradition has almost disappeared. But the local museums still have large collections of authentic bridal wreaths made from wax, yarn, artificial flowers (fresh flowers, of course, haven’t survived), wooden shavings, metal, feathers, foil, and other materials. And these headwear pieces can be striking – we look at them and understand why women wanted to wear them and considered them inspiring.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

In several Ukrainian regions, there was a certain wedding tradition – the bride’s family presented their most honored and respected wedding guests with a special gift. They gave small embroidered kerchiefs, which the wedding guests gladly took and stored in the most prominent place at home. These kerchiefs were a very important present, like a very special wedding favor given only to the selected people. But let’s have a look at some of the wedding kerchiefs. Aren’t they cute and bright?

Details

Parent Category: Europe

We are used to more familiar and common bridal headwear – veils, hats or caps, wreaths, tiaras, and so on, but this piece is unique and even exotic, you might say. Though, 100 or so years ago, brides in Ukraine often wore such headdresses to their wedding. If you look closer, you’ll see charming white doves hand-stitched on the fabric. Of course, they symbolize the couple, their pure and eternal love, and the new family (nest) they build together. It’s a wonderful wedding garment that was worn by some bride years ago and, today, is a part of a museum collection.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

Today, we have so many means of preserving our wedding photos and sentimental knickknacks from our happy day – all those wedding photo albums, bride boxes, framed photo collages, digital picture frames, etc. But how did our grandmothers and great grandmothers keep their favorite wedding items? This is a rare old wedding photo frame that belonged to an ordinary family from the Carpathian mountain region, not some fancy piece of a princess or baroness, made not from gold or silver, but handcrafted with so much love and care. It hung in the most honored corner of the house, perfectly complementing the simple wooden interior. And now, we see it in a museum.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

The local brides and grooms in Ukraine wore beautiful folk costumes for their wedding 100 years ago. The wedding dress used to be colorful, multilayered, and richly decorated. Among the most important accessories, were ornate jewels and bridal wreaths. Here is a great collection of Ukrainian authentic wedding outfits and modern bride’s wreaths and necklaces. These costumes look striking and stand out from the crowd. And by the way, a lot of Ukrainian brides today return to traditions and use folk wedding clothing on their happy day.

Details

Parent Category: Europe

One of Ukrainian old wedding traditions is for the bride to wear a wedding wreath. Actually, a white wedding wreath made from wax beads was introduces into worldwide fashion by Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century in the UK. But in Ukraine, it was a part of the bridal outfit long before that. And the local brides wore not only delicate, pure white wreaths but large, brightly colored ones as well. Today, this tradition is not so popular and brides often choose white veils, hats, or other intricate headgear for their wedding, but wreaths made from fresh or artificial flowers are still used by a lot of women.