Vintage gowns to go down the aisle again

DONNA WALSH/ Waikato Times

UNIQUE: Catherine Gault models an 1887 gown as mum Margaret looks on.

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Most wedding dresses only get one outing, but this weekend a vintage gown from 1887 will be worn down the aisle for the first time in more than a century.

Hamilton nurse Catherine Gault will model the 19th century wedding dress in a bridal show at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Claudelands on Saturday night.

Although the age of the gown is impressive, it is the family connection that is special for Ms Gault.

It belonged to her great-great grandmother's cousin Mary Crabb, who was married on a Wanganui farm 122 years ago.

The antique two-piece dress was found hanging in Mrs Crabb's daughter's wardrobe by family members in the 1950s, and has been carefully stored since, with hardly a moth bite on it.

The dusky coloured outfit comes with an ornate bonnet, button detail and a bustle filling out the back of the skirt.

It's just one of four preworn wedding dresses belonging to family members that Ms Gault will wear in the fashion show, part of a fundraiser to renovate the church's community hall.

The St Andrew's Bridal Show will present 37 vintage gowns spanning the decades from the 1880s through to the 1910s, the 1940s, and more modern designs from the 1980s and 90s.

Organiser Lalita Hari has been overwhelmed at the response to the event for parishioners offering to lend treasured family gowns.

Ms Gault will also wear her 96-year-old grandmother Edna Buddle's 1940 wedding gown, made of cream velvet, and dresses belonging to her two sisters from weddings in 1997 and 2004.