My Auntie Jean's story

Weddings in the War
If you were going to a wedding friends and neighbours would rally round and lend you things. I had a Russian "Cossack" style hat that was loaned for funerals and weddings (for Grandmas). I also loaned a nice pair of sandals made of grossgrain material, a white prayer book and a white wax orange blossom tiara for anyone getting married. Best dresses were also loaned for Christenings. When my son Brian was born in 1943 all the older ladies in Kirby Cross and Lower Kirby had kept their Christening robes and I was offered 28 sets!
My sister-in-law and I helped with village weddings. We used sheets for tablecloths, the Bride and Groom's families would pinch and scrape to combine rations and give it to us to provide food for the Reception. We used the top of the milk to shake in a jar to make butter and every bit of fat was drizzled down to make dripping for pastry. I once made 36 sausage rolls out of three quarters of a pound of sausage meat - put on a plate with a pot of mustard and the menfolk thought it was wonderful! The wedding cake was a cardboard one that was used to advertise in the Baker's shop. We used that - in the back was a tiny door and a small cake would be put inside as dired fruit was hard to come by. Often we managed to find a bit of marzipan and borrowed decorations. This looked real enough in the photographs.
Often the couple had a lovely load of presents, people tried to find something. A "Beatrice" double burner paraffin stove with a tin oven that fitted on top was a popular present and they worked very well. The hottest part was at the bottom - so chops at the bottom and potatoes at the top. Many people would use the open fire to cook potatoes in the ashes and I had bricks in front of the fire to hold a kettle and a saucepan.
One thing about the weddings that made me sad was that many had saved and waited for their men to come home on leave and then they returned and didn't come home again.

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