Wartime Weddings

One of my wartime memories as a small child is of a young lady, standing on our kitchen table, with my mother and aunt pinning up the hem of her wedding dress.

She was one of several Wrens and Waafs who passed through our house at Maker in SE Cornwall on similar missions. Many of them had to marry at short notice because either they or their fiancé was about to be posted. My father, the local Vicar seemed able to obtain special licenses for them and in his preparation talk always enquired whether the bride had a dress as they were hard to come by with shortages and clothes rationing. Invariably the answer was “no”, so he was pleased to offer them the loan of my mother’s wedding dress for the day.

This inevitably required a fitting and instant letting out or taking in of seams and ups and downs with the hems. Her headdress, veil and sometimes the shoes were also used; and my father always provided a bouquet of seasonal flowers from the Vicarage garden. If our very willing organist was unable to make it because of travelling restrictions, he would also play the organ for the service. There were many happy occasions as a result of my parents’ unstinting generosity.

It would be interesting to know if there are any of these happy brides who have a photograph of themselves in this workhorse of a dress!

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