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Birmingham weddings of the past

David that is priceless and I so enjoyed it.

Maybe you are right about expensive weddings Chris, we have been married 40 years this year and ours wasn't expensive. We got married at St Andrews and had the reception at the New Inns. Wish I could remember how much it was but we paid for it ourselves I know. The whole thing was not very expensive. Mo
 
Langy:
I really had a bit of a laugh when I read your story about your brother's wedding. The photo without the Groom is priceless...but hey that's what makes the story special. I expect he got a bit mixed up at the time but was sort of following your instructions once you donned your professional photographers hat as it were.....all that power over those wedding guests. Thank goodness that you had a camera and were able to record the usual photographs at the wedding. Looks like things got a little bit out of hand in the effort to have a really great day and events mushroomed as the planning went on.
On the day "events" were happening to delay the proceedings at the reception. I loved the part when Paul turned up with the bags full of
Asda "end of day" bargains. What are mice on sticks? I'm having a giggle
at the possibilities although I am sure they are delicious.
The day was memorable indeed and sounds like a good time was had by all.

I haven't been to a wedding where a fight broke out but I have been to a wedding where the bride's family spent the whole reception hidden away in one room and the groom's family in another and no words were spoken. Very odd but memorable to be sure.

Thanks for posting Langy......One thing...Why was the car going to the breaker's yard?
 
Your Mom's list is so interesting Wendy but that would have been a lot of money in 1940. It must have been fascinating finding all that information. What a pity we didn't all do that when we got married or even if we did make sure we kept it in a safe place. Great thread Wendy. Mo
 
Jennyann

The mice on stick term refers to Thai chicken pieces on skewers they are so tiny they look like mice on sticks, The car was returned to the breakers yard because that is where it was borrowed from for the day.

I've been to several expensive weddings since being exiled to Yorkshire but this one was the nicest, much fun had by all and everyone chipped in to help them out a real friends and family occasion. The bride and groom held hands throughout the day and still do it's sickening to see them sit so close after four years.
 
It's a little sad that my Dad died when Mom was only fifty she said she would never love again, she died at 86. Perhaps this is why she kept these things.
 
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
 
It's very uplifting to hear the stories of the weddings and to discuss the differences between the 1940's and today. I really enjoy reading this post. Can't add much as I've never married. We have a rule in my family that each generation has to have two old maids. In my generation it's my older sister and me. The next generation, my niece just turned 38 and is still unmarried. I guess some traditions are hard to break..LOL

Norma
 
taxi.jpgI ALL
just come across this receipt from my late inlaws wedding .June 6 1931. 2 cars and a photographer for 30 bob ,the reception was
most likely held in some ones front room. Happy days


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Brilliant piece of family history. Some still do have "ordinary" weddings with a pub reception but not many.
 
I do think wedding have been hijacked into an expensive day by the commercial organisations. All sold under the guise of ‘it has to be the best day of your life’; so does it all go down hill from there on?

I got married almost ten years ago, and it was our intention to have an ‘ordinary’ wedding, and we did.

Jeans and tee shirt to get married, quite a simple ceremony, then we took the guests to a fish and chip cafe, no expense spared; it was areally nice ‘ordinary’ wedding.

I have been noticing some of the wedding photos on the forum have been taken in back gardens, how nice.
 
My/our wedding reception was in our house. The second best one I've been to was in the garden of the Black Eagle in Hockley. On the other hand my daughter was a bride's maid at a wedding where the bride's dress cost over £5000! Of course, Asian weddings, of which I've been to a couple of, are in a different league altogether and £50,000 in costs is nothing out of the ordinary.
 
We had our wedding reception at Burlington Street School, self catered by my mother and friends and relatives. This was very common at the time - 1957.

In contrast my son was best man at his friends wedding in Lake Garda which cost well over £40,000 about 5 years ago.
 
i got married in a white suit at the holy family church 1966 i went in a taxi with my dad and came home on the no 58 bus we had a small do in the house and went to the maltshovel pub conventy rd on the night
my moms words to me was every bride remembers their wedding day but remember it is all the years after that count
 
i got married in a white suit at the holy family church 1966 i went in a taxi with my dad and came home on the no 58 bus...
Bet that brought you down to earth then. :culpability: Start off as you mean to carry on, eh?
 
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