The Wedding Planners

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Regency Weddings by Diane Gaston

Hello, Everyone! It is a treat to be my friend Melissa's guest blogger. I hope when you all are not reading Harlequin Romance that you pick up Harlequin Historicals. We love weddings, too. In fact, my new book, Scandalizing the Ton, has a wedding in it, but not your typical Church or Wedding Hall-type wedding.

I'll be giving away an autographed copy of Scandalizing the Ton to one lucky commenter. All you have to do is comment on this blog (Really say something, not just "nice blog") and I'll select a winner at random by noon eastern time Sept 17.

I write Regency Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical. "Regency" means the story is set in England in the early 1800s, the time of Jane Austen, Beau Brummell and Lord Byron, the war with Napoleon, and when King George III went mad and his son was declared Prince Regent. The Regency was a time of great drama and beauty, a time when lords and ladies were expected to marry well, but also a time when the concept of marrying for love had taken hold. From Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer to today's Regency Romance authors, that concept of marriage for love is what we celebrate.

I was married a brazillion years ago, long before I started writing or reading Regency Romance, but one day recently I realized I had actually had a Regency Wedding!

Here I am with my bridesmaids. Notice that our dresses are all empire-waisted. Notice the leg-o-mutton sleeves on my dress and the puffed sleeves on the bridesmaids dresses.

Now compare these dresses to two Regency Fashion Prints from the fashion magazines of 1815.

See the similarities?

I had a Regency Wedding!

And you can have a Regency Wedding, too. There are many sites on the internet offering custom made Regency wedding dresses. Here are two of them:

Regency Reproductions

Fashions in Time

Or if you are handy you could make your Regency gown:

McCall's Pattern 202 Regency era Empire Waisted Wedding Gown

In fact, if you so desire, you can have a Regency wedding in one of the historic sites in the UK.

This is St. George's, the church on Havover Square in Mayfair, London, where many Regency lords and ladies held their weddings. You can, too.

You can also have your wedding in the Prince Regent's summer home, the Brighton Pavilion in Brighton Hove.

In a room like this:

If that is too fussy for you, or if you must marry in a hurry, like many couples in Regency Romances, you can elope to Gretna Green over the border in Scotland. Here I am standing at the historic anvil. Regency couples were married "over the anvil" in Gretna Green.
No, this isn't another wedding photo. It is me with the tour guide at Gretna Green when I visited in 2005. I'm holding a copy of The Wagering Widow which began with a Gretna Green wedding.

How about it? Have I convinced you to have a Regency Wedding?

Come visit my website to learn more about Scandalizing the Ton, my Regency paparazzi story with a scandalous Regency wedding of its own. View my video.

If you can't wait for the book to come to bookstores in October 2008, you can order one right now from eharlequin.com. While you are at it, pick up copies of The Wedding Planners. You'll be happy you did.

Ask me any questions you like about Regency Weddings, Regency Romance, or the Regency itself. I'll be stopping by all day to answer.

Do you read Regency Romance? What do you like or not like about it?

Remember, if you comment you have a chance of winning an autographed copy of Scandalizing the Ton.

Wedding Belles, thank you so much for inviting me to your "Wedding" celebration.

Diane is taking part in the Unleash Your Story fundraising for Cystic Fibrosis. Click here for more information.

Labels: Diane Gaston, Regency Weddings