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A Pennsylvania family has passed down the same wedding dress to 11 brides in a beautiful tradition that has so far carried on for more than a century
Abigail Kingston, of Bethlehem, was the last bride in her family to wear the Victorian-era gown in 2015
Over the decades, the brides have made various alterations to the heirloom dress
A Pennsylvania family has taken the idea of “something borrowed” and turned it into a beautiful wedding tradition that has so far carried on for more than a century.
Abigail Kingston, of Bethlehem, became the 11th bride in her family to wear a dress that’s been passed down for 130 years, according to the Daily Mail and Lehigh Valley Live. “It is a magical wedding dress because she is the 11th bride to wear it,” Abigail’s mother, Leslie, told the local outlet back in 2015. “Who would think anything would last that long?”
The first bride in the family who wore the dress — Mary Lowry Warren, Abigail’s great-great-grandmother — got married in 1895. Though the dress initially skipped a generation, as Mary’s daughter opted for a 1920s flapper-style gown instead, the tradition officially began in 1946, when Mary’s granddaughter, Jane Woodruff, wore it.
Through several more generations, the dress passed hands between mothers and sisters in the family. When it came time for Abigail to tie the knot to her then-fiancé, Jason Curtis, she already had a gown in mind — the family heirloom, which she first saw on her aunt, Ann Ogden, in 1991 when she was just 5 years old.
Kelly McEwan/The Express-Times via AP
Abigail Kingston in the wedding gown.
Abigail’s mother quickly jumped into action, tracking down the family member who had possession of the Victorian-era dress, and soon discovered that its most recent owner was Sara Seiler Ogden, who wore it in 1960.
However, not everything was smooth sailing, as Abigail quickly realized the dress was in complete disrepair.
As she told Leigh Valley Live, the sleeves were falling apart, the gown was covered in holes, and the white satin had turned brown. “I thought, ‘It’s just not possible. I’m just not going to be able to wear it,’ ” she recounted at the time.
In came Pennsylvania-based bridal designer Deborah LoPresti, who worked on the gown for more than 200 hours and restored it just in time for the nuptials. “The sleeves looked like rags,” Abigail said, sharing that after the restoration, “it feels like the Cinderella dress.”
Although some dress conservationists expressed their dismay about the alterations online, Abigail shared that she wasn’t the first woman in the family to modify the historic item. Over the decades, it had been trimmed shorter and shorter, and the 1980s saw lace added to the dress to cover the damage.
“Each bride could do what they wanted to do to it,” she added.
Kelly McEwan/The Express-Times via AP
Abigail Kingston in the wedding gown.
“Everyone kept cutting away and cutting away at it, especially in the ’80s,” Abigail said. “Now it’s in style in that it’s tea length, but it was never meant for that.”
Eventually, the day came, and Abigail wore her great-great-grandmother’s wedding dress — as well as her great-grandmother’s ring and her grandmother’s locket — at her Bucks County nuptials in 2015 (though the heirloom was worn only for the cocktail hour, because it’s “very, very fragile”).
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According to the bride, the wedding venue featured framed photos of all the previous brides who wore the dress, and a 12th bride has expressed wanting to wear it again down the line.
“It’s not just the dress that’s been handed down,” Abigail’s mother said at the time. “It’s the love.”
“We’re just really happy and blessed we can keep the tradition going,” she added.
Read the original article on People