Thewedding daydiaries
The old notebooks of a florist provide a detailed account of wedding fashion and colour in Manawatu¯ in the mid-20th century.
Weddings and flowers naturally go together. So when, a few years ago, a bunch of discarded business diarieswas found in the former Feilding home of deceased florist Pat Mason, the new owner knew they were historically important.
Written bymason herself and covering the years 1944 to 1953, the diaries contained meticulous notes about each bridal bouquet and floral accessory made up and sold, their prices, their owners, and even fabric swatches marking changing fashions inwedding styles.
It was amini-time capsule, the social story of a district, and also of Mason and her husband, James Murdoch Mason.
The notebooks were donated to the Feilding Coach House Museum’s community archive.
Last Wednesday, historian and author Marilyn Wightman gave a Local Historyweek talk at the Palmerston North city library about the find. She and her husband’s own family background as garden nursery owners gave an extra dimension to her interest in the Mason diaries. Wightman is currently writing an article about the find for the 2020 Manawatu¯ Journal of History.
‘‘Themainstay of a florist’s business was hatches, matches and dispatches [births, marriages and deaths],’’ Wightman says.
For her History Week talk, Wightman focused on the ‘‘matches’’ for which Mason created her floralwork.
‘‘Brides would make an appointment weeks ahead of the wedding date, and Pat would discuss the size and scope of the wedding party’s needs. All these were duly listed, along with necessary details such as the groom’s party collecting their buttonhole flowers from a different venue from the bride’s party, on the day.’’
One word that has changed since those times is ‘‘hairspray’’.
‘‘No, not out of a can,’’ Wightman says. ‘‘They were bridesmaids’ fashionable headband arrangements madewith flowers.’’
Blossomswere matched up with the colours of the bride, bridesmaids’ and mothers’ dresses, and floral headdresses were made with an eye to the respective heights of bride and groom.
Newspapers gave copious descriptions of the bridal parties’ appearance.
Pat, whose full name was Patricia Joan, was the daughter of a Wairarapa family. She came to Palmerston North, lived with an older sister and startedwork with a city florist when she was 16.
Later, she would have her own wedding, to husband James.
James, fittingly, was a dahlia grower and national judge and speaker. The dates he would be away, judging, weremeticulously listed in the diaries.
Wightman surmises that when
Pat herself was away, James would have taken phone orders for her.
In the austerity days of wartime, clothing and food were rationed, so ‘‘people oftenwent extravagant on the flowers’’.
In the 1950s, the heavy trailing bridal bouquets of previous years were being replaced bymore compact, but still impressive, floral arrangements. Whatwere brides’ favourite flowers?
‘‘It had to be seasonal, and depended on what was growing – there were no imported flowers in those days,’’ Wightman said.
‘‘Jamesmason was a dahlia grower, so for Pat these flowers would be on hand, ready to use.
‘‘Aswell, there was her father-inlaw just up the hill with an extensive nursery.
‘‘Most florists relied on local flower growers and often were part of a nursery complex. Carnations, lilies, roses, dahlias, whatever was in flower at the wedding date.
‘‘Orchids were mentioned in one order.’’ Some orders were very specific, ‘‘almost pedantic. Others left it up to Pat. Maidenhair fern for shoulder sprayswas very popular’’. The big season for weddings? There were weddings throughout the year but summer weather dominated the orders.
During the war years, the dates depended on when grooms had military leave, or were told when they were about to disembark, ‘‘so a wedding in civvy clothing was a hastily arranged affair’’. Prices for the bouquets, boutonnieres and decorative flowers depended on the depth of the bride’s family’s pocket in many cases.
Pounds, shillings and pence were the currency of the time. A basic bridal bouquet could cost about £1.10s (a pound and 10 shillings) and a bridesmaid’s was £1.5s. By the 1950s, they cost £2 each.
A shoulder spray, and groom and groomsmen’s buttonholes were about seven shillings and sixpence.
During her talk, Wightman showed wedding photos from the era, donated by Feilding residents and volunteers at the Coach House Museum. ‘‘It is envisaged that in the future there will be a ‘Feilding weddings’ display at the museum, highlighting these treasures.’’
Her own parents, Joyce Workman and Colin Hopley, were married at St Mark’s Methodist Church, Newtown, Wellington, on Labour Weekend, 1944. They would eventually retire to Feilding.
Joyce’s wedding bouquet was roses, jasmine and asparagus fern.
The two bridesmaids carried carnations. Their dresses look, even in black and white photos, to be slightly different shades.
‘‘It was the fashion to have each attendant wear the same style of dress but in different colours.’’
Shirley Welch, nee Cleland, worked alongside Pat Mason, and remembers the firmmaking hundreds of floral wreaths in a day.
Masonwas ‘‘very artistic, very sociable – everything had to be just right’’ but she made everyone welcome. They arranged huge displays of massed flowers for the major Palmerston North event of January 7, 1954, the civic dinner at Cmross’ dining room – onwhat is now the library’s second floor – for the visiting Queen and Prince Philip.
Pat Mason died on June 2, 2014, aged 96. Her husband, James, died in 1985.
The diaries contained meticulous notes about each bridal bouquet and floral accessory.