Four weddings and another one

It's been physically and emotionally tough this week to pack up Granny K and all her belongings for her move to aged (hostel) care.  Alongside all that we've had to get her townhouse ready for sale too.   There's been lots of opportunities to be reminded of things past.....This selection of photos, framed proudly (if a little wonkily) on her bookcase tells a story - about us but also about family life over the last half century.

Exciting news from the UK this week also made us turn our minds to the anticipation of another family wedding in the next year or so (more on that later).

This is Granny K (Mum) and Dad on their wedding day in Brisbane on 20th September 1941 just before the war was really starting to heat up for countries in close proximity to Asia.  Betty was 27 when she married and Dad was 26.  Their wedding outfits were very elegant, and good quality, but they reflected the prevailing mood of wartime austerity. Dorothy Coleman was a well known studio photographer in Brisbane at the time.
  

Twenty six years later on the 25th November 1967 Maxine (my sister) married Rod at St Andrew's Church in South Brisbane. Ros and I were their bridesmaids, and looked very fetching in powder blue satin with upswept hair dos (lots of teasing and hairspray).  The 60s social revolution had not really hit families like ours so Maxine and Rod's wedding was still quite traditional - although Maxine had tried to introduce some personal expression by designing and making THE DRESS (and the veil).  Maxine was a week off 21 years old when she married Rod (who was 21 himself by then).

Forty years ago in 1972 we were married in the Catholic church on Annerley Road on a hot January day (the 8th) in Brisbane.  I was twenty years old at the time and Rob was three days off being 21.  The 60s social revolution had even hit Brisbane by now but not much of it influenced our wedding.  There were a few informal touches (that Carly Simon style hat was considered very daring) and my dress, the colour of Rob's shirt and the length of his hair were all a bit hippy inspired but apart from that our wedding was mostly what our families at that time expected it to be.  We didn't have a professional photographer and relied on friends and families for their "happy snaps".

Then, in 1978 on the 4th March, Ros married Pete in a beautiful sub-tropical garden setting in Sunnybank in Brisbane.  They had a marriage celebrant and a casual buffet style reception under marquees in the garden...no veils, no trains, no professional photographers, not even a tie for Pete.  Ros was 19 when she married Pete.  Pete was just twenty. I remember really enjoying Ros and Pete's wedding! 

Mum in particular found it hard to cope with all the changes that the sixties and seventies brought to the family and society in general but even she was happy with and supportive of the choices Ros and Pete made for their wedding and everything after that.

We were all so young!!! It's an absolute miracle we've all made our marriages work the way they have....they've stood the test of time.

I do envy our kids though who've never felt the pressure to marry quite so young and who were left pretty much to choose whenever and however they wanted to do it, and even IF they wanted to do it all.  Whatever they choose to do Davey and Cath will do it beautifully I know. We can't wait to be a part of it too!