But I shall also be thinking about another event which happened seventy five years ago. On 7th September 1940 my parents were married.
They were married just a few miles from where I live now, and the wedding breakfast was at my grandparents farm. My great uncle officiated (he was rector of a nearby parish) and it was by all accounts, a wonderful celebration. He was obviously a modern sort of vicar as he wouldn't allow my mum to promise to obey her husband which was just as well!
My parents met when my mother gave my father a boiled sweet at the end of a football match in which her brother was on the same team. He always had a bag of boiled sweets with him when I was a child but I didn't know the reason until after he died.
Their marriage was truly "till death do us part" which sadly came just over 55 years later when my father died in 1995.
What a lovely photo, weddings were so pretty in those days. I have a similar oe of my mother's wedding, all carrying those beautiful ferny bouquets!
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful photo and wonderful to remember such a special day, 55 years is a long time to be together. I still have a long way to go, we have been married for 34 years in November.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful photo! My parents and in-laws were both married in 1942 -- one November 13 and the other November 14 -- but they weren't fancy weddings like this -- this is lovely!
ReplyDeleteYou look so much like your mum! Awe. And your dad looks SO very young in that photo and so happy, they both do. I love the old time ladies dresses too. How truly fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI must ask though as I haven't thee slightest idea, what is a boiled sweet?
Oh dear! The USA and UK are truly "Two nations divided by a common language!" I've checked and boiled sweets are what you would call hard candy - I think! We always use the word sweets for confectionery. Console yourself - i have to google a lot of things I read on American blogs, including yours. I think it is beautiful that they had such a modest symbol of their romance.
DeleteMother and Auntie Hettie (the bridesmaid on the far left) and I were once described as three peas from a single pod. My parents were 25 and 23 when they married.
The wedding dress was second hand as rationing had already started to bite by September 1940. My parents were very lucky to have such a lavish wedding by contemporary standards - although it would be considered fairly modest today. Their wedding breakfast was at home but country living meant they managed to have a feast.
Ahh, I do know what hard candy is :) I really hadn't the slightest idea what boiled sweets might be though. Isn't it silly how many different terms there are for the same things divided by that darn ocean!
DeleteYou really do look so much like her. I love that your Auntie Hettie is in the photo! We've heard so much about her and there she is :) That's neat.
My husband and I in most respects eloped. Our youth pastor (we went to different schools but met in youth group at church) was pastoring a church in Georgia when we were engaged. Wedding plans were made very difficult by our parents so we decided to "elope." All that to say that in a way my wedding dress was second hand as well. I don't think I could have been happier with it though. My grandmother made the wedding dress for my mom and dad's wedding. It had beautiful English lace throughout it. There were parts about the dress that I could not stand like the puffy shoulders and the high neck collar. My grandmother altered the dress for my wedding, so I wore my mom's wedding dress for our little lake side park ceremony in Georgia. My husband rented a tuxedo when we got down there. To this day we have no regrets about not having a normal wedding, okay except that we missed out on wedding gifts, haha! We never got a single one. Still, it was the perfect ceremony for us.
Yours sounds like a truly wonderful wedding. What happened to the dress after that?
DeleteI still have it in my bedroom closet :)
DeleteI don't think I will ever get rid of it. I'll happily hoard it until my last unless there;s some use for it ever.
What joy for you to see such a lovely photo of your parent's wedding day - how happy everyone looks - and what amazing dresses! I'm trying to imagine the colour of the bridesmaids dresses? The flowers look amazing too.
ReplyDeleteI saw a piece of fabric from the dresses some years ago. They were pale blue and a sort of mottly pink and green pattern.
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