Entertainment

‘Downton Abbey’ Puts On The Best Wedding Ever, And A Fan Favorite Returns

Published on: January 19, 2016 at 4:38 PM
By Amy Feinstein

Downton Abbey is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean that creator Julian Fellowes can’t squeeze in some happy events before they leave us. The ruler of all things downstairs at Downton Abbey, Mr. Carson, finally tied the knot with the queen of downstairs, Mrs. Hughes. And if that wasn’t enough, fan favorite Tom Branson returns, as it seems it took the Irishman moving to Boston to decide that Downton Abbey is home and the Crawleys are his family.

According to the Inquisitr , Julian Fellowes did everything he could to wrap up as many storylines as possible in this last season of Downton Abbey . As emotional as fans are about this last season, the cast of Downton Abbey was also teary as shooting came to an end.

Vanity Fair reported that the wedding of Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes finally married the mother and father figures of downstairs together.

“The director actually put in some extra beats in the episode about the preparation for the wedding,” Trubridge said of building anticipation for the vows.

While episodes usually flit from character to character, producers were happy to linger extra long on Carson and Hughes on, and leading up to, their happy day.

“We showed the gardener going and cutting some flowers and just little things like that that could really build up the moment and make it ours, because I think we, along with everyone else, wanted Carson and Mrs. Hughes to finally get together. We added little bits of visuals to help all that along.”

For a servant wedding in the 1920s, the Carson-Hughes nuptials seemed lavish, but based on research, the Downton Abbey wedding was pretty true to form.

“We were surprised at just how lavish [they] were,” said Trubridge. “It made us laugh because they were very lavish and very carb-heavy. There was lots of pies, breads, potatoes, and jellies—obviously because they were cheaper. Of course we don’t actually see the characters eating them [in the episode], which I think the actors were very pleased about, because there were some sprays we had to apply to make the food look a certain way, and it was pretty heavy stuff to be eating all day. But it still looked marvelous, placed on those high display plates.”

And the idea of Mrs. Hughes borrowing a gown from upstairs for her wedding day? Could that have happened?

“Whilst [Hughes actress] Phyllis [Logan] is very slim, she’s not anything like as tall as Michelle [Dockery] or Elizabeth [McGovern]. It was Anna [Mary Scott Robbins] our costume designer, who came up with the idea of her wearing a coat—since then it would be much easier for us to change the length of, so actually Julian [Fellowes] wrote that detail in after our conversation.”

Time addressed the tradition of a breakfast wedding and the chance that it might have taken place. And the truth is, it might have happened just as it was portrayed on Downton Abbey . A Sunday morning wedding after a mass would have been a breakfast or a brunch, as we would say in America. It would have also been fitting for the wedding of servants attended by the family they serve.

Royal weddings have also taken place in the morning and made it a tradition emulated by many other Brits following a style set by the royal family.

Were you happy to see Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes get married?

[Photo courtesy of PBS]

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