Langy's story is very entertaining and beautifully told - especially when followed by his later post-script.
It's over 48 years since we were wed, and I don't remember much of the details, only the uncertainties I felt at the time. One thing I do recall is that I had a suit made to measure by Alkit's (specialist in Colonial and military outfit) of Cambridge Circus in London for £24. That was almost more than I could afford in those days, but I made up for it using my best white shirt with an old clip-on dicky bow, I'd bought in Brum some years before. I've just looked through the old wedding pics, and found the photos below. The one of us on the right shows our gear, and on the left are some of Barbara's close family (mother on left, sisters on right), and friends. You will see that - as was the custom in Berlin in those days -
the elderly ladies wore fur stoles. One of them seems very interested in the message my sister-in-law seems to be texting. She was the kind old lady who subsidised the reception, which was held in the family house, with a hired chef and asistant, and the cleaning lady from over the border in Potsdam, who was always glad for a bit of hard currency, and was a good worker. She looked very smart in her East German equivalent of a
'nippy's' uniform, too.
As all this took place in West Berlin, and we had thirteen cases and boxes of Barbara's stuff plus wedding prezzies to take back with us to London, we decided to just disappear for a couple of nights to a quiet suburban hotel just down the road from the church.
I had a bit of experience in this sort of thing, as I had been best man at my father's wedding just over two years earlier, because my mother had died young at 46, so he remarried, and they had 15 years together before he died.
Peter
