In 1895, a bride prepared for her wedding day in one of the most magnificent Victorian gowns ever made, with puffed leg-of-mutton sleeves falling over the shoulders, impeccable beadwork, and a spotless creamy color of silk satin. After 120 years, the women who descended from that first bride still wore it. This two-piece gown has been worn by 11 brides from this family over the course of the year!
It almost never happens like this!Mary Lowry Warren, the first bride, wore the gown to her wedding in Buffalo, New York, in 1895. The women in the family have worn the dress for their special occasions all the way down to her great-great-granddaughter, Abigail Kingston Curtis, with the exception of a brief period in the 1920s when the flapper style was all the rage and the women desired a much more modern look.
The heirloom gown had been passed down from one woman to the next. The mother of the last woman to wear it would always have it in her home, according to family tradition. Curtis knew about the dress and knew she wanted to wear it, but she and her mother had trouble finding it at first because it had traveled all over the country. The dress was shipped from a woman who had worn it herself in 1960.
They were devastated when they finally got their hands on it.Not only was the wedding gown disintegrating and turning brown (it hadn’t been worn since 1991 at that point), but it was also far too small for the tall and slender Curtis. Thankfully, after 200 hours of alteration and restoration, the gown was finally wearable and was altered to fit the most recent bride-to-be, though the restoration process took months.
The bride made headlines after a local news outlet picked up the story, and she had to force her future husband to stay off social media so he wouldn’t see her in the dress before the wedding! In the end, she chose to wear the delicate gown not for the ceremony, but for the reception, which was met with applause from the guests. Curtis married her sweetheart, Jason Curtis, on October 17th, 2015, in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, and said she could feel the love in the dress and that she and her husband couldn’t be happier.
The stunning gown was later displayed at the Easton Bridal Expo in 2016 with the assistance of the Sigal Museums so that the public could see it in person. In the touching video below, you can see the dress and all of the brides who have worn it.