Elena Kurincová
An exhibition about the history of weddings opened at Bratislava Castle in June 2005. It not only shows but mainly tells the “story of a wedding” in the noble as well as bourgeois home from the sixteenth to the mid twentieth century. The author of the exhibition, M. Zubercová, based it on what has been preserved. She combines authentic objects such as portraits, photographs and fashion lithography with archival and literary samples. The exhibition investigates the education and bringing up of girls and young women, how their process of emancipation took its course, how weddings were prepared (through each step – engagement, preparation of wedding dress and trousseau) up to the event itself (with a special focus on wedding dresses and their parts, wedding gifts and table setting) when the bride appears in “white” with all the attributes (wreath, veil, bouquet). It is an inspiration for current creators with textile materials and jewellery makers. By means of authentic objects (such as pillow cases, head bonnets, aprons, bodices, bedding etc) we encounter the period when demanding techniques started to find their place in Slovakia such as embroidery with gold and silver, silk, bobbin as well as sewn lace, point de Hongrie, petit point etc which are known from their later appearance in folk art.