LOVE is in the air at Darlington library on Tuesday, November 14, when County Durham archivist Gill Parkes gives a talk entitled And The Bride Wore…

Gill will show some of the wonderful wedding photographs in the Durham County Record Office collection and tell some of the stories behind them. She will also look at the way fashions, and dresses, have changed over the decades.

The Northern Echo:

IN THE FAMILY: May 15, 1862, when Henry Fell Pease married his cousin, Elizabeth Pease Pease. The bridgegroom is seated in the centre of the picture with his father, mill owner Henry, looking over his right shoulder. Elizabeth is seated on the left-hand of her new husband with her father, John Beaumont Pease, standing behind her. Behind him are the flinty features of Joseph Pease, who now stands on a statue in High Row. The picture was taken at the rear of North Lodge. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local Studies

Quakers Edward Backhouse Mounsey and Rachel Ann Fryer, who married in 1878 and settled at Tees Grange, Darlington, were captured on camera more often than most Victorian couples, probably because the groom was so interested in photography himself. So we know where he proposed to her, and we still have his design for the pendant his bride wore on her wedding day – but did she like it? Perhaps the photo reveals all.

There’s a society wedding in Spennymoor in 1911 where the bride, groom and bridesmaids had the same name, there’s a wedding cake proudly displayed on a pavement in 1914, and there’s an elegant 1947 bride who borrowed her dress and had to spray her shoes the right colour because of post-war rationing.

The talk coincides with this month’s display in the Crown Street library which comprises Darlington wedding photos and related material.

The talk starts at 2pm, and tickets are £2 and bookable in advance from the library, or call 01325-349630 or email local.studies@darlington.gov.uk