Wednesday, July 3, 2024
The Coryell County Museum and Historical Center has on permanent display a very unusual dress - a black wedding dress.
The dress was worn by Alwine Mittelsledt during her wedding ceremony to Robert Reich on May 11, 1896, in the village of Gembitz-Hauland in Prussia. Shortly after the marriage, the young couple immigrated to the United States where they settled in the Prairie Chapel community near Canaan Baptist Church. In later years, the dress was donated to the museum.
It has been written that the Wendish tradition of wearing a black wedding dress is to signify the hardships and trials that will be faced during the marriage.
Another, more practical reason, was that the dress could be worn again on other occasions.
Over the years, some brides thought that wearing a black wedding dress was bad luck. Others thought that a black dress was worn when marrying a widower as a form of mourning for the first wife.
Later, the Texas Wendish bridal attire, which began with the traditional black dress, began to appear as blue. At the turn of the century, Texas brides made the transition to grey and soon adapted to the white wedding gown.
