But for the Australian Museum of Clothing and Textiles’ latest offering it all seems to work.

Titled To Have And To Hold, the exhibition features a collection of bridal gowns dating back to the early 1900s and includes  the wedding dress worn by Kitty McDonald, the bride of Maitland’s longest-serving mayor Alexander McDonald.

“The exhibition basically documents the social as well as the historical steps through the eras,” first-time curator Jamie Hernandez said. 

“So you can see that things started out very glamorous, then during the war they were less so, and then they returned to the glamour again. 

“There were so many restrictions placed on people during the war periods and they really had to make do with what they had.”

The gowns have all been donated by Hunter residents, the most recent being a creation from the late 1990s.

“Putting this exhibition together has definitely been a learning curve from my point of view and it’s not as easy as it looks,” Ms Hernandez, 29, said.

“But I think the oldest gowns are my favourites because they come with so much history and that’s really quite cool.”

- To Have And To Hold is on display at AMCAT until July 13.