By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Ortonville — With wedding season well underway, the Old Mill Museum has put up displays of several wedding dresses from as far back as 1885.
“A few museums have done this because June is the month of weddings, and the fall is becoming the time of weddings, so we just thought we’d do it and leave it up until Septemberfest,” said Ortonville Community Historical Society member Mary Kassuba. “All of these dresses were here with the exception of Grace’s mothers. They were all in a box, we took them out of the box, we steamed them and got them all cleaned up.”
All the dresses were donated to the old mill, and were owned by area women or families such as one dress that belonged to the mother of Ortonville resident Grace Geisler or the Weidemann family, the namesake for Weidemann drive.
There are also items from local families such as the Gauthier family’s wedding cake topper from over 50 years ago, and wedding certificated from Kathleen Leece, who married her husband John in 1941.
“And if there was a picture with the dress, we kept everything together,” said Kassuba.
See the wedding dresses, certificates, photos and more at the Old Mill Museum on Saturdays through Sept. 14, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 366 Mill St., Ortonville.