Wedding day

The organ at the church was not working so they imported a little keyboard style organ - a bit crude in 1970! They did not ask me what music I wanted and, whilst signing the register, I heard the strains of Moonlight and Roses wafting my way! As a singer and classical music buff it did not really float my boat.

For the first night of our honeymoon, we went to a rather expensive hotel in the New Forest. After dinner, we were having coffee in the lounge when a dull middle-aged couple struck up conversation. My husband was well-mannered and engaged in some small-talk, but I, being a brazen hussey, cut in with:
"We got married this afternoon. I do hope you will excuse us now." And I took my lovely new husband by the hand, and off we went to where we really wanted to be.

I was a little too early for arriving at the church (I know, it’s usually the other way round 😁), so the driver drove me and my Father to the local supermarket car park to kill a bit of time. I was a bit like royalty, giving a “royal wave” to bemused Saturday morning shoppers. 😂😂.
After the ceremony, there was some time before the reception, so we came home (which was very close to the church), and enjoyed a bowl of sugar puffs, kitted out in our wedding regalia, before it was soon time to head off to the reception.
Here we are, though, 37 years later, and still happy.

We married on a cold, windy day at the end of April which meant all the guests were huddled in coats in all the outside photos, looking frozen.
The following Sat, the first one in May was glorious sunshine but we hadn't chosen that date (could have) because of well meaning family saying "Marry in May and rue the day", when we planned the wedding.

As husband & I walked back down the aisle after the service, a church warden pressed £10 into my husbands hand and muttered something I didn't hear, but I thought "how kind, the church has given us money as a wedding present"
Turned out the bell ringers hadn't turned up so that tenner was our money back.
I'd arranged for the wedding photos to be delivered to my parents home while we were on honeymoon, with the very strict instructions they were NOT to be shown to anyone and to wait for our return.
Got home, only to find that practically everyone who'd been at our wedding had been treated to a visit by my parents during our fortnight away and shown our wedding photos before we had.
I was NOT amused.

On my wedding day, my mum had left for the church with the two bridesmaids, so it was just myself and my uncle (who was giving me away, my dad having died a few years previously) in the house. We went out of the front door and closed it behind us, only to realise that I'd left my bouquet in the house - and my mum had the front door key! Fortunately, a neighbour had a spare key and came to the rescue.

I was married in a Catholic Church in the city of London on the day we won the World Cup in 1966.

As we came out of the church, everybody had their little transistor radios to their ears listening for the result. Later, after the reception at my parents house, we drove past the hotel where the England team were celebrating and saw them come out onto the balcony to greet the big crowd gathered below. It was unforgettable, and all the guests in the years after always remembered my wedding day

About two weeks before my wedding (now ex) husband’s aunt phoned me and said did I really want to marry into their family. I was, of course, confused.
Went ahead and discovered eventually that in laws didn’t speak to each other (lived in different houses on their farm). Six weeks later BiL who worked on the farm committed suicide. We moved up to run the farm and MiL screamed at me for hours every day. Turns out she had MH issues and the family had been involved with social workers for years. All this was hidden from me when we visited; they played happy families.
I lasted for 14 years and left with three children

We got married in a register office in Scotland and they forgot to put the 'phone through to reception so halfway through the phone started ringing. I didn't dare look at my husband as I would have collapsed in giggles.

My aunt, older than most brides in the 1950's, married a fairly unappealing man and the family worried that it was desperation that made her accept him. Apparently she pulled back slightly on the path into the church and, when asked if she still wanted to go through with it, said yes.
I don't think she had a very happy marriage which I think was so sad as she was a lovely, kind person who always did her best for her children.

I always wanted to travel to and from my wedding by a carriage. I paid for and organised this one childhood dream although my Dad (a police officer at the time ) was far from keen about his forthcoming ride. On the morning of the wedding the horse box was involved in an accident which thankfully didn’t leave anyone or animals injured but delayed them until I would come out of church with my new husband. My father magicked up a black wedding car by calling in a few favours so he and I got to church. My husband and I rode in style through the small town after the wedding and thus I had my dream ride. Taught me a lot about being adaptable.

MissInterpreted your mention of spare keys reminded me of something that happened in the 1960's. Not a wedding though.
My friend who lived across the road was about to give birth at home. I saw the midwife arrive, then shortly after, my friend's husband left the house, having been sent on an errand by the midwife. Some time passed then the midwife came out to get something from her car.
The next thing I knew was a very worried Nurse Jones was at my front door. She had inadvertently let the front door close and had locked herself out of her patient's home.
Luckily I had a spare key and the baby girl waited till the nurse was back in the house to bring her safely into the world.

more than 60 years ago
There was thunder and lightening during the ceremony but it just cleared up enough for us to dash to my new husband's small racing green Austin van which he liked to drive as if a Lotus racing car
As an impoverished student he had been talked by friends into buying several very cheap second hand( but smart-looking) cars which had mostly broken down soon afterwards and had to be dumped as irreparable.

He was doing it differently for me! as he had discovered he could buy a reliable work vehicle without paying purchase tax

I had changed into my 'going away dress' which I had made myself and paired with a boater type hat ( bought)

Got into his green Lotus-type A35 van.... the seats were pushed back to the maximum so that he could pretend it was a racing car and drive with his legs straight.
Brmm brmm and we were off. I was thrown from side to side
'For God's sake, take that hat off' he hissed obliquely..... 'and you don't even know how to wear it properly' and this from a bean pole of aman who had chosen ,,,, to go with his racing van.... an emerald green and brown mixture Harris tweed suit. He said later that he thought that no-one would be able to see the moth holes in it.... the tweed was so fuzzy

.......on towards the west country . It was now 5 ish and we were on some sort of moor ( as well as being unable to wear a hat I was also a pretty bum map- reader)

A hand made sign proclaimed TEAS and we drove into the small cottage yard in the middle of nowhere seemingly surrounded by bogs and tufts of grass where a thin. elderly lady showed us into their front room. Now in the West Country I anticipated a cream tea
It was all a bit like the sketch I saw on tv far more recently. She stood there very attentively with a pad.
' Two cream teas , please'
'I'm sorry we don't have any'
'An egg or cheese sandwich then?
'Yes, I think we might have sandwiches'
and tottered off to the kitchen
She reappeared several minutes later to give the same response as earlier but added that she had some lettuce

We were decisive and ordered a lettuce sandwich each and she drifted away beaming.

Several minutes later she returned
' Sorry I forgot to ask. Do you like pepper with your lettuce?

My wedding was stress free,but my husband had been so busy ferrying out of town guests that he missed the barbers and looked very shaggy in the photos. I aren’t exactly sure that we were legally married because on receiving the wedding certificate my Dad’s name was spelled Melvyn and not Mervyn! We arranged everything with our local vicar, but my cousin actually married us.

We booked the Registry Office for midday but, on the day as we completed the paperwork, was informed that it was half-day closing and the last ceremony should have been at 11.30am. However, luckily they did agree to honour our booking, although i did end up in a panic and rushing up to the front before my DH

I had a lovely wedding day. Although we did see that under his surplice the vicar seemed to be wearing what looked like his painting trousers (pale coloured with splashes). But not many people noticed.
We had a party for the reception and had decided to stay in a local hotel for the first night. In the early hours of the morning we heard a lot of noise but couldn't be bothered to investigate. It turned out than someone had climbed onto a flat roof and broken into the hotel. They had run round banging on people's doors including ours! We never found out who it was.

On our wedding day as we were having the speeches, our 3 tier wedding cake collapsed. I thought it was a sign that our marriage would fail but 45 years later we are still going strong.

Oh, such wonderful stories - still laughing - thank you so much - I'm sure we can identify with those far off days (coming up to our diamond anniversary) - you have livened up a dull old Monday morning!

We were engaged on 2 May 1976 and married on 29 May 1976. OH had been offered a 2-year stint in Seychelles and we had to be married so I could go too. We managed to get a slot in the Register Office in Henley. My sister and I went to Oxford to buy a dress. Mum and her friends organised the food, dad hired a marquee for their garden and borrowed tables and chairs. Mum made the cake and asked someone to ice it. When we tried to cut the cake the icing had set rock hard. Mum and one of the aunts disappeared into the kitchen with a saw. All was well and we are still together 48 years later.

No one can match my late mum's wedding day. In wartime Hull during the blitz. The day was designated for a mock invasion, the town was split in two with checkpoints to find the 'Nazi invaders'. My dad had to pass through one on his way to church fortunately he had his army paybook with him so they believed him and let him through, But the organist was in the Home Guard and had been called up, and the photographer was bombed out the night before.
Mum only had snaps taken by family on their cameras.
They were married for over 50 years.

Years later we visited an exhibition in Hull about the war and there was a photo of the mock invasion, the man showing us round said they had no record of the date. Mum immediately told him. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I should be," she said "It was my wedding day."

We got married in Ireland although my husband's family live in England. Against my better judgement mum invited his three year old neice to be a bridesmaid. I was having the dresses made in Ireland so posted the material to future sister in law asking her to find a dressmaker and have the dress made. I would pay for everything. Instead she said her 16 year old sister would make the dress. When they arrived a few days before the wedding I asked to see the dress and she refused. My dressmaker had said she would fix any mistakes. On the wedding day the little 3 year old was wearing a dress far too big and falling off her shoulders. At the time it mattered a great deal to me. Also to my dressmaker who didn't want anyone to think she'd made it. 51 years later it isn't important at all.

DS & DDiL decided to have all the wedding photos taken at the church, so to occupy the guests while this happened they decided it would be a nice idea to serve a fruit cup - and we were delegated to provide and do it.

So when we got the the church we paraded up to main door, and round the back holding between us a a large, new and cleaned plastic gardening container filled with the bottles of carbonated water, fruit juice and a small quantity of wine.

We started to make the fruit cup in the vestry ready to be serving it as we came out of the church, but all that carrying all the bottles in the container had shaken then up and when I opened the first bottle of carbonate water it absolutely exploded out, completely soaking the front of my clothes.

When the wedding started, the grooms mother was standing there in a soaking wet silk skirt that was clinging to her legs, although no longer dripping water from the hem.

Married in 1953 - almost to the Church and realised I had left my bouquet in the house! Quick turn around and all the neighbours who had cheered me thought I had changed my mind!
On our honeymoon in Jersey I started my period on our first day. Thinking I would be 'with it' I decided I would try Tampax instead if my normal pads - but couldn't understand why they were so uncomfortable! On telling my new friend, an older lady at the hotel, of my problem it caused great hilarity when I was told I had to get rid of the cardboard tube first! Obviously I was very naive in those days!!

1973 - I made my own wedding dress in a lovely white satin embossed with roses in silver thread. As we started the photograph session our little dog decided he wanted a bit of fuss from me. He broke away and very enthusiastically jumped up at me and left muddy pawprints on my dress. I still have the dress with those - rather faded - pawprints. Needless to say I was rather upset, but soon forgot about it and it was a good talking point.

Have been married since 1971, the night before the wedding, my future father in law said to me, "it's not too late to call it off, if you have changed your mind"
I often remind my OH if we "have words" (thankfully not very often) of his dad's words and remind him that I married him, when I could have taken his dad's advice and walked away!

At my wedding reception (1980), a friend's husband was smoking Cannabis, unknown to us, until he started offering people a toke. He was asked to leave.