Weddings of yesterday and today.

Married in 1949 after my hubby had finished his National Service. We were still on rations but, with living in London and getting to know the Barrow Boys they helped with a few extra things thrown in to make an edible salad for the buffet which was held in my parents front room. It was a Cockney wedding so I leave you to imagine the knees up after we had all come back from my Great Uncles pub situated in the Old Kent Road in London. We were in our 67th year of marriage when I lost hubby to Dementia.

NotSpaghetti

lovetopaint
We had a reception in a pub,
a honeymoon in a bed
and breakfast in Bognor Regis.


I think many had a honeymoon in a bed... but expect fewer went to Bognor for breakfast!

That is funny. Made me laugh. Sounds as if we had a great time.

Germanshepherdsmum
Richard Branson's daughter went to het parents wedding and later to the marriage of a couple who were friends of the family. She was shocked and said "But they can't get married, they haven't got any children!"

lovetopaint
We had a reception in a pub,
a honeymoon in a bed
and breakfast in Bognor Regis.


I think many had a honeymoon in a bed... but expect fewer went to Bognor for breakfast!

Grandmama, I am so sorry to hear this. My condolences to you and your family.

Our youngest son was married June 8, and it was a lovely wedding. Yes, there was money spent that we wouldn't have done, but the event was beautiful, and a lot of fun.

I do wish there would be a trend back to simpler weddings, with less money spent. The day doesn't need to be magazine-perfect. I'm afraid the young people put very high expectations on themselves.

Sorry to hear your sad news Grandmama

Grandmama, I was so sorry to read your sad news. I lost my husband nearly 7 years ago, after 53 years married, and it still hurts. You were so brave to post in this thread amidst your sadness.

Grandmama I'm so sorry.

Mine was a second marriage in 2007. I have been with my second husband since 2002. All my 4 children to the ex were at mine. They were 22, 20, 18 and 11.

I had the divorce from hell from the ex. I never thought there was anyone decent out there I could trust after fleeing domestic abuse finally after 16 year in 2000.

I had the wedding I wanted. It cost £2000 plus honeymoon/holiday which we were going going on anyway.

It wasn't alot by today standards even back then. A wedding for about 30 of us. Held the reception in our home with a gazebo in the back garden. It was a beautiful day. I was original in cheffing so I did the food myself.

The two expensive things were one limousine and a professional photographer.

My dress I found in the debutant depth of Debenham in blood red. My 2 bridesmaids wore silver and black.

My SiL did all our makeup as she a makeup artist.

Ah it's different times. Our parents would have grumbled about our generation. Live and let live.

I personally would rather give my daughter the 10s of thousands than spend it on a wedding.

My DiL parents who are extremely wealthy paid for a very lavish affair for my eldest son and DiL It would have cost them at least £15 thousand.

So sorry Grandmama💐you have my deepest sympathy.

I was married in the late 70’s, a church wedding and a reception at a local hotel afterwards. We invited all the family, including aunts, great aunts and uncles, cousins etc, some close friends & also the neighbours who we had both grown up living next door to. We also had lots of children at the wedding and they all seemed to behave impeccably. We had a night ‘do’ with a disco & buffet where work colleagues and other friends could join us. We left the evening party a little early for our honeymoon.
Nowadays wedding often seem to be more about friends than family and some couples make it clear in the invites that they don’t want young children there. We wrote our own invites and kept things quite simple so it didn’t cost the earth. My lovely dad had died two years before so I missed his presence but my mum brought me a lovely dress from money he had put aside and also paid for the reception. My uncle gave me away. I can’t really remember planning it for long or whittling about any of the preparations. We had a lovely day followed by a short honeymoon in the UK. Sadly I lost DH almost 2 years ago after 42 years of marriage, we were lucky enough to have been able to celebrate our Ruby wedding abroad before Covid struck.

My eldest daughter got married in Sri Lanka which was wonderful and meant we could combine the wedding with a wonderful holiday. It’s certainly not necessary to have to spend a fortune (tens of thousands of pounds in some cases) to have a nice wedding, it seems a waste to me when people go totally over the top and often end up starting married life in massive amounts of debt to cover the cost.

So sorry for your loss Grandmama xx

My daughter was a bridesmaid last week for her best uni friend; they’re both 31. The ceremony was outdoors somewhere on the coast in south Wales, the bridesmaids dresses all came from eBay and the beautiful wedding dress was £40 from Oxfam. They had done as much as possible themselves and it was the most beautiful day. Then off camping for a few days and hopefully a big holiday to Puerto Rica next year.
My daughter has a long term partner but doesn’t want to get married which is ok with me. I’m happy with whatever decisions my children make. My own parents were desperate to get me “settled” when I really wasn’t interested at all. But hey ho, married eventually and now divorced. I try not to be resentful as I now have three wonderful children. But it wasn’t easy.

Oh Grandmama, I am so sorry💐.

After seeing a pic in a Brides magazine, I made an empire-line dress for my 1974 reg office wedding - hand sewn, I had no machine - and was quite pleased with it, but once I showed her, my mother said it was pretty but looked like an old-fashioned nightie. And to be fair, it wasn’t at all flattering to my (then) very slim figure.
The dress I eventually found, in a small local shop, was a much better choice.

However the hand-made dress did have its special outing after all - I joined dh in Oman soon after the wedding, and it wasn’t long before someone I knew vaguely came asking whether I possibly had anything she could borrow to wear for a VIP do at the palace with the Sultan - so it had to be long, long sleeves, etc.
Dress fitted the bill perfectly, and I also wore it at a similar but less grand do when 5 or 6 months pregnant.

My grandsons have recently gone to weddings held abroad which incurred some expense and now my daughter tells me that the “in thing” is to also have stag and hen do’s held abroad. It seems crazy to old fashioned me. We were married in church ( the one featured in the last episode of Call the Midwife when Trixie got married). It was 1960. We had a reception in a pub, a honeymoon in a bed and breakfast inBognor Regis. We returned to a rented semi-basement flat on Shepherd’s Bush Green which no longer exists. I bought my bridesmaids dresses from C &A and mine from a high street store in Oxford Street. I was on my own and it was the first one I tried on. Took it home ina big box and there it stayed until the day before the wedding when it was hung up. My mother had a job in a cake shop at the time and our cake was ordered from there. The icing was so hard we had great difficulty in cutting it. We were so young I was almost 19 and dh was 20 but that wasn’t unusual at the time.Children came along three years later. We had our 63rd anniversary a few weeks ago. Seems nonsense to spend thousands on a wedding unless you are really so well off that it can be afforded easily. Even then I would find better things to do with that amount of money. Also we have been to many weddings over the years and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the simplest ones far more than the more elaborate ones.

Grandmama My deepest sympathy.

Katcoffee - even Cliveden House is bookable for less than half that!
Where are you?

Grandmama. I’m so sorry .

We were married in 1967, I was a teenaged bride and we are still together. Our wedding wasn’t that spectacular, a Methodist church followed by a reception at a hotel. The very best wedding I have ever been to was one of my granddaughters. They got married on her Dad’s ( ex son in law) farm and had it all laid out with hay bales to sit on, a bar and order your own food from a mobile food cart they had organised. Lots of dancing and singing and a live band ( her Dad is a musician) . There were about 100 guests, extended fam and friends and she had also organised glamping tents for those staying overnight. The farm is in a very picturesque part of North Victoria so the pics were fabulous, particularly at sunset. Their small son was the pageboy and wore a matching outfit with his Dad in cream linen.

We got married in 1970. It was a registry office wedding and a reception for 50 people. I wasn't expecting to have that many, but almost all the distant relations we invited actually accepted! DH wore his best suit and I had a £7 dress from Bus Stop in Kensington. We all had a lovely lunch in a local Italian restaurant (I think it was about £1.50 a head) My hen night was my best friend coming round for a cup of tea the night before. DH went out with his dad and a friend and got paralytic - something he regretted the next morning!

DD's wedding was much the same. She bought a lovely dress in Monsoon for £90. DS and I produced a buffet lunch and I made the cake. The night club she had been working for gave her a room for the reception free of charge. She's been married for 26 years now so I don't think the economies did her marriage any harm.

Grandmama I am holding you in my thoughts at this deeply sad time.

Grandmama I am so sorry to read of your loss - my deepest sympathies to you. How stoic of you to post your lovely wedding memories for us in your time of sorrow. It’s good to open your heart to us. Thinking of you. 💐🥲

Joseann and Blondiescot
Looking back to Charles and Diana’s wedding, I think you’re right about the wedding fever that came out of that spectacle. I remember getting up at 4:00 AM to tune in and watch every minute of it on TV. I think for Americans it was the first real “fairy tale” wedding that was broadcast for viewing. And girls here went wild.

I was newly wedded but our marriage was a destination wedding - we got married on Maui in Hawaii. Just the two of us. We planned it through our church to have a private ceremony in the oldest (Methodist) church on the islands, located oceanfront. We did that to alleviate any interference from his ex-wife. His three older children were good with everything.

It was lovely and dreamy. Witnesses and organist was arranged by the minister there. I chucked the lovely street length chiffon number, heels and pearls I packed for a pair of white pants and a hand embroidered white tunic top from Marrakech and white sandals; groom wore white shirt and white pants too; we had pre-ordered the traditional wedding maile-leis. Extremely casual, private and memorable.

Came back and had a big party-reception for family, friends and co-workers a month later. Never one for big spectacles.
I’d do it all over again, exactly like that!
Wedding Cheers!
USA Gundy

Grandmama I’m so sorry 💐from one widow to another.

Due to my family circumstances (plus my beatnick/hippy reluctance about marriage😁) we had a quiet church wedding in 1972 with just witnesses as DH wanted a Christian service. I wore a pale grey suit and just tied my long hair back in a
pony tail as if nothing special was happening 🙄
The vicar’s alcoholic wife produced a fine wedding breakfast in the vicarage and then we stepped into my late DHs open top car and drove through France and Italy.

I’ve changed my mind and would now like a white wedding! Not an over the top affair, but something within reason and tasteful. Can’t complain however as I have had such a lot of dressing up for opera and classical concerts.

I wish people wouldn’t go on about prices in the 50s, 60s and whenever, those prices mean nothing now.