The Smoking Room at Highclere Castle features a console table behind the sofa, sprinkled with stunning bridal pictures of various relatives.
A lovely tradition in classically designed houses is a table devoted to bridal photographs as an homage to various brides within the family tree. In the past, the assembled portraits only featured the bride in a formal black-and-white pose, but they have now morphed into pictures of the bride and groom in black-and-white and also in color.
The Duchess’s butter-yellow sitting room in the Private Apartments at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, England, ranks as one of the most beautifully appointed rooms I have ever seen. While filming my television program there, I admired the magnificent bridal photograph of Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and her other relatives as brides on the table behind me.
Bridal photographs are traditionally grouped together and displayed in the living room on a side table, a grand piano, or a table behind a sofa. Formal bridal portrait photographs in English country houses and palaces are traditionally black and white or in a sepia tone.
The formality of the house and the photograph dictate the style of the picture frame, which can be ornate or sleek and modern. The most traditional bridal picture frame is sterling silver or silver-plated. A French enamel frame is another stunning choice. Italian fine leather with gold embellishments or antique gilded frames are other options.
It was an honor to tour the ravishing Rienzi House at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, with Carroll Goodman, the granddaughter of the owners who built it. Carroll wore her mother’s wedding gown, and this charming tradition continues with other brides in her family line. The antique console table in the living room features several family bridal portraits, including Carroll.
In my book, The Pretty and Proper Living Room, I discuss how and where to engrave a silver picture frame. If the wedding photograph is just of the bride, then a monogram with her new married name initials is in order. If it is of the husband and wife, then their joint initial monogram is appropriate. The wedding date is a lovely addition, too.
Xx
Holly
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