A Family Was Reunited With Their Ancestor's Edwardian Wedding Dress From 1910—And Pieces of Confetti Were Still Caught in the Fabric

Most of us only experience our ancestors’ weddings in vintage photographs, carefully preserved in attics and handed down over time. One family in the U.K., however, just got an up-close-and-personal view of the wedding dress their long-lost relative wore to her nuptials in the early 20th century—which actually marked the first time anyone had seen the gown at all. Per the BBC (which has exclusive images of the frock), the photographer didn’t show up to the bride’s nuptials in 1910—so the gown and the rest of the big day's details were lost to history. 

Jennifer Slater viewed the heirloom, which belonged to her grandmother Lily Cathcart, alongside her daughter and two grandchildren at the Leeds Discovery Centre, where the garment had been preserved. Their visit to the museum was in honor of Lily, who, according to family records, was a passionate suffragette and supporter of votes for women. According to Jennifer, Lily became a teacher at Quarry Mount School before attending Darlington Training College in 1905 to study for her teaching qualification. In 1910, when she was 26, she married her husband Charles at Buslingthorpe Church in Leeds; the celebration was apparently a “lavish” affair. 

As for the gown? The high-neck wedding dress was fitting with the times; the satin and tulle frock was Edwardian in style and featured navy embroidery down the front, a gathered waist, gauzy sleeves lined with beige embroidered lace, and petticoats that were filled with weights, a fashionable trick which made the garment swish and swoop when the bride moved. The dress’ greatest surprise, however, had nothing to do with the delicate fabric or periodic design: Jennifer and her relatives were delighted to find pieces of confetti (that were likely tossed during Lily and Charles’ post-ceremony wedding exit at Buslingthorpe Church) caught up in the fabric.

According to Jennifer, it meant a lot to her to see her grandmother’s wedding dress in person, since she was such an instrumental and influential person to family generations past and present. “My grandmother’s achievements were really quite exceptional for that period in time. Women didn't really go to work back then, let alone study and get qualifications. So considering that, it's not surprising that she was part of the suffragette movement because she had been able to realize her own ambitions in a way that 99 percent of other women couldn’t,” she told the outlet.

Though Lily’s wedding dress is too delicate to go on permanent display at the Leeds Discovery Centre, it remains an emblem of one woman’s values and commitment to herself and her family. “I think we all understood the need to be like our mother and grandmother who had shown us what it was to realize our potential and have the means to be independent,” said Jennifer.