Today is our 60th wedding anniversary! I don’t think I would recognise me if I met me in a street. 60 years is astonishing. A wonderfully weird wedding. My father-in-law gave me away because my parents lived in New Zealand. My cousin’s vicar husband married us.
We did not have cars because the reception was just across the road from the church. I had made my sister’s November wedding dress which I altered for my day. I made the bridesmaid’s dress, my mother-in-law’s complete outfit including her hat. With the help of the In-laws I made the cake and decorated it.
Charles had to leave the house (I was living with his family before the wedding) to practise his and his best man’s speech. He was so nervous he ended up stealing Harry’s speech. No idea what Harry said instead. We caught a train to South Wales but stopped for a one-night ‘honeymoon’ in Birmingham. I wonder how many people choose Birmingham for their honeymoon?
And that was the beginning of our life together. We have been partners in everything, love, work, play, creativity and everything else between, including sparing with verbal badinage occasionally – well it would not be natural not to have the occasional spat! So here we are looking so young and innocent – never imagining the incredibly interesting and varied life we were embarking on. A shy secretary and a physicist dressing some of the most exotic women in the world. I still can’t believe it myself how the twists and turns of our life have taken us on a rollercoaster ride.
