Preparing for a new exhibition

The Biltmore Legacy will be closed January 4 – February 11, 2016 to prepare for a new exhibition in conjunction with our Fashionable Romance: Wedding Gowns in Film exhibition that will be displayed throughout Biltmore House February 12 – July 4.

While the costumes on display in Biltmore House will showcase changing styles in wedding fashions for more than 300 years, from the 1700s through the 1930s, as captured in classic feature films such as Sense and Sensibility and The Duchess, the exhibition at The Biltmore Legacy will feature 60 years of Vanderbilt family wedding fashion including Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil’s 1924 wedding gown and veil re-created by noted costume designers Cosprop, Ltd. of London

In addition, guests visiting The Biltmore Legacy will have an opportunity to view the first-ever display of the Lee family veil worn by Mary Lee Ryan for her marriage to George Vanderbilt’s grandson, William A.V. Cecil, and also by her first cousin Jacqueline Lee Bouvier for her marriage to future U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  

In both Biltmore House and The Biltmore Legacy, the exhibition will be complemented by gorgeous floral arrangements carefully researched and inspired by the wedding customs of the time period in which the film or the authentic story was set.

In the Tapestry Gallery, for example, three fresh arrangements on pedestals will provide a beautiful backdrop for costume groupings from Wallis and Edward and several other films. In the first arrangement, the floral creation of blue delphinium and lilacs with white roses, hydrangeas, and lilies is a reproduction of the piece designed for the real 1937 wedding of Wallis Simpson and Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor.

For The Biltmore Legacy, our floral staff reproduced Mrs. William Cecil's bouquet of white roses and stephanotis in silk to accompany her classic 1950s wedding gown that will be on display along with her family veil.

We hope you will join us beginning February 12 to enjoy learning more about wedding fashion as well as the Vanderbilt family.