On the 18th July 1953 I woke up to find my hair had sort of gone straight. Frantic call to my regular hairdresser in Perth who said "come in right now". Wonderful lady that she was shampooed and set my hair so it still looked natural and said she had seen this type of thing happen before to ladies with curly or wavy hair and put it down to nerves affecting the hair itself. I've heard that your hair can depict your healthl so she was probably quite correct in her diagnosis. Problem solved efficiently and nothing more to worry about. Val and Wilma arrived at our place early afternoon and we all got dressed in our finery and of course admired each other before heading off to the big event.
These photos were taken at home before leaving for the church. With my mum and dad:
and with my bridesmaid Wilma Longwood and matron of honour Val Page. The girls' dresses were made of pink broderie anglaise and they both looked very beautiful.
At 5pm on 18th July, 1953 dad and I arrived at St George's Cathedral in Perth:
As Aubrey was not a church goer and I'd fallen out with the clergyman at North Perth (several years earlier he had asked me to teach Sunday School at his church and when I declined he was quite rude about it. He later became the Bishop of Bunbury, a town in our southwest). The Rev. Dean Moore had both christened and confirmed me when I was 12-13 years old and he was always very popular with the young people so he was my first choice to perform the marriage ceremony for us and so the cathedral it was. We of course had banns read at North Perth and for some reason Mt Hawthorn and the clergyman at Mt Hawthorn, whom we didn't even know, charged us for reading the banns but Rev. Hawkins at North Perth did not charge us). This is the cathedral, inside and out:
This was taken outside the cathedral after the service. At the back is my brother Len and on the right his wife Jean. The two little girls are their daughters Wendy and Penelope and on the left is Jean's older sister Jessie and Jessie's son Murray. (Penny is now 65 Wendy 63 and Murray 74).
This is the bridal group back at the house after the service: Owen and Val Page, Aubrey and me, Wilma Longwood and her fiance Jim Dachtler.
Two of our friends we had first met at the ANA Yacht Club were Betty and Roy (Slim) Harper and it was Roy that raised the toast to the bride and groom. Slim was a real character and Betty a lovely person and we continued to see them quite frequently after our marriage. Unfortunately, as if often the case, we eventually lost touch with them.
and this is me with my mother-in-law Grace Currie and my mum.
After an enjoyable meal there was dancing and then supper. While folk enjoyed their supper Aub and I went to get changed before leaving on our honeymoon. I've already shown my going away outfit that my mother-in-law had made. I, of course, did the traditional thing and threw my bridal bouquet to the unmarried girls present and it was caught by Gwen who later married Ian Moore (a friend of Aub's from their childhood). Theirs was a marriage that unfortunately didn't last and Ian lost his battle with illness way back in 1995 when he was only 63.
Aub and I finally got away and headed for Yanchep where we were booked in for a week at the Yanchep Inn. We had borrowed Aub's step-dad's car and the 60km drive was fortunately quite uneventful. Yanchep at that time was 'way out in the bush' and when we arrived the Inn was in darkness. Apparently to conserve power it was their policy to turn all lights out at either 11pm or midnight (can't remember exactly what time we arrived but it would have been quite late) so it was with the help of torches and candles that we found our room and we at least able to unpack some items before going to bed. I think perhaps the Inn had its own power generators back thenso they would be anxious to keep power consumption at a minimum.
This is the Yanchep Inn as it is today but, apart from much refurbishment inside, it looks very little different on the outside. Yanchep Park is a beautiful place to visit at any time. We had a wonderful week there, the meals were excellent and the other guests were very nice. My memory has let me down here too as I don't remember if Jim and Grace came up with friends on the Sunday to retrieve Jim's car or if we had it for the week. I don't recall us doing much, if any, driving while at Yanchep so perhaps members of the family came and collected us to take us back home. I guess some minor items are forgotten after 60+ years.
Next post: We begin our married life together.
