Had they still been alive, this year would have been my parents 64th Wedding Anniversary. Seeing all the images for the Jubilee Celebrations I was reminded of
their special day back in 1948, when I came across some black and white photos of their wedding.
They married during the period just after the 2nd World War, in a small village in North Yorkshire, when times were hard and Britain was still recovering from rationing. They met at work, during the war years. My father was a steel worker and a key part of the manufacturing industry at that time. My mother joined the
ironworks where my father worked, and trained as a welder - part of the re-deployment of women whilst the menfolk went off to fight.
It was over a sparking blow-torch that their eyes met and they eventually married when peacetime resumed!
The wedding took place at All Saints Anglican church in
Easington, North Yorkshire on 14 August 1948. The bride wore a simple slipper satin fitted dress with long sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, with a full length trained veil (I still have these items wrapped in tissue in a shoebox)!
The bridesmaids were the bride's youngest sister (who subsequently wore the dress at her own wedding some years later) and two of the groom's nieces - all wearing long pink empire line dresses. The bride's traditional shower bouquet had scarlet red standard carnations and maidenhair fern, the bridesmaid's bouquets were in pink.
All the guests were invited back to my grandmother's house in
Far Foulsyke, North Yorkshire for tea and a home-cooked spread of goodies - sadly no photos to mark this occasion, but I suspect there was a bit of a sing-song and a spot of dancing long into the night!
