Hi Revmother,
I must agree and say that this is a wonderful study of a wedding group. The family, I would say was part of the community and played, in their own way, an important part in it. Within the group there are 13 males and 21 females and for the most part (if not all) I will have to discount the males for dating purposes as other than the groom I can not make head way with getting a firm date line from them.The groom has a frock coat on with the skirts reaching down to knee level. In 1890 the four buttoned frock coat was altered to only have three buttons so there is a start date there. However I believe that this is at least eight years (if not more) older than that date. Although the lapels are short on the grooms frock coat it indicates that this wedding took place in or around 1897 or 1898. In 1897 the lapels on frock coats became more straighter in cut and lay and were more pointed. Also pushing me in that direction is that amongst the women there is only one that is wearing a dress that has puffed upper sleeves as a leg of mutton sleeve would be. This fashion icon disappeared as if overnight in 1897 and was replaced by a much tighter sleeving as shown by some of the woman. Interestingly there are at least three different styles of sleeving to be seen. The bishop sleeve worn by the woman sitting extreme left, the leg of mutton worn by the woman sitting third from left, and the bell sleeve worn by the woman extreme right standing. From 1897 and to the end of that decade sleeves on blouses became either tighter from shoulder to wrist or tight with a slight puff or epaulette at the shoulders which can all be seen in one form or another here. The hair of all the woman (not the younger females) is shown as being dressed in the pompadour style with exposed ears and the hair set over pads above the ear this style was popular in the late 1890's onwards towards 1910. All 21 females are wearing headwear of some description. 19 of them are wearing wide brimmed hats decorated in a mixure of feathers, flowers, ribbon and silk, whilst two have short brimmed hats decorated in feathers and flowers. The old lady, sitting third from the right, is in fact wearing a bonnet and not a hat which again is decorated with feathers and flowers. Two of the men (sitting) have silk top hats and I would have expected to find that all but one of the men would have worn a topper as it was de rigueur with wearing the frock coat.
Finally just some other points, the two younger girls sitting together at the front would, I suspect, have been the bridesmaids whilst the two standing behind them would have been maids of honour. The old lady wearing the bonnet has her left hand resting on a parasol whilst the gent with the white beard sixth from the right, sitting, has a walking cane resting against his leg and the gent, sitting second from right, has an umbrella. This wedding party must have made a colourful grouping and one can only imagine the different colours that may have been worn. Hope that something amongst all the above helps you in someway.
old rowley
