Deutsch | English | Español | Français | Italiano
The Wedding of Maria Allaire and Thomas Andrews
Sunday June 10 •1:30 pm. • Admission Free to Chapel
1836 was a bitter-sweet year for James Peter Allaire and his family. In March of that year, Allaire suffered the loss of his wife Frances Duncan Allaire, to whom he was deeply devoted. The flagship of his coastal fleet, the William Gibbons would founder in a storm off the Carolina Coast in the Autumn of that year. The Nation was on the verge of a financial crisis. However, in 1836 both the Allaire Works in New York and the Howell Works were both in peak production and the Allaires prospered financially. 1836 was also the year Allaire's youngest surviving daughter, Maria Haggerty Allaire, was married.
Allaire Village, Inc. recreates this happy moment in the life of James Allaire and his family when the Historic Village at Allaire hosts the Wedding of Maria Allaire in the Historic Christ Church Howell Works Chapel. The ceremony is followed by cake and entertainment at the near by gazebo.
Maria Haggerty Allaire was born to James Peter and Frances Duncan Allaire on September 9, 1813. On Sunday 5 June 1836 she wed Thomas Andrews, Manager of the Allaire Works in New York City. At the time of Maria's wedding it was customary for working class women to wear their best, or Sunday Go To Meetin', dress for the occasion. However, Maria Allaire, an affluent young woman of the era, would have worn a more lavish dress especially made for the occasion. Maria would however follow social customs and, being she was in mourning for her departed mother, would have chosen either a dove grey or lilac as the color for her trousseau.
While the custom of a bride wearing white had been known since the Middle Ages, the tradition had not yet come into vogue. That would change forever when, on a rainy Monday in London, on the 10th of February 1840 a young Alexandrina Victoria Wettin Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, married her beloved, and first cousin, Prince Albert Saxe-Coburg Gotha. HM Victoria would shun the royal tradition of being married in silver brocade bedecked with precious jewels and design her own wedding gown of white satin, trimmed in Honiton lace and bedecked with sprays of delicate orange blossoms.
It was customary during the time of Maria's wedding, however, for the bride and her attendants to carry flowers. Maria, attended her Matron of Honor and her flower girl, will walk up the aisle on the arm of her father, James P. Allaire, carrying a seasonal tussie mussie, a small bouquet of flowers favored by 19th Century brides. While we have no accurate records of who Maria Haggerty Allaire chose as her attendants for her 1836 wedding, for our re-enactment of Maria's wedding we feel it would be appropriate to have her sister, Mrs. Steven Roe as Matron of Honor as her niece, Frances Roe, as Flower Girl. The groom is attended by the Howell Works Company Manager James Parshall Smith.
The Anglican ceremony, performed by the Rev. Thomas Tanser, is the actual Episcopal Ceremony of the Solemnization of Matrimony taken from the Book of Common Prayer which would have been used at Maria and Thomas' wedding.* At the actual wedding of Maria, not only did the Rev. Tanser officiate, but the Bishop of New Jersey as well.
After the ceremony, the happy couple will walk down the aisle of the church, elegantly decorated with seasonal arrangements, to greet their guests and well wishers on the receiving line. During the early 19th Century physical contact between a man and woman was not socially acceptable. Therefore only the men shake hands. The ladies curtsey to the gentlemen while they in turn bow. It would only be acceptable for a man and woman to make physical contact in public if they were related or the gentleman was extremely close friends with the lady and her husband, and the husband were present. It was also traditional for well wishers, at this time, to present the bride with a small token such as a lace hand kerchief or pair of gloves. A lady's maid would be on hand for collecting these items.
After all well wishers have been greeted by the Wedding Party and the Allaire Family, guests are invited to attend a small reception at the Gazebo located in the arbor next to the Chapel for refreshments and a piece of Wedding Cake, donated for the occasion by Freedman's Bakery of Belmar. While enjoying the cake and meeting the Allaire family and other members of the Howell Works Community, guests will be entertained by a harpist playing appropriate music of the period. During this time, the newlyweds will quietly depart in a horse drawn carriage, provided by Greyhorse Carriage Co. of Allentown, NJ, to prepare for their second day travels. It was common at the time for an upper class bride and groom to entertain guests at the home of the bride for up to a month before their Going Away. The bride would have specific Second Day, Third Day and even Seventh Day dresses for each day after the marriage. After receiving for any length of time up to a month, the bride and groom would depart for their Second day Travels or Going Away. The bride would have a specific going away outfit that she would don and the couple would begin making the rounds of visiting friends and family who could not attend the ceremony. Many times, in very affluent families of the time, especially those from Southern Aristocracy, the couple would not return home until well after their second or even third child was born.
We at the Historic Village at Allaire, therefore, invite you and your family to join us on this very special day designed to educate the public on the wedding customs and traditions of the time while recreating an actual historic event in the chronicles of the Howell Works Company. Visitors to the Historic Village, on this day, are welcome to call on the other homes, shops and buildings or stop by the various exhibits, where additional wedding customs and traditions of the time will be explained and crafts demonstrated.
*While the authentic Episcopalian Service is used in this event, it is done so for the purpose of historical accuracy. All participants in this event are historic interpreters, this is not an actual wedding ceremony. The historic Village at Allaire and Allaire Village, Inc. does not, in any manner, endorse any specific denomination or faith.