This dress was my great grandmother's, Mable McClive, wedding dress, actually a skirt and a top. She was born in 1873 in Fort Erie, Ontario Canada. She married Godfrey Foulkes in 1893.
  
  I asked my grandmother why it wasn't a white dress, and she told me that back in 1800's normal middle class people did not get married in white because it was wasteful and ridiculous to have a dress that you would only wear once. Mable would have worn this dress for church or any other dress up occasion after she got married. I found the detail on this dress beautiful.
  
  It took me about about 15 minutes to get my daughter Natalie into it. It has over 35 hooks and eyes that have to be fastened. It is made from velvet and some sort of heavy gaberdine like cotton.
  
  Mable and Godfrey had 3 children, Gladys (my grandmother), Nyna and Strother.  Gladys had one daughter, Nyna, my mother.  Mable died in 1942.