From bright whites to cream to vibrant reds to black, the wedding dresses on display at the Frazier History Museum showcase the various ways people in Kentucky have celebrated their unions.
The Davis Jewelers Love and Marriage exhibit centers on items that tell stories of love between couples, how wedding traditions and trends have changed over time and how those changes have been reflected in society.
“We've really been dreaming about for a long time,” Amanda Briede, the senior curator of exhibitions at the Frazier, said. “People love fashion exhibits, and it's such a fun thing to talk about in most cases. A couple of years ago, we received about 4,000 items from the Science Center when they were deaccessioning their collection, and so they gave us 50 wedding dresses.”
Briede said the newly received wedding dresses made the exhibition a reality after years of the idea existing solely on a whiteboard.
Wedding items are displayed alongside elements that explain the cultural happenings in certain eras, including a manual released by Kentucky health leadership about AIDS in the 1980s and an empty oral birth control pack from the 70s.
“My tagline for this exhibit has basically been, ‘It's about more than just the dresses.’ So, you know, I love the beautiful dresses, and they're really incredible, but I wanted there to be a little bit more full of a story,” Briede said.
The exhibition is split into four parts based on the old bridal rhyme: something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue[grass].
As visitors move from room to room, they will see wedding artifacts from Kentuckians throughout time and across identities.
“My ultimate goal when I curate anything for the Frazier is that everyone that comes to visit can see themselves in some way in the museum. And so we really wanted to make that true for this exhibit,” Briede said.
One dress on display is from a bride who uses a wheelchair. She had the dress custom made to fit her chair and allow her to dance at her reception.
Briede said an exhibition on marriage throughout time would be remiss in not including the different barriers to marriage that marginalized communities have faced.
“How that hasn't always been great for women, and how marriage was a barrier for enslaved people when they were first freed, like proving that they were married so they could get their government benefits if their husband fought in the war. All of these things, they have such implications,” Briede said.
Wedding traditions from various cultures mingle among the ones that are more traditionally Western.
“It's refreshing to see Kentucky brides and grooms of different cultural backgrounds represented in this exhibit, in their textiles, in their apparel, in their practices and their traditions and the way that they express their love for each other,” Simon Meiners, the Frazier’s communications and research specialist, said.
A dress from a Nigerian bride who got married in eastern Kentucky, the dress of a Palestinian bride who got married last year and the clothing from a couple in a Hindu ceremony offer spots of bright colors among the sea of white gowns.
LGTBQ+ couples are also included in the exhibition. A Louisville couple, Greg Bourke and Michael DeLeon, were one of the many cases included in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court Case that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S.
“We have their certificate of marriage issued from Canada, Ontario. We have photos of them at their wedding,” Meiners said. “So that is a Kentuckian whose trajectory is bundled in with American history in marriage equality.”
And, because not all plans come to fruition, guests will see a plaque discussing divorce in Kentucky as they depart the exhibit.
Love and Marriage is open at the Frazier History Museum through March 2026.
