General Chat

Watching these girls marrying in enormous dresses and moving into tiny trailers makes me wonder what happens to those dresses after the wedding.Any ideas?

No idea, but they'd need a trailer with an extension!

I hadn't realised until last week? that the first communion dress is also an elaborate creation too.

Gwyn

I find it difficult to understand why anyone would want to dress a child like a bride. Last week the dress was heavier than the child but I found myself looking at the screen in disbelief at the bride but rightly or wrongly I find the program compulsive viewing.
After taking the fire extinguisher to the wedding in last nights program because of health and safety at what point does the excess end. What I did like about last nights wedding where a non traveller married into their community was the positive attitude that both sides were mixing and not segregated as many wedding are. -jl

I love this programme, but really don't see the point in putting these young girls through the pain of wearing dresses for their communions which weigh more than they do.

I admire the young gypsy lad who married a non gypsy, and wish the young couple a very happy married life. I think they should be allowed to live on the land they have purchased. More of them appear to be educating their children these days.

Perhaps they could donate their dresses to charity on pass them down the family. They cost a fortune!!

In one of the papers this morning there seems to be
complaints about the six year old getting a fake tan etc.
One Romany gypsy said "Spray tanning kids and covering
them in make-up is not part of tradition. It's a load of nonsense"

Emmax

I don't believe these are real Gypsy's more Irish Travellers, I saw that Nico's (the dress makers) dresses can cost £15,000! . The girls all really looked ridiculous, the girl in the pink confirmation dress last week couldn't even walk in the dress and the tiara falling over her eyes.

Hi ,
is this on every week, or is it a one off.
Hazelx

Thanks Rita,
i will watch it ..
Hazelx

As an art form Ithink the dresses are fabulous and very well constructed.

Human meringues LOL

You can be sure they are being well paid. Whatever else they can or cannot do,they know how to turn a couple of bob.

In the past they have always been the ones to turn scrap and we have all benefitted from that.In fact they have provided a vital service there.Recycling before anybody thought about it.

I watched it for the first time this week and like some of you ,wondrered where they got the money to pay for these over the top dresses as wives don't work. Certainly don't have attic space in caravans for storage and how on earth would the bride even get through the door of her caravan. As for the conformation dresses, what a joke. My neighbours wee girl had her conformation recently and she too was dressed like a bride. (It's a Catholic thing)

You'd be surprised how well tulle squashes into a small space.

Splash, it was First Communion not Confirmation but I guess that's by the by unless one is a practising RC.
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There's a lot of negativity here, does it matter how they pay for the dresses or how they store them?
Love them or hate them, does no -one think the workmanship in those dresses is admirable?

I honestly just wondered what they did with the dresses.They are huge and travellers are the original minimalists.Although you often see wedding dresses in charity shops,I have never seen a real travellers dress anywhere in the flesh.

There was a gypsy funeral here a few years ago.It closed the roads and all the pubs in town. He was buried in a country churchyard and most of us went up there to see the flowers in the following days.

There were all the usual tributes depicting his likes in life, several floral glasses of Guinness and 1664, a couple of horses and mobile phones and,of course, his name. The one I liked best was the board that was decorated with flowers and, stuck firmly to it, were two Fray Bentos pies.

Chris, I think you,ll find they are "Irish Tinkers/Travelers" the true Romanies would,nt allow What they are doing.**M**.

Hi Sharron

I'm not well so sorry if I seemed a bit snippy. I didn't mean anyone in particular just generally. I'm just trying to be positive on this gloomy day.

I wouldn't be surprised if the dressmaker either bought the dresses back or made them for a big fat hire fee then recycled them for the next bash.
Costumiers custom make to hire then put it into future hire stock so it is likely this is what happens with the gypsy gowns.

*starts running up a fluffy pink sequin studded meringue shaped frock for Island...to cheer her up! lol BCXX

We only saw the trailers and chose not to watch as it wasn't our cup of tea. However, if that's what turns them on then the very best of luck to them all.

Aw thanks BC :-)) can I have big flappy butterflies on it please, to fan my brevered frow?
Run one up for IGP while you're at it doll, I wouldn't want him to miss a treat LOL

I don't know much about Romany gypsies but I do know a bit about Fairground showmen, some of whom were extremely helpful with something I was doing.

A lot of the things that look like strange customs are actually very practical.One example being that travellers children are not allowed to put their fingers in their mouths.This is not to harden them up or deprive them of comfort.Living in a trailer means that beds and everything else need to be packed away when they are not in use.Dirty fingers can make you ill and the last thing you need when you are travelling is somebody in bed in your living space.It can stop the whole family from earning for some days.
This is why travellers never say rat.Superstition is a bit of a belt and braces thing for them and nobody wants to tempt a rat.

Hi Sharron & All - We must have been on the same wavelength during the programme! - I sat there wondering what on earth they did with the dresses after the wedding!
The other thought that I had (re. the spray tanning) Was that the true Romany gypsies we knew as children wouldn't have needed spray tans. They had lovely brown Mediterranean skin naturally!
The 'travellers' shown on this programme are definitely a different tribe!