50 Vintage Unedited Wedding Photos So Beautiful We Can't Look Away
By | September 22, 2022
She moved in with Elvis at the age of 14.
This collection of vintage wedding photos will cause an insane amount of nostalgia.
Love is a beautiful thing in any era, and everyone loves a wedding, but in the groovy era tying the knot was all about style. Whether a couple lived a bohemian hippie life or they were in the suburbs it was important to have the best union possible… and the same goes for the celebrities of the era. From Mick Jagger and Elvis to John Lennon each rocker wanted to make sure they had a wedding unlike anything ever experienced before. In many cases, celebrities opted to get hitched at a courthouse before throwing the biggest party imaginable, but as you’ll see in these far-out photos of weddings, many actors and musicians of the era had a classic ceremony just like every other person in the world. Whether you’ve tied the knot or not you’ll go gaga over these rarely seen vintage photos of weddings from the 1960s and ‘70s.
Warning, these photos are rare, many for some reason have been unseen and rarely published for public viewing...
This article originally appeared on our sister site: groovyhistory.com
May 1, 1967, was a sad day for the teeny-bopper fans of Elvis Presley, after a small wedding to Priscilla Ann Beaulieu at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, the King was off the market. Well, a little while anyway. The two lovebirds met eight years earlier when she was only 14, while Elvis was stationed in West Germany. At the wedding, Priscilla’s 13-year-old sister, Michelle, served as maid of honor, and after a short ceremony, the couple threw a breakfast reception for about 100 guests. The six-tier yellow sponge cake cost $3,200, and it served as a dessert to the roast suckling pig, fried chicken, lobster, and champagne. Although they separated five years later the two remained close until the King’s death.
I don't think I'll ever find anyone I'll love as much as I loved Elvis. It's pointless trying to compare him to anyone. Yes, some men I've been with have mattered to me, but Elvis was my first love, he'll be my last. -Priscilla
Mick Jagger and Bianca Perez-Mora Macias pushing through photographers after their wedding in 1971
Nine months after meeting at a party at the Olympia in Paris, Mick Jagger and Bianca Perez-Mora Macias wed on May 12, 1971, at the Town Hall in St. Tropez, France. At the time she was a few months pregnant, and Jagger was terribly unhappy. The morning of the wedding Jagger delivered a pre-nuptial agreement to Macias that said should they divorce she wouldn’t get anything. She finally signed the agreement and the wedding was underway, but there was another hitch. Someone tipped off the media that they were getting married and hundreds of paparazzi showed up to photograph the event. The two managed to tie the knot in spite of the many hurdles. Unfortunately, seven years and one daughter later, the two called it quits.
Elton John wed Renate Blauel after a spur of the moment decision
No one saw this coming. Even though the Rocketman wasn’t as open about his sexuality in the ‘70s and ‘80s as he was later in his career, fans who read between the lines of the singer’s career never expected to see John marrying a woman. But more power to him. The unlikely pair met while John was working on "Too Low for Zero." She was a sound engineer, and he was a kindly pianist. Just over a year later he proposed and they married a week later in the Australian suburb of Darling Point. At the time John said, “I simply want to be a family man. And I’m not getting any younger.” The marriage only lasted four years, and in John’s ’97 documentary Tantrums and Tiaras he revealed that the two have had no contact since their divorce.
Cher wed rocker Gregg Allman days after her divorce from Sonny Bono
After meeting this hard partying rocker in 1975, Cher was head over heels for Gregg Allman, the leader of the Allman Brothers band. At the time she was in the middle of her divorce from Sonny Bono and things couldn’t have been more up in the air for her. On June 30, 1975, three days after finalizing her divorce to Bono, Cher and Allman went to Las Vegas where they made things official. The happiness didn’t last long. Cher couldn’t put up with Allman’s alcoholism and heroin addiction and nine days after their wedding she filed to dissolve their marriage. The two got back together a month later and their tumultuous relationship carried on until they officially divorced in January 1979. Even though their marriage was full of anything but bliss, Cher had this to say of her ex:
Nobody ever made me feel as happy as Gregory did... he's wonderful. I don't understand why he can't see it. He's the kindest, most gentle, loving husband and father. But then, he forgets and everything goes to sh*t.
Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski wed in swinging London
Before they were the centerpiece of one of the most horrific crimes of the 1960s, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski were a swinging ‘60s couple who birthed envy in everyone they met. After a short courting period the two celebrities married at a Registry Office in Chelsea, London, in January 1968. Tate designed her own wedding attire — an ivory silk moiré mini dress and some small white flowers in her hair. Afterwards the couple drove off to the Playboy Club where they partied with folks like Candice Bergen and Michael Caine until absconding to a Supremes concert. Ah, ‘60s love.
The iconic JFK & Jackie Kennedy leave their wedding hand in hand
It’s rare that a couple leaves such an impression on the American pubic, but John F. Kennedy and Jackie Lee Bouvier were two exceptional people who defined style and culture in the 1950s and ‘60s. Their wedding was as close to a royal wedding as America will ever get, and on September 12, 1953, the country was all-a-twitter about these two East coast upper-crusters tying the knot. The couple wed at the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island, with nearly 2,000 fans standing outside the building while the nuptials took place. Once the I Do’s were said the Kennedys and 800 guests high-tailed it to a reception at the Hammersmith Farm.
Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors are a couple of cut ups
This 1970s power couple might have had legs if they weren’t so busy after their nuptials. After marrying in 1973 both Fawcett and Majors had incredible careers, she was a Charlie’s Angel and he was the Six Million Dollar Man, but all that work meant that they barely got to see one another and that eventually brought their marriage to an end. Majors explained:
I ended up seeing her two weeks in one year. She was off doing films and stuff, and doing her series, and I was doing mine. That’s mainly the reason we got divorced; we never saw each other. We stayed great friends, but we just had our own careers going and didn’t have time for each other.
Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt's wedding was illegal in 23 states
When Sammy Davis Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt in 1960 it was an act of defiance as much as it was an act of love. At the time, the Civil Rights movement was still catching steam, and even though Davis was a beloved entertainer his marriage to a white woman didn’t sit well with his, what’s the word… racist fans. Anti-miscegenation laws still stood in 23 states, which meant that Davis was committing a felony in nearly half the country, and moreover, he received a steady stream of death threats during his marriage to Britt. He was even removed from the list of performers at JFK’s inauguration on the night of the party.
The All-American couple, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio
This marriage looked like it was perfect. The blonde bombshell superstar actress and one of the greatest ball players of all time, what could go wrong? Basically, everything. The wedding was hardly picturesque. They wed on January 14, 1954, at San Francisco City Hall. After Monroe mentioned her plans to someone at a film studio the couple was mobbed by reporters as they exited the building on their way to their honeymoon in Japan. That was the beginning of the end. When they arrived in Japan, Monroe was asked to travel to Korea to perform for soldiers stationed in the country - leaving DiMaggio behind to stew.
When the two returned to the states DiMaggio tried to get Monroe to tone down her sexy image, but she just cranked things up once she started filming The Seven Year Itch. The All-American couple divorced on October 1954, less than a year after tying the knot.
Jayne Mansfield cuts an elegant figure on her wedding day
Five days after finalizing her divorce from publicist Paul Mansfield, the blonde bombshell with the figure that drove all the boys wild married Mickey Hargitay, the Hungarian former Mr. Universe, in a glass-walled chapel in Portuguese Bend, California, on January 13, 1958. Hundreds of fans watched the wedding from the hills above, and the obsession with her marriage continued into the next day when the happy couple arrived in Dallas as a massive crowd arrived to see her 10-carat diamond ring. The two had a rocky on-again, off-again marriage until 1963 when they finally called it quits. Mansfield passed away in 1967 in an automobile accident outside of New Orleans.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono had to go all the way to Gibraltar to get married
After a brief courtship that shook up both The Beatles and the rest of the world, John Lennon and Yoko Ono went on a sojourn in 1969 so they could get married. The only issue was that no one would marry them on such short notice. Not France, not Germany, nowhere. It wasn’t until an Apple Records employee suggested that they try Gibraltar, an English-owned island, that things finally took shape. Lennon said:
We chose Gibraltar because it is quiet, British, and friendly. We tried everywhere else first. I set out to get married on the car ferry and we would have arrived in France married, but they wouldn’t do it. We were no more successful with cruise ships. We tried embassies, but three weeks’ residence in Germany or two weeks’ in France were required.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco in their fairytale wedding
It’s one thing to be Hollywood royalty, but to be actual, real deal royalty is a whole other can of worms. On April 18, 1956, screen star Grace Kelly became a legitimate princess when she married Monaco’s Prince Rainer in one of the most opulent weddings of the groovy era. Kelly’s wedding dress was a gift from MGM; it took 30 seamstresses to construct and was designed by costume designer Helen Rose. The wedding was a who’s who of high society at the time with guests like Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, and Gloria Swanson, and society notables Aristotle Onassis and Conrad Hilton. If you were invited to this shindig then you were really someone. Kelly’s son, Prince Albert II, later said that his mother thought the wedding was “overwhelming.”
George Harrison and Pattie Boyd after their small ceremony in Surrey
As sweet as the lovely couple looks here in their matching suits, things got weird for this couple once Eric Clapton entered the picture. Before that mess, this Beatle and his muse made things official after a two-year courtship at the Epsom Register Office in Surrey. John and Ringo were on holiday so they couldn’t make it, but that didn’t put a damper on things. Boyd remembers the small wedding in her biography:
The ceremony took place early in the morning at Epsom Register Office, in Surrey, not the most glamorous place, and the room was very hot and stuffy. Brian Epstein was there and Paul McCartney, who was George’s best man. Otherwise it was family – my mother, with her cousin Penny Evans, who had been around a lot while I was growing up. Colin, Jenny, Paula, David and Boo, George’s parents and brothers. Uncle John, my mother’s twin brother, gave me away.
Brigitte Bardot and Jacques Charrier were married by the mayor of Louveciennes
Brigitte Bardot wasn’t the kind of actress to do anything normally. She approached her personal fashion in the same way that she approached her fashion. When she married her second husband, actor Jacques Charrier, at the age of 23 in the summer of 1959, she wore a pink gingham dress and the whole thing was presided over by the mayor of Louveciennes, which is way better than getting a key to the city. The two European lovebirds stayed together until 1962. Even after their divorce, the two were connected through their son Nicholas. She got married two more times but never had any more children.
Eric Burdon of The Animals and War in a flowery service to Angie King
Talk about flower power, this union between Eric Burdon of The Animals and model Angie King was pure 1960s gold. When these two walked down the aisle in 1967 it was an affair that looked to be all peace and love. However, things weren’t meant to last with this couple. Burden was a wild child of the era and he let his bad boy attitude get in the way of love. The two separated shortly afterward, and Burdon moved to California. He later told the Express:
You have to embrace who you are, the good, the bad and the ugly, to become the person you really are. I carry the Geordie boy with me everywhere I go and I’m proud of my working-class roots.
Aretha Franklin and Glynn Turman say howdy to the folks at their wedding reception
When the Queen of Soul and the star of Peyton Place tied the knot in 1978 things couldn’t have been more perfect. However, Turman says that he and his wife grew apart because of their busy schedule. He remembers the night he realized that he was married to a world-famous singer:
She was sitting at the piano, barefoot, cigarette hanging on the side of her mouth. In her nightgown. Playing this amazing music. Just amazing. I started to say hey baby, come to bed. And I stopped and I sat down in the doorsill. And that's really the first time it really dawned on me that my wife was Aretha Franklin!
They divorced in 1984 but remained friends until Franklin’s death in 2018.
Raquel Welch and Patrick Curtis had a Valentine's Day wedding
One of the most iconic actresses of the ‘60s and ‘70s was Raquel Welch, a woman who stunned audiences with her performances in One Million Years B.C. and Bedazzled. After her first marriage ended in 1964 her sights turned to producer Patrick Curtis. Like many modern couples, these two met at work, and they married on Valentine’s Day 1967 at Paris's City Hall. She wore a crocheted dress and a white fur coat, but no matter how good she looked the marriage didn’t last and the two divorced in 1972. Welch married two more times, but never again on Valentine’s Day.
Johnny Cash and June Carter had a dry wedding reception in 1968
There’s possibly no greater love in the history of music than that between Johnny Cash and June Carter. Throughout their 35-year-long marriage, these two went through a series of ups and downs that show just how real their love was. Cash proposed to Carter during a performance at the London Ice House in Ontario in 1968, and they tied the knot on March 1, 1968, in Franklin, Kentucky. Ironically enough, the couple had a dry wedding reception, something that wouldn’t stick with Cash for long. The couple lived through some seriously dark times, and they passed away within months of one another in 2003.
Russ Meyers has his new wife Edy Williams show some skin
Russ Meyer, the purveyor of some of the finest b-movies and smut that’s ever graced this fine land, wasn’t just a director - he was a lover. After working together on some of Meyers’ films, Williams and the director married in 1970 but their union was doomed from the onset. Williams told People:
He wanted to be the star, and anytime I did anything I got yelled at. I guess he resented feeling that maybe I was a little more famous. He didn’t want me to be in the limelight. He wanted me to stay home. He didn’t want any guests in the house for the first year. I felt like I was living with Hitler.
Barbra Streisand and Eliot Gould once lived above a restaurant before they hit it big
After meeting while performing on Broadway together, Eliot Gould and Barbra Streisand became a celebrity item like no other. This smitten couple lived above a seafood restaurant in Manhattan and in 1963 they married in a small ceremony. Three years later Streisand gave birth to their son, Jason, but even then their romance was on the rocks. The two divorced in 1971, but Gould says that the two remain friends. He later said, “The happiest memories I have of Barbra are when we were living together before we married… [we] are still family and we love each other. We have a special relationship and kinship.”
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward tying the knot after a long, hot summer
After ending a 10-year marriage, Paul Newman found a love that lasted for the rest of his life when he met Joanne Woodward on the set of The Long, Hot Summer. For him, it was love at first sight, but for her, it took some serious work to fall in love. Newman explained:
She was modern and independent, whereas I was shy and a bit conservative. It took me a long time to persuade her that I wasn't as dull as I looked.
They married in Las Vegas on January 29, 1958, before hopping on a plane to London for their honeymoon. When they returned, they moved to Connecticut and stayed together until he passed away in 2008.
Faye Dunaway and Peter Wolf tying the knot at the Beverly Hills Municipal court in 1974
After meeting in San Francisco in September of 1972, Faye Dunaway and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band spent as much time together as possible. They finally tied the knot in 1974 in a laid-back ceremony at the Beverly Hills Municipal court. As both of their stars were rising at the time, they barely had time to spend with one another. Dunaway’s career especially got hot after her Best Actress Oscar for 1976’s Network, and by 1978 they were divorced. Dunaway explained the break in her 1995 autobiography, “Time, life, and the world kept wearing away at our relationship.” In 1980 Wolf’s band released their most popular album “Love Stinks.”
Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim were married twice, the first time was in Vegas, the second time was in France
After she was set up on a birthday date with international playboy Roger Vadim in 1963, Fonda was so smitten with him that they married twice. First in 1965 on top of the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, and again on May 19, in Saint-Ouen Marchefroy, northwestern France, so the marriage would be legal in Europe. Vadim later said that their lack of wedding rings spooked the judge at their Vegas wedding:
We didn’t have a wedding ring because I didn’t want one—it’s only a voodoo symbol and I don’t like symbols—but the judge was so upset that just for the ceremony we borrowed a ring from the best man’s wife.
After all of that work, the two divorced in 1973.
Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra at the wedding that no one predicted
As unlikely a couple as ever there was - she was a flower child turned it-girl, and he was a connected crooner with a temper - the pair was the talk of Hollywood gossip the moment they got together. Farrow and Sinatra didn’t care what people said and they wed in a private ceremony in, where else, Las Vegas on July 19, 1966. Their union wasn’t made to last, and allegedly they fought like stray dogs in the street. They argued over what movies to watch, and what to do on the weekends, and when Farrow refused to abandon her film career to stay by Sinatra’s side, the chairman of the board had enough. The couple divorced in Mexico in August of 1968, although they stayed very good friends for the rest of his life.
Marlon Brando and his wife of barely a year Anna Kashfi
Marlon Brando had nothing but tumultuous romantic relationships, and that definitely extended to his short marriage to the 23-year-old Indian actress Anna Kashfi. The two married in Eagle Rock, California, at the home of Brando’s aunt in 1957, and even though they had a child they divorced in 1959. In her memoir, Kashfi remembers her marriage to Brando as one of the worst times of her life. She says that he was sexually incompetent and belligerent and that the only thing she could count on him for was being an absolute jerk to her. Things were so bad that she once slapped Brando across the face in front of photographers.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton snuggle during wedding number one
After meeting on the set of Cleopatra in the early ‘60s Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton began one of the most turbulent love affairs of the 20th century. Even when they were married they were on and off, but always hot. When they wed in 1964, Taylor had Cleopatra’s costume designer create a dress for her that was completely unique. She topped it off by weaving hyacinths and lilies of the valley into her hair. The couple wed on March 15, 1964, in a ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal. They went on to star in 11 films alongside one another including The Taming of the Shrew and Sandpiper until they divorced in 1974. However, they remarried in October 1975 and split up again after less than a year of marriage number two.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, bosom buddies forever
From the outside, it looks like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have the perfect marriage. He’s a sweetie and he supports her country career, and she doesn’t seem to mind that he can’t stop buying typewriters. However, while speaking with Oprah in 2001 Hanks explained that their relationship is like everyone else’s and it takes a lot of work:
The success of our relationship was a matter of timing, maturity, and our willingness to have an intimate connection. When I married Rita, I thought, this is going to require some change on my part. I won't deny that providence was part of us finding each other, but our relationship isn't magic — the way it's shown in movies. In real life, our connection is as concrete as me sitting here. Not that marriage doesn't come close to being hell in a hand basket sometimes. But we both know that no matter what, we'll be with each other — and we'll get through it.
Eric Clapton married his best friend's girl, Pattie Boyd
“Pattie, you’ve got me on my knees,” it just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Nine years after the release of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs Clapton finally tied the knot with his best friend’s ex-wife, Pattie Boyd, on March 27, 1979. Clapton met Boyd when the two were introduced by her boyfriend, George Harrison, and Clapton became so infatuated that he wrote song after song for her. This union of souls didn’t ruin Clapton and Harrison’s friendship by any means, and at the reception (which occurred two months after the actual wedding) George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr took part in an impromptu jam session.
Natalie Woods and Robert Wagner during their first wedding
Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner were yet another celebrity couple who ended up getting married twice. This photo is from their 1957 wedding where the 19-year-old Wood wore an amazing lace hood during the ceremony. The two stars met after Wood said she had a crush on Wagner and studio heads set her up on a date with him for her 18th birthday. It only took another year before the two were joined in holy matrimony. They divorced in 1972 but remarried shortly afterward. Unfortunately, her life came to an end when she drowned during a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island with Wagner and Christopher Walken in 1981.
Julio Iglesias feeds his new wife Isabel Preysler
The happy couple pictured here is Julio Iglesias and Isabel Preysler seven months after they met in 1970. By January 29, 1971, (their wedding date) Iglesias was only a few years into his musical career after spending four years as a goalkeeper for the Real Madrid Castilla. Preysler was a model and journalist whose first interviewee was actually Iglesias.
After the two were married they had three children, one of them being international superstar Enrique Iglesias. With less than a decade of marriage under their belts, the two called it quits in 1979. The two have since remarried but none of their weddings looked as groovy as this one.
Blondes Rod Stewart and Alana Hamilton have more fun on their wedding day
Now we know that at least one person thinks Rod Stewart is sexy. In April 1979, the two married and immediately started working on a family. By 1981, they had two young hearts running around while Stewart continued to crank out tunes. At the time, he told People that while he’s not the most responsible person on the planet he does love having a large family:
Marriage and the kids certainly were not mistakes. It does frighten me to look at my children and realize that I’ve got to be responsible for them for the rest of my life. I don’t think I ever will be a responsible person. But I fell into being a father real easily because I come from a loving family.
Catherine Deneuve and Vogue photographer David Bailey wed in 1965
French actress Catherine Deneuve is a mystery that’s impossible to unravel. While she’s been connected to many men she’s only married once, to photographer David Bailey after he photographed her for Playboy when she was 21. They married at the St. Pancras Registry Office in London on August 18, 1965. They divorced in 1972, leading Deneuve to say, “Marriage is obsolete and a trap.” After her divorce, Deneuve went inward and stopped publicly talking about her relationship, which she believes made people want to know even more about her. She told the Advocate:
Me being an actress, not being married but having children, means I have this whole other side, this secret, private life. People still wonder. And the less I tell them, the more the wonder grows.
John Peel, his wife Sheila, and Woggle
On August 31, 1974, the most important radio DJ in England tied the knot with Sheila Hilhooly before traipsing off to Regent’s Park for their reception. Peel was an interesting cat and he did things his own way, which is why he wore a red tuxedo to his wedding while the couple’s sheepdog, Woggle, took on the job as bridesmaid. In attendance at this super cool and likely very well recorded wedding was Graham Chapman of Monty Python and Rod Stewart. It’s clear that the couple was in love, but the real star of this wedding was Woggle who definitely went above and beyond in its demands as a bridesmaid.
Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher are pretty in pink
Debbie Reynolds was only 23 when she married Eddie Fisher, the singer behind hit songs like “I’m Walking Behind You,” and “Wish You Were Here,” and while she thought it would last forever it turned out that Fisher was having an affair with Elizabeth Taylor. When the news broke, Fisher was devastated and Fisher lost his TV show. While speaking about the marriage in the 1980s Reynolds said:
We, at that point in our marriage, were happily married. We had a wonderful son and daughter [Todd and Carrie Fisher]. But, obviously, I was incorrect about that, you know? Again, that was my viewpoint. I was happy, I was in love, but obviously he was not… [Eddie]'s like a good race horse: he gets off really, really good, and then he loses the race.
Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson got off to a rocky start
When Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson tied the knot on July 3, 1976, it should have been a perfect day; nothing but smiling faces and good vibes, but just as soon as the couple said “I do” they realized that they should have said, “I don’t.” While speaking about the wedding with the Daily Mail, Hudson explained:
I was consumed with love. I didn’t think life could get any better. I had just married the woman I loved and I felt like the luckiest guy on Earth. Then Goldie turned to me and whispered, ‘Are you sure we did the right thing?’
After having two children together - Oliver and Kate - the pair divorced in 1980.
Liza Minelli and Peter Allen's wedding was picture perfect, but that's all it was
Minelli’s marriage to Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen on March 3, 1967, was the beginning of a series of failed marriages for the beloved singer. Allen was the protegé of Minelli’s mother, Judy Garland, and it should have been a perfect coupling, but there was just one problem - Allen didn’t want to be in a relationship with a woman. Minnelli told The Advocate:
I married Peter and he didn't tell me he was gay. Everyone knew but me. And I found out... well, let me put it this way: I'll never surprise anybody coming home as long as I live. I call first!
After divorcing Allen in 1974 Minelli married Jack Haley Jr., the son of Judy Garland's co-star in the Wizard of Oz.
Pier Angeli stuns on her wedding day
After a hot and heavy love affair with smoldering hunk James Dean, actress Pier Angeli married singer Vic Damone on November 24, 1954. This white, silk chiffon gown was designed by Helen Rose, the same woman who created Grace Kelly’s iconic gown. Even though Angeli looked like a literal angel on her wedding day she was allegedly shown up by her ex, Dean, who caused a ruckus outside the chapel. Legend has it that he sat outside the chapel where Angeli’s wedding took place in his red jacket and leather cap until the happy couple exited the building. As soon as they did he kicked on the gas and rode away as loudly as possible.
Now that's a tasty looking cake, hope they saved a slice for us
Wedding food can be dicey. You never know if you’re going to show up to a reception that’s going to serve chicken and fish, or if you’re going to get some truly transcendent grub. The one thing that everyone looks forward to is getting a slice of wedding cake, but as times and tastes have changed so have the cakes that are served at weddings. In the 1970s, wedding cakes changed in a big way thanks to the introduction of colorful icing as well as almond paste-based tiers. Royal icing became a mainstay at weddings during this era because it was sturdy enough to support multiple tiers.
A hippie wedding in the middle of the woods
Not every wedding has to take place in a sterling chapel with a group of stuffy squares in suits and cummerbunds. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, young people continued to show their commitment to one another, but they did it in their own, unique way. Even though they were eschewing the shoes, dresses, and suits of the generation before them, young people still wanted to show their partners how much they loved them. Even if they weren’t performing the normal nuptials, the scruffy young people were adorning themselves in flower crowns and their most bohemian outfits to affirm their love for one another.
A spring wedding brings out all the colors of Easter
The 1960s saw a change in fashion in every sense of the word. Not only were college kids growing their hair long and forgetting how to shave, but wedding fashion was transitioning into something more stylish. Even the most uptight squares were adding splashes of color to their outfits in order to do something a little different. Weddings are always an especially happy occasion, and it’s the perfect place to do something special with your look. These bridesmaids - who often receive the short end of the stick fashion-wise - have lucked out and are wearing pastels that make them look like tiny ice cream pops. Even if it’s not far out, it’s still cool in our book.
Young love and blue cummerbunds
These kooky kids may look young, but that’s just how relationships worked in the ‘70s. Rather than endlessly swiping from date to date, when couples had a good thing they made sure to lock it down forever. Even though we think of the ‘70s as being a far-out time, young people were still incredibly traditional. Men and women knew that they wanted to settle down, start a family, and get that house in the suburbs so they could fill their backyard with kids. Young people today may not understand that desire for stability, but in the 1970s it was the American way.
This bride means serious business
While we often think of the ‘70s as the time of boho chic and brides with flowers in their hair, it wasn’t all men and women walking down a grassy aisle with their feet bare. Traditional weddings were just as common as those that let their freak flags fly, they just weren’t as chic. Weddings like the one pictured featured dresses made of heavy fabrics, machine-made lace, and brides with flowing silhouettes in order to create that classic romantic look of the early 20th century. In some instances, Juliet caps and veils were added, but it didn’t matter if you were cool as a cucumber or square as a rectangle, brides didn’t want tomes up their hair on their big day.
Big hair don't care
One wedding rule that every bride knows is that the hair must be on point. If the hair is bad then the whole wedding is going to be a drag. In the ‘60s, bouffants and back-combing became the look of the day which created some of the most gravity-defying hair of the 20th century. In order to achieve such heights, the hair had to be set the night before, or you needed to start teasing it hours before the service. One bride explained:
The day before my wedding saw me sitting in the hairdresser's chair having my hair seriously back-combed, then the whole of that night I laid on my stomach, head on hands in order to stop my hair from becoming squashed. Even so in the morning it was considerably flatter than the previous evening.
Receptions are a perfect time for a champagne jam
Wedding receptions haven’t always been the all out, thousand people parties that can happen when a wedding gets out of control. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, receptions often took place at home, either in their own houses or of one of their parents with only a few visitors. It wasn’t even out of the question to actually get married at home to keep costs down and make everything go as smoothly as possible. In some cases, the couple didn’t enter the ceremony separately, but they walked into the house together and faced the official. As weddings grew larger and less intimate, this kind of home wedding faded into obscurity, although they have to be happening somewhere.
A classy bite of cake
Everyone’s been to a wedding where a couple, excited to get the reception over with and the honeymoon underway, cuts into the cake and slams the sugary goodness into each other’s face. Where did this strange and messy custom come from? While we don’t know how far this tradition goes back, we do know that it symbolizes the couple’s commitment to one another and their trust in one another. In the latter half of the 20th century, the tradition transformed into the couple smearing the cake on one another’s face for some reason. It’s silly but as long as it’s done with love what’s wrong with that?
When the photographer hides in your car
There’s really nothing quite like engagement and wedding photos from the 1970s. The combination of relatively inexpensive photography with the freewheeling spirit of the grooviest era made for some of the most carefree and fun photos that you’ll ever see. These photos aren’t just a way to say, “Hey we’re married;” they show a couple’s love for one another. The couple was literally paying hard-earned cash to tell the world how happy they were to be with someone, and that’s pretty romantic. The era was full of fun and inventive photos like this that are super cute in spite of the fact that they look like the photographer was hiding in the couple’s car.
This is what happens when your wedding theme is "fall"
There’s something especially malicious about these bridesmaids' outfits. Was the bride trying to make her friends look like scarecrows or was that simply a byproduct of the autumnal design? While this design isn’t our cup of tea, hopefully, everyone at this wedding had a great time even if they looked like a human manifestation of fall. These gowns are certainly of a time when people were trying to do something different and express themselves through their wedding. And honestly, if it turns out to be your only wedding wouldn’t you be upset if you didn’t go all out? Heavy applause to this group of brave young women.
A daring pop of pink ties the wedding together
White dresses are often thought of as a must have for any bride, but according to Edwina Ehrman, a curator who’s studied how wedding dresses have changed in tune with fashion and society over the centuries, colorful additions to classic gowns have been popping up throughout the 20th century. Whenever a pop of color appears on a bride it’s always shocking, but Ehrman says it’s not all that irregular:
Over the centuries, brides who were interested in fashion have often got married in different colors. And they would wear them many times afterwards, altering them over the years to fit in with fashion, or to fit a changing figure.
TFW your bridesmaids are your something blue
Bridesmaid fashion has always been hit or miss, usually miss. Retro styles like the dresses pictured here aren’t as outlandish as they could be, but that being said these gals still look like they’ve been dressed in the background of a classic Disney cartoon. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, it wasn’t out of the question to see a lot of floral patterns on bridesmaid dresses, that was just the thing to do. While many bridesmaids wouldn’t be caught dead in their dresses outside of the wedding, there isn’t a friend in their right mind who would say no to being a bridesmaid just because of a garish dress.
