Collecting Vintage Wedding Theme Paper Dolls

From Victorian Brides to the Charles & Diana Paper Doll Set

Nov 3, 2009

From the 1895 Forbes antique bride paper dolls, to Mod-era bridal party collections, the wedding theme has been popular with little girls and vintage collectors like.

The early 20th century women’s magazines offer elaborate Victorian and Edwardian bridal graphics in gorgeous, richly colored lithographs, including patterns for Wedding Gowns and Bridal attire, Wedding party favor ideas, Wedding menus, illustrations of wedding decorations, and even landscaping for a wedding in your back yard, but perhaps the most long-lived are the wedding paper doll pages.

Victorian, Edwardian, and Deco-era Magazine Paper Dolls

The Ladies’ Home Journal magazine featured many richly lithographed wedding-themed paper dolls. The Victorian Lettie Lane Attends a Wedding ran for a full year, offering different members of the Wedding party each month, including the grim servants' page. The WWI-era Betty Bonnet Attends a Wedding series, also by Sheila Young, emphasized the military wedding party members, including the groom, the majority of whom, statistically speaking, would be dead by the war's end. (see Betty Bonnet Bride and Groom pictured below, from June and July 1918)

Grace Drayton’s Dolly Dingle Paper Dolls, appearing in Pictorial Review magazine from 1913-1932, had several wedding paper dolls, the most delightful The Mousie Bride (November 1916), which includes a mouse, her wedding gown, and a wardrobe for her honeymoon. Good Housekeeping magazine includes Deco-era bride Polly Pratt's Sister Has a June Wedding (June 1921), and Woman's Home Companion had a bride the same month: Margery May's Big Sister (June, 1921).

The Sunday Boston Globe supplement from the 1890s included many clever Forbes' dolls that were assembled from several intricate pieces. Pictured below is The Forbes' bride paper doll (June, 1895). Sunday newspapers also included paper dolls in the 1930s-1950s, which included wedding themes for Tillie the Toiler and Jane Arden.

Vintage Bridal Party Boxed Sets and Commercial, Die-Cut books

Whitman Publishing produced a wedding-themed paper doll set almost every year. Pictured below are an assortment of sets produced by Whitman from the 1950s through 1970s. Included in the picture are: The Bride and Bridal Party Cut-outs (1957), Bride Cut-Outs (1963), Happy Bride (1967), and the Mod-era Bridal Paper Dolls (1971).

Saalfield Publishing produced almost as many sets as Whitman, including the coveted Here Comes the Bride, a boxed set from 1957, which sold for 80.00 on Ebay last year (see photo of this set below). Other novel wedding sets from Saalfield included Let's Play Wedding (1938), and Army and Navy Wedding Party (1943),

Merrill publishing, the most elaborate of the 3 major paper doll publishing companies, produced the huge, spectacular Deco-Era Wedding of the Paper Dolls--The Bride and Her Lovely Dresses--10 Dolls and 120 Pieces to Play With, which included separate flowers, necklaces, hat ornaments, bracelets and other tiny accessories for the paper dolls. Also coveted are Merrill's Heavenly Blue Wedding (1955), and Bride and Groom Military Wedding Party (1941)

Wedding and Bridal Novelty Cut-Outs and Paper Dolls

Novelties included in this category are the Whitman Barbie Doll Cut-Outs, from 1962, which featured a full Bridal wardrobe, and also the Merry Manufacturing delightful and ghoulish Mod-Diva Bride of Frankenstein (pictured below), from 1964. The Charles and Diana Royal Fashions paper dolls, from 1982, featuring the royal wedding attire, would also appeal to the thorough collector.

The copyright of the article Collecting Vintage Wedding Theme Paper Dolls in Collectibles is owned by Polly White. Permission to republish Collecting Vintage Wedding Theme Paper Dolls in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.