Weddings

What was your wedding like?

Kathleen Simmonds (born 1923)

I had six bridesmaids. My sister was a dressmaker and made my dress and the bridesmaids. In Green Street, that was in Plaistow, or near where we lived. It had a market and they sold off the ration and we could … and that’s where we bought all the material. And we wanted Bridesmaids dresses that they could wear later, not just for a wedding and they were beautiful, in blue crepe, that other dress there was blue crepe with sleeves which were … they were very nice. My dress was white. It was a kind of cotton fabric with a silky pattern all over it, like flowers all over it. It was very pretty.....I did have a veil, yes. The cake was two tiers - we really went to town after the War. We have … the bill for all the sitting people … five and sixpence or something a head! It was fairly small I think but I’ve got quite a lot of relations who I don’t see any more. I mean I’ve got my own family and I’ve got six great grandchildren now so … but as I said there were four big bridesmaids and then two small ones and a little boy, who was a page boy.

Joyce Odem (born 1928)

I married in 1950 and my mother made my wedding dress. It was very formal, made from white satin with stiff material underneath the dress.

Sandra Wood (born 1942)

I was married in 1963 on my 21st birthday at Holy Trinity Church Ventnor. I made my dress myself on my Mother’s kitchen table with a hand sewing machine. I made it from a pattern. The fabric was Duchess lace over satin. My sister was my bridesmaid and she wore a peach dress that we bought from a shop, in Portsmouth I think. I wore white high heeled shoes with pointy toes that ruined my feet but that was the fashion at the time. I had a long navy coat for going away with a white handbag and shoes.

Margaret Groves (born 1925)

I was married on the 22nd March 1948 at St Thomas’s Church in Newport to Paul.....it was a lovely wedding. I was 24 years old. We had our wedding reception at the Temperance Hotel on the High Street, Newport as my Mother and Father owned and ran the hotel there. I had pink roses in my bouquet. A girl I worked with a Weeks Restaurant lent me her wedding dress and veil. My bridesmaid is my niece and she wore pink. In those days you went to the photographer's shop to have the wedding photographs taken, this was in the High Street in Newport. We went to Guernsey for our honeymoon, we stayed up all night on the boat because in those days there was only a night crossing on the ferry.

Alan Evans (born 1918)

I was married to Audrey in 1943 in Sutton Coldfield, it was a church wedding and afterwards we had a reception for 50 guests at the town hall. After the reception to get to our honeymoon.....there were no cars then as it was wartime so we had to go by train, I left a change of clothes at my Father’s office to change in to, then we went down to New Street Station and were met by the wedding party, about 8 or 9 of the young guests they said ‘we’ve got you a carriage’, we went in and there was an old lady sitting in the corner and the guests came in and threw confetti all over us - and her! I’ve still got my ‘going away’ suit, my Mother insisted I had a good suit to ‘go away’ in so my Father bought it for me as a wedding present, it was from Scrutons in London and I had to go for several fittings.

Dorothy Morris (born 1923)

I was living with my Aunt and Uncle in a guest house in Madeira Road in Ventnor when I got married, they ran the guest house so we had the reception there. My Uncle was a confectioner so he made the wedding cake. It was all beg and borrow being not long after the war, 1949. My dress was borrowed from one of Aunt’s friends, the bridesmaids dresses were ‘second time around’ dresses and were cut down for the children, they were turquoise. I had red carnations in my bouquet, which was huge, that was the fashion then, a large bouquet and because I got married in December you could only get the flowers that were in season so I couldn’t have roses. We stayed with my cousin in London for a honeymoon, but I lost the piece of paper with the address on and only realised when I got on the train so called out ‘I haven’t got the address’! You see when you went to station your guests came to see you off......Anyway it should have been 22 Totterdown Street but we thought it was 122. We got there and asked a policeman where it was, we got to 122 but it was nothing but a bomb site. Carrying our suitcases all that way you can image what we looked and felt like! We found her house eventually and had a lovely time....we went to Hampton Court and London Zoo and to West End shows, she had it all planned out for us. Time we got back home we were worn out. We’ve laughed about this many times since.....happy memories.