Older grans! Can you tell me something about 1940s weddings?

I have vivid memories of an older cousin’s white wedding in 1946 and there is a photograph of all the guests to prove it. I (aged 4) am wearing a pale pink organdie frock which scratched and patent shoes and thought I outshone the bride. That cousin’s daughter was one of my bridesmaids in 1962 though in white voile with a yellow sash, not pink.

We have pictures of DH’s parents’ wedding in 1927 with only the bride’s father in the group pictures. Perhaps because he was paying?

Illte, the young man on my father`s right is his cousin, also best man. The older man would, I presume, be my mother`s father or stepfather, as my grandma married twice. The young man on the end? I haven`t a clue, and there`s nobody left to ask. The bridesmaid was my auntie, my mother`s sister.

My parents married during the war. My aunt had married first and my mother used her wedding dress but remade it in a much more chic style ! Following the wedding my father’s younger sister met and married my mothers young brother!
Both sets of parents (my grandparents) feature in the photographs.

My parents married in June 1944. We have some photos but they don't look professional, but if they aren't, I don't know who did take them. Both of their mothers are there (our grandfathers had died in 1932 and 1942), and we can recognise lots of friends and relatives from both sides of the family.

We have puzzled over one of my father's sisters not being on there and came to the conclusion that her youngest, one of our cousins, was only just 2, and people didn't go to such occasions pregnant or with small children in those days.

Both my parents wrote their life stories down whilst they were still able to. Their accounts of the wedding are almost identical. I thought some of you might enjoy reading my mother's version. "P" is my father.

Sorry it's a bit long - I've just included the relevant bits - promise!

* * * * *

(Writing about the excitement of the postman arriving whilst she was evacuated with her colleagues from work to Weybridge)

... and mail was eagerly awaited. P and I would write long letters to each other but these would take weeks to arrive, sometimes out of sequence or else two together. Early in 1944 one very important letter arrived saying that he was coming home and would I marry him? I wrote back immediately saying of course I would, and he then told me he was bringing from India some white brocade material for my wedding dress and also a ring he had made in Ceylon.

So, great excitement all round with his home-coming and just a month to prepare for the wedding. I took some time off work first of all so that we could get to know each other after four years apart, and meeting up with his family....

We were both 24 at the time and were married at All Saints Church in Leyton. P was in uniform with TB, a Navy colleague, as best man, and I wore the white brocade dress that my sister had made so beautifully for me. My bridesmaids were my sister, a friend, one of P's nieces, and her friend.

The reception was at the Wheatsheaf Hotel and in spite of food rationing it was very good. P made everyone's day, though, by bringing home tins of cigarettes which were very much in evidence all down the tables. Nearly everybody smoked in those days and as supplies were short they were very hard to get.

Another memorable occurrence was the start of the V1 bombs on that very day. ...... We could hear them coming over quite near, then the engine would suddenly cut out, followed by an uncanny silence before the explosion could be heard. At that time nobody knew what they were and there were all sorts of rumours going round. Among other things we heard that Liverpool Street Station had been severely bombed and as we were travelling on our honeymoon from that station, we were advised not to go.

However, we just wanted to get away and carried on.

When we arrived there, of course, there was no damage to be seen.

* * * * * *

They managed to get a week's honeymoon in St Ives (Cambs) before my father had to go back to his ship.

My father's account also makes a great deal of the cigarettes which were placed all along the tables at the reception. This seems to have been everyone's highlight!

What a wonderful descriptive letter to have JackyB.
My DP were married in November 1939 in St Pancras Registry Office wearing smart but quite ordinary clothes. There are witnesses in fur coats.
There is one photo taken outside. None of their parents were in England so none came. Everything was blamed on the war in those days!
I don't think they had a honeymoon -possibly a night in a friend's flat or an hotel. He went back to join his regiment in Wiltshire and she started school teaching in a boarding school which was evacuated to deepest Somerset (from Suffolk).
They didn't live together until after the war, but they wrote almost every day and we still have some of the letters

As for when your wedding photo was taken. I think they will have dressed up another day - probably the following day- and gone by bus perhaps to the town to the studio to have the portrait done. You would have had to book a photo session.

Trying hard to post a 1945 wedding photo but soar defeated by tech!

grandtanteJE65 I have a wedding photo taken of my inlaws wedding in 1929 in which the clothes are almost identical - even the bride's veil and head-dress!

callgirl That anonymous young man is very similar to the best man (eyes, eyebrows, nose, ears, hairline, shoulders), and to a lesser extent to the bridegroom, so I would say he is related, perhaps a younger brother of the best man, acting as an usher at the wedding?

My parents married in December 1939, my Dad went off to war a week later.
I have a photo of them with their bridesmaid and best man.
Other photos show people arriving at the Church.
there is one of my Grandmother (Mothers side)who could not have been more than 45 but she has such a sour face she looks 20 years older.
As they had more or less blackmailed my Father into marrying you would think she would have looked a bit happier.

My Aunt is 96 and was married in early 1946. Her sister was older so she married first in November 1945 I'm sure that in both cases only two photographs exist.

They had photos of just the bride and groom framed by the church porch. The other is a group photo with the bridal party, parents, grandparents and siblings. No uncles, aunts or cousins were included even though I have been told they and school friends of the brides attended the weddings.

I'm not sure if other photos were taken. Maybe they were taken but only two were purchased.

My PIL married in a bomb damaged church in London in 1946. They have three photographs. The bride and groom, the bridal party ie the couple, two brides maids, bride's father and the best man. The third photo includes the vicar, both mothers, and a few quests.

All the receptions were held in the church hall with local ladies helping with the food.

when you think of all the fuss and great expense, such that people seriously say they can't afford to get married, these days.
what they really mean is can't afford a big blow-out on the wedding day.
to me it seems a total waste of money; some spend 20k plus.
i wonder if anyone has researched the inverse ratio of cost of nuptials versus length of union.

Elegran, you could be right about the young man being related in some way, but my father had only 1 brother, and it`s not him, and the best man, my father`s cousin, was an only child. The mystery goes on...………….!

My grandmother's wedding in 1907, they lived on a farm as my G grandfather was a Hind.
My parents married in February 1940 but there were no photographs despite my father owning a camera.
There was thick snow and my mother wore an ice blue velvet long dress with no veil. I think she believed she was too old to wear a white dress, well she was thirty.
No honeymoon due to it being wartime but my parents had travelled to Norway in the weeks before war was declared, I think my father anticipated what was going to happen and a honeymoon was out of the question.

My parents married in 1942. Mum's dress was borrowed, the bridesmaid wore an evening dress. Film was in very short supply so we only have a few snaps and one formal portrait, which appears to have been taken against a plain background, no idea where, as you say very odd.

My parents married in 1943. The dress was borrowed but I've still got my mother's head dress of wax orange blossoms. My father wore his RAF uniform. No bridesmaids. I have a photograph of the pair of them in the garden and a group photo with her parents and a small group of relatives. My father's mother didn't seem to be there (his father was long dead) but with 10 children I don't think she went to any weddings.

I believe they managed to scrape together the coupons to have icing on the cake. The wedding night was at The Strand Palace Hotel in London - dead posh!