There is a wedding festival happening at East Harling this weekend and fur & feathers have been flying as bossy types jostle for space on the 'small village' ladder.
I Church sat on Tuesday and got a chance to see a few of the dresses that were in place already. Here is a photo of the most amazing one from the Norwich Textile association. It was made in 1900 from some much older fabric from the East India Company, probably Regency. Can you see what's embroidered on it? Christmas beetle wings. They are perfect, not tarnished in any way and probably over 100 years old. How ethereal & how permanent at the same time. I remember collecting tiny beetles once on the sand at Wilson's Prom after a storm, I kept them for years and years intending to sew them onto a dress, I'd heard it could be done but never seen the real thing.

Here are a couple more dresses, one from the twenties

and this one from the 40's. It's amazing to see old photos of the dresses and then see the real thing.

I'm throwing myself into the thick of it in a minute as I'm helping out by doing the flowers for the 1950's dress. Yikes.

I'll post more photos in a day or two when all the flowers are done.

xxxxxxx