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“ … so Anna takes forty dollars in gold for her dower as well as a legion of virtues with which to bless her husband.” ~Abigail May Alcott journal of May 23, 1860 Having indulged “the pleasant little conceit of Anna’s” that she be married on the anniversary of her mother’s wedding, Abigail May Alcott later pressed a fragrant stem of the wedding flower -- lily of the valley -- into her journal and wrote that she hoped her daughter would “find herself fully possessed of the strength, endurance, all abiding love, to meet the exigencies and aspirations of wedded life.” For all in the Alcott family, as with most families, this special occasion evoked a wide range of responses, including the startling comment from the usually copious father-of-the-bride that, “I cannot yet write about it.” On May 23, 1860, Anna Alcott and John Pratt were married in the Parlor of Orchard House. The few family members and close friends who were invited watched as this tender-hearted couple pledged their lives to each other and celebrated with cake and dancing on the lawn. Louisa May Alcott's impressions of this event were captured in her diary and used, years later, in the writing of Little Women: "A lovely day, the house full of
sunshine, flowers, friends, and happiness. Every few years a commemoration of the wedding is held at Orchard House with Alcott descendants and their family members re-creating the same scene of years ago. Those in attendance echo Mr. Alcott’s heartfelt warm wishes: “May all good and grace
attend her and him!”
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