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A nice day for a white wedding dress display in Broadford

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Jordyn Grubisic
Jordyn Grubisic
Jordyn Grubisic is a senior journalist for the North Central Review primarily covering politics at all levels and sport with a particular interest in basketball. Since 2019 she has worked for several publications across Victoria including most recently at the Alexandra Standard and Yea Chronicle. She is always keen to hear from local community members about issues they face and has an interest in crime and court reporting.

Broadford and District Historical Society displayed wedding dresses dating back to the 1920s sourced from Broadford residents, past and present, in an exhibition last week.

Dresses, photographs and other wedding items – including shoes, invitations and confetti – were displayed from October 26 to 28 at Gavan Hall, with entry by gold coin donation.

Dresses were contributed to the display with some family members travelling from as far as Mornington Peninsula to participate in the exhibition.

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Society member Marg Inness said the turnout to the display was great.

“It’s been absolutely wonderful and it’s been totally unexpected. We couldn’t have fitted in anymore,” she said.

“It was just to get the historical society a bit of promotion – it was only a gold coin donation to get in and I think the raffle and Devonshire tea brought in a lot of people.”

Wedding dresses
The Broadford and District Historical Society displayed wedding dresses dating back to the 1920s from Broadford residents past and present in an exhibition last week. Dresses, photographs and other wedding items, including shoes, invitations and confetti, were displayed at Gavan Hall. ​

Among the collection was a dress that was the last surviving piece of wedding memorabilia for a couple who had lost everything else in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Linda Smedley and Bryan Patullo married on September 4, 1971 in Broadford, with her dress made by her aunt Lorna Christensen.

“In the Black Saturday fires, they lost everything – all the wedding photos and everything went,” Ms Inness said.

“When they were clearing out the house, low and behold, there was her wedding dress so that was really special.

“There was some confetti stuck in the lace I removed and displayed it, so that’s very special.

“They obviously didn’t have any photos but members in the community actually found some, which was fantastic.”

Another piece from the display was a 1920s dress worn by Alison Berry, which was accompanied by a newspaper clipping titled ‘The bride wore pink’ describing her empire-line gown made of pale pink wool crepe topped with a white wool coat.

Ms Inness said she noticed that wedding dresses throughout the century had remained relatively similar.

“Not a lot has changed. A lot of these dresses today you could actually just slip into and wear again – they’re all just fantastic,” she said.

“But we did notice that most of them were very slim with tiny waists. Some of the dresses we couldn’t even get to zip up on the mannequin.”

The display also showed familial history in Broadford with Ms Inness’ mother and sister’s dresses on display alongside her bridesmaid dress.

Another display showed the Coulson family wedding history including Annie and Lily Coulson making a wedding dress for their niece Lily J Coulson.

Mother and Daughter next to dresses
Mother and daughter Narelle Nesbitt and Jessica Connelly also contributed their wedding dresses to the Broadford and District Historical Society display. Ms Nesbitt’s dress was from her wedding on March 5, 1994 and Ms Connelly’s was one of the most recent dresses from her wedding on April 27, 2019. ​

Mother Narelle Nesbitt, married in 1994, and daughter Jessica Connelly, married in 2019, also contributed their wedding dresses to the display.

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