ORANGE FLOWERS AS BRIDAL WREATHS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 47, 22 November 1890, Page 15

ORANGE FLOWERS AS BRIDAL WREATHS.

We are so much accustomed to seeing orange flowers worn by the bride, that we are apt to forget how very recent a date, comparatively speaking, the fashion is. With reference to the origin of the custom a modern writer says : * It came to us, like most other female fashions in dress, from the French, who in their turn had derived it fiom Spain. In the latter country it had long obtained, and is said to have been originally of Moorish origin. There is, however, an old Spanish legend which gives a different account of its introduction. According to this, soon after the importation of the orange tree by the Moors, one of the Spanish Kings had a specimen of which he was very proml, and of which the French ambassador was extremely desirous to obtain an ottshot. The gardenei’s daughter was aware of this, and in order to provide herself with the necessary dowry to enable her to marry her lover, she obtained a slip, which she sold to the ambassador at a high price. On the occasion of her wedding, in recognition of her gratitude to the plant which had procured her happiness, she bound in her hair a wreath of orange blossom, and thus inaugurated the fashion which has become universal. ’ The Moors introduced the orange into Spain at a very early date, and though this legend makes it very old as far as Spain is concerned, the usage was not adopted in other countries until some centuries later than the supposed time of the incident. Ladies used to be married in hats or bonnets until forty or fifty years ago, and the Queen set the example by dispensing with either of them. In 1840, when she was married, the ‘ Annual Register ’ tells us that ‘ Her dress was a rich white satin trimmed with orange flowers, and on her head she wore a wreath of the same blossoms, over which, but not so as to conceal her face, a beautiful veil of Honiton lace was thrown.’ Bonnets, however, were often worn at weddings after this event, and on them was placed a wreath of orange flowers, sometimes natural, and at others artificial. Only about thirty years ago did the wreath finally become worn on the head itself. The chaplet of myrtle, so favourite an adornment, particularly in Germany, has been ousted by the blossoms of the orange tree.