I think the trim on the dress may be rayon,could be silk but it looks like the trim on my baby bonnet from 1942. Rayon was used a lot, I have some rayon bias tape that is from 1930's.It is a kind of twisted stuff, you can untwist the cord on the dress I think so made up of several strands & then sewn on with small stitches over the cord going in direction of the twist so they can't even be seen. The chiffon type fabric is used in doll clothes in late 1800's & early 1900's. Might talk to someone who collects old dolls & show them pics. They could probably identify all the materials used. Better check on those flour sacks before you wash them & find out value try "textiles", 'kitchen" "ADVERTISING"try that 1 1st. Different books & different sites call things by different names. Lovely gown. One idea would be to get photo of the wedding couple & add a piece of gown(taken from back so won't show) & put under glass around 1 side of photo along with another item if you have it,(piece of jewelry she wore- wedding announcement in paper, maybe bit of flour sack from 1 not in such great shape) use an acidfree piece of heavy stock to mount all this in a nice way to enjoy & put in frame fronted with glass. Hang near the gown. A letter would be nice with her handwriting. That way you would have a little bit of her still with you!! Jan

We got two gifts in total. A vacuum cleaner and a pressure cooker. Both most welcome and the pc is still in use. No ’shower’ and only 8 wedding guests. Just parents, siblings and their spouses. DD got married during covid with the permitted 6 guests but a year later we had a party with 100 guests. They requested no gifts, just donations to two charities. The Italian side of the family found this diffcult to grasp and gave a lot of knickknacks they neither want nor need.

The only truly irreplaceable item I have is sitting next to me on the couch eating supper. Well, and the fourfooted one shedding on the rug, too. Everything else is just "stuff", to be used or displayed, not hidden away "to keep it safe", at which time it simply becomes closet- or attic-filler. Most of my accessories (antique copperware, some old molded glass birds and fruit my grandmother gave me, etc.) are packed away simply for lack of anywhere to put it out - I am thinking about maybe putting a shelf up about a foot below the ceiling all the way around the living room - but I'll probably get rid of a great deal of it because if it's been out of sight and out of mind for 2.5+ years and I haven't missed it, I don't need it. I have some antique furniture, but it's all used rather than coddled and fussed-over - none of it's valuable, and it's all pretty beaten-up to start with. :-) Maybe I would have a different attitude if I had expensive, rare items that had some kind of historical or monetary value, but I don't and I highly doubt I ever will! My family is mighty short on heirlooms, but to be honest as a general rule we're just not terribly sentimental people. The only things I even wanted to have from my late father was his Masonic regalia, but the stepmonster would not turn any of his possessions over to me after his death even though I was the legal heir per his will. It's not truly heartbreaking that I don't have them, and not worth hiring a lawyer and hunting down the stepmonster (who has moved away to goodness-knows-where), but my DH has expressed interest in joining a Lodge someday and it would have been nice for him to have those things as a legacy since Dad would have sponsored him to his Lodge in a split second. I probably would have made a shadowbox for displaying them until they were needed for use. I have no children to pass anything on to, not that I would burden them with things they would think they had to keep just because I owned something, especially if they didn't like it on its own merits. I'd rather my things went to a charity sale, an estate auction, etc. so that people who actually wanted the things could obtain and enjoy them.

1. I think his crest would be the way to go. Adding yours makes it seem like a blending, but for a 25th anniversary you are past the blending of families idea. And with only using the one crest, you can really incorporate those colors in your decorating. Two crests increases the number of colors which can make things too busy pretty quick. 2. When I think of medieval decoration, big pillar candles come to mind. You could take large candles, maybe wrap them with some tartan and set them on (Irish) lace doilies or table runner. OR wrap the candles with lace and set them on a large runner of tartan. 3. If you have a dragon topper you like already, go for it. But I gotta say that a dragon screams Welsh to me. I think I would be careful about how you put the tartan on. Visually, you don't want it to appear that this dragon has devoured you, leaving only the plaid behind. Castle cake toppers are also available I think. If you have a figurine for a cake top, I assume you have a cake under the topper. With only needing to feed 20 people, I don't think you will need both that cake and cupcakes. 4. I'd just put a bit of plaid and/or lace tied to the neck of the bottles. You could maybe add a small card with the date and/or thank you and/or a small poem. You might check out the vendors at the ren faire. I suspect there are some sort of small celtic knotwork embelished nic-nacs or soaps or something. 5. Sounds like lots of fun. I might have to borrow your idea for my 25th!