Meg’s Wedding: Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’ Movie
The tradition that my husband and I have for Christmas morning is to go see a movie after we open presents. This year my mother was with us, and we went to see Little Women. I’ve not seen (or at least don’t remember seeing) any of the earlier TV or movie adaptions of the Louisa May Alcott novel. I also don’t think I read the book. But I had an idea of the story (maybe I got it from the episode of Friends when Joey reads the book.) Still, it felt like a new story to me, until we got to Meg’s wedding. That is my language. A brief but fun scene (in the middle of a movie that is filled with fraught emotions and hard conversations) that we can draw some sweet inspiration from.
Meg’s Little Women Wedding
Mr. March, the war hero father of the Little Women, officiates the wedding. There is a snippet of remarks from him in the movie, and they really stuck with me. Truthfully, it is why I felt compelled to write this post:
What excessive promises, giving yourself away to get the other. What a thing, what a gift, always given before it is known the cost or the reward.
Read the entire screenplay.
This led me to inquire what Louisa May Alcott has to say about Meg’s wedding:
Meg looked very like a rose herself, for all that was best and sweetest in heart and soul seemed to bloom into her face that day, making it fair and tender, with a charm more beautiful than beauty. Neither silk, lace, nor orange flowers would she have. “I don’t want a fashionable wedding, but only those about me whom I love, and to them I wish to look and be my familiar self.”
So she made her wedding gown herself, sewing into it the tender hopes and innocent romances of a girlish heart. Her sisters braided up her pretty hair, and the only ornaments she wore were the lilies of the valley, which ‘her John’ liked best of all the flowers that grew.
“You do look just like our own dear Meg, only so very sweet and lovely that I should hug you if it wouldn’t crumple your dress,” cried Amy, surveying her with delight when all was done.
“Then I am satisfied. But please hug and kiss me, everyone, and don’t mind my dress. I want a great many crumples of this sort put into it today,” and Meg opened her arms to her sisters, who clung about her with April faces for a minute, feeling that the new love had not changed the old.
“Now I’m going to tie John’s cravat for him, and then to stay a few minutes with Father quietly in the study,” and Meg ran down to perform these little ceremonies, and then to follow her mother wherever she went, conscious that in spite of the smiles on the motherly face, there was a secret sorrow hid in the motherly heart at the flight of the first bird from the nest.
You can read or listen to the entire Chapter 25 of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott here.
How to get this Little Women Wedding Look
So, what do you need to emulate Meg’s sweet wedding as portrayed in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women? I think there are four key things. First, a greenery covered arch:
Second, wildflower bouquets:
Third, floral crowns for more than just the flower girl:
Fourth, and finally, letting your besties pick their own frocks:
Do you like what you see above? Well, you can see more from that Hendry House wedding, that Oatlands Plantation wedding, that Riverside on the Potomac wedding and that Meridian House wedding.
Want to have your own Meg-inspired wedding at home? Check out my free ebook about home weddings.
