A nice chat about your wedding

Which one would you like to hear about Flossieturner? I have had three !

All of them. I am on a mission to only hear and read happy things for the rest of my life.

We had a very low-key, registry office wedding as my DH had been married before. We also had two baby girls who were left with babysitters while we went to our wedding. My mum and her partner were our witnesses. We all went for a quick drink before I had to get back to feed the youngest baby.
Maybe not everyone's idea of a wedding, but we were happy as could be, very much in love and went on to have two more babies, and 35 happy years before cancer took him from me last year.

I'm sorry to hear that bellasnanna --it sounds as though there are many happy memories.

My first wedding was the white church do but not expensive cant remember now and I hated every minute of it as I didn't want to do it but mother instead- she seemed to regard me as some kind of unexploded bomb. The marriage lasted a couple of years (he drank) but I did get my lovely daughter from it so not all bad.

The second one was very low key as we were personae non grata- he was divorced and a bit older and I left No1 for him so it was registry office I did a small buffet at home- cost £10 for the food and whatever the licence was +£15 for the ring which I still wear. No honeymoon juts a meal at the pub. 39 years later we are still here.

All of them. I am on a mission to only hear and read happy things for the rest of my life.

Best miss the first one out then

"We got married in a fever" , still here many moons later.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvD_NQrLFo

Enjoy a happy day and to you.

Love it GK. I think most people get married in a fever, I know we did and I consider myself lucky that we have lasted this long.

I think, like lots of us who married in the 60/70s, the wedding was more about what was 'right' than what we wanted or if your mother was Mrs Bucket it certainly was!

So, we had top hat and tails, long white dress, sit down reception with all the people my Mum wanted to impress. Mum made the cake and had it iced, I had one bridesmaid and DH's brother was banned from wearing the top hat and tails because his mardy wife hadn't had them at her wedding!!!

And, my brother almost came on honeymoon with us because he got on the train to say goodbye and it started to move out of the station.

As I say, I'm not quite sure how we made it to 46+ years, but we have!

The best wedding I've been to lately was organised in two weeks as the couple were moving to China. All the guests chipped in. They were married in a Registry Office. A friend provided a garden, another a small tent in case of rain, I picked up some food in the supermarket, another did a BBQ. The Brides sister took photos, others hired glasses and bought wine. We had a great day.

We were married in a village church, my father paid for everything ,this was only eight months after one of my sisters had married but he wanted this for us . No disagreements on guests, only stress was finding a deep cream wedding gown because I wouldn't/couldn't wear white. We married in January so because we wanted to take communion it made the service longer and the guests got rather cold ! The children in the village tied the Lychgate so we had to throw money to have the gate untied. The reception was in a hotel three miles from the village which was lovely . We left the hotel and drove eighty miles to our new home , unpacking the car we found my mother had packed my hot water bottle !

We had 8 years, 1 month and 1 day of a very happy marriage

We got married in the husbands local town hall in Frederiksberg, on the outskirts of Copenhagen. It was 25' on the 1st October so the mother didn't need the big heavy coat she'd dragged over!
I just wore a smart dress from Monsoon.

As we had to do the deed at 11am (just the ways things work over there) we went for a brunch at a nearby restaurant ... only invited immediate family, I think about 14 of us altogether.

With it being such a beautiful day, we went home to change into normal clothes and took everyone from my family sightseeing in the afternoon.

We came home here a couple of days later and set off on honeymoon to Mauritius the next day.

This was the 2nd wedding, for the first we just went and did it with 2 witnesses and told everyone later.

I had known my OH for 6 months when he was posted to Cyprus so we got engaged. 9 months later when he came back we got married in church, white wedding and 3 older bridesmaids, one 3yr old and a page boy. All in blue. It was a beautiful day, seeing as it was October! My father walked me down the aisle. We missed half of our reception and also missed the train to take us on honeymoon so FIL rushed us in his car to catch it at the next stop. Our guest house lady met us at 1am at the station and took us to the guest house and in the morning she knocked on the door and walked in with two bowls of cornflakes...! Our son was born 9 months later. When the wedding photos came I was horrified to see that on every one of me I was holding an 'L' plate that someone had sneaked in to my hand.....I was not amused! Lucky for me now my son has photo-shopped that out and I have one of OH and me and one with my bridesmaids and one of me on my own without the 'L' plate in a frame which he presented for my birthday.

We have been married nearly 50 years. There were 8 of us at St Pancras Town Hall. No parents. Our friends came back to us for champagne and cake. My husband says he paid 14/9d for the licence. It was Easter Saturday and I went back to work on the Tuesday. I would be too embarrassed to say how much my son and daughter in law paid for their wedding!

My DH to be and I paid for our wedding. My parents were separated and I hadn't seen my father and mum couldn't afford to contribute and my in-laws to be had just bought their first house in their 50s and were struggling financially. We were married in the local church. My MiL made mine and the bridesmaid's dresses. We hired my old school hall with a bar run by willing aunts and uncles. We had a sit down buffet as we couldn't afford a hot meal and a big knees up in the evening. It was a wonderful day full of family and friends. With the deposit for a small flat and the cost of the wedding, there wasn't any money left for a honeymoon but, having never 'played house' before, it was a lovely time off work. Mind you,in the 46 years since, we've been lucky enough to have enough lovely holidays to make up for it.

Forgot to mention the photo of my little 4yr old pageboy peeping underneath my dress as we walked up the aisle. The beautiful wedding cake was made by the RAF Chef, our wedding reception being held in the Mess; and also that as I had hired my gown my sister took that back to the shop, plus the veil and head dress I had bought myself as a keepsake. They never owned up and I never saw them again. My flowers were sent to the wrong address, but they knew who we were so they made them re-deliver to my Mum and Dad's house. Half a century later we are still together and enjoying life with our 3 sons and 5 grandchildren. We feel so lucky.

I was ill and had been in hospital for six weeks, getting out about 10 days before the wedding. We had a registry office wedding. My husband-to-be had had terrible rows with his parents all the time we were dating, because he is Indian and I'm white. They were absolutely opposed to our relationship. So he didn't tell anyone he was getting married - just put on his best suit, picked up his camera and walked out of the house. They didn't find out till we returned from our (very brief but lovely) honeymoon 3 days later.

I had a very simple white dress and a bouquet of roses made by my mum and my auntie. We invited about 30 of our closest friends and family, and the reception was at the (extremely grotty) house we'd just bought. My sister ran a small catering company and did us a fantastic buffet as her gift to us. It was a lovely, relaxed atmosphere with no formality. We didn't have any speeches except a short one made by me, thanking everyone for coming and thanking my mum most of all. (She had supported us through everything, and given us the deposit for our house. My dad had died 2 years earlier.) Then Mum and I both burst into tears...

But it was a wonderful day and I still remember it happily, as we approach our Ruby Wedding next year.

I asked for the word 'obey' to be left out of the vows - it was optional in the 1960s.
However, the vicar included the dreaded word!
I didn't know whether to stop the service or just carry on.

I carried on, said the offending word but have ignored it ever since.

I've worked in the wedding industry for over 45 years ,weddings aren't about getting married anymore they're about putting on a bigger more expensive show then any of your friends,the add ons ,like photo booths ,ice cream carts ,seat covers,table "diamonds,popcorn cones for guests to eat DURING the service have become more and more ridiculous.We met in july 74 got married in july 75,in a church because my parents said a registry office was like a dog license ...lol.My abiding memory is my lovely dad in the car on the way to church saying,"if you have any doubts we'll get the driver to turn round and go home and we'll never mention it again" He and my mum had been friends from they were 12 and married when they were in their 20's so a year seemingly wasn't long enough to be sure.We've been married AND worked together every day now for 41 years ...no regrets

There is a programme not TV where the children arrange the parents wedding. The 9 year old daughter of friends wanted to go on the programme, but the parents refused. They did however tell her she could plan the wedding provided it was low-key. No dancing, no presents and no speeches, as they are both painfully shy. She sent them off to the Registar Office with the Grandparents only, for the ceremony. The husband is a Forest Ranger and with the help of all of their friends and family, the daughter had decorated the Forest around their home with fairy lights, photos and garlands. Every guest bought something to eat or drink instead of a present.

When they returned a barbecue was set up in the garden, tables laden with food and drink and trestles set up In the forest. They were so overwhelmed they even managed to make a speech.

Some truly heartwarming stories here. I feel all tingly.

Tingly is good?

Alf and I got engaged when I was 18, he had only just started a new job with Customs & Excise and came home a few weeks later with the news that his job was going to be moved to Southend (we lived in Liverpool). Alf said that married couples would be given assistance to move but single officers would be expected to fund the move themselves so he asked me about arranging a wedding date. Next morning we went to the Register Office and Alf asked for the next available date. The Registrar checked and mentioned a 09:30 slot was available. Alf (jokingly) remarked that he'd still be in bed then and asked for a later time. The Registrar muttered something under his breath and then said 11:00 1st February. Alf replied 'That will do' and that was that. I bought my dress and jacket from Littlewoods Mail Order where I was working, a colleague ordered it as she got 25% staff discount (I was only entitled to 10%), I borrowed the bridesmaid dress from a friend who had married recently and she also loaned me her cake pillars. I made flowered skull caps for myself and my bridesmaid and my bouquet and her posy. I baked my own wedding cake and made all the buttonholes too. My sister loaned us her house for our reception and I paid for a buffet from Sayers. Alf paid for the taxi to take me to the Register Office, the drinks for the reception and our week in Blackpool (I had booked a self catering flat that a friend had been to on her honeymoon a few months before). I think we worked out we spent about £150 in total, Alf's new suit was bought by his parents as a wedding gift. We were together for 23 years until he sadly passed away.

We met on holiday in Italy, had long distance relationship for a year then he moved to be near me ❤
We married in the local church where I was Christened. I had his sister and mine as bridesmaids in purple dresses made by my mum they wore white floppy hats (very '70s) . I had the long white dress with train bought by mum and a veil and flowered headdress borrowed from his older sister. I arrived at the church in a Daimler hired from the local funeral directors We had a sit down three course meal at the Conservative Club followed by a disco where I danced the night away with my mates. The cake was three tier and made by a local baker. It was all paid for by mum n dad. Two of H's aunts got drunk and were sick and then went back to the booze
We didn't have a honeymoon as we had put all our money into buying and decorating our first two up two down house.
It was a reasonably modest affair compared to some these days but back then I would have said it was a "nice" (sorry to use the word) wedding. We've been married 41 yrs.

We married in 73
Told our parents it was a small do and not to come. Registry office and 2 witnesses. Lunch afterwards then he a d I went to cinema to see woody aliens everything you wanted to know about sex but didn't like to ask! Not the there was much we didn't know as we had lived together for nearly 2 years. I wasn't pregnant just hate big celebrations. Don't think my mum ever forgave me but I told .y own daughter I wouldn't mind if she did the same.

This really is a lovely thread. Thank you for starting it Flossieturner .

Reading some of the happy but sad stories makes me wonder about the phrase "is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?"