12.7.15

The day I got married and didn't wear white

I blogged about my marriage proposal a few days ago and when conversation with some online friends turned to wedding dresses it seemed appropriate for me to do a follow up post.

I was married in the early 90s and I did not wear a wedding dress. I'm not the sort for flouncy and feminine, and wasn't confident that I could pull off the sultry and sexy, slinky look, dresses just aren't me (no one mention festival ballgowns - that's something I only discovered in my 40s). My mum and dad lived abroad and Mr TM didn't want a big wedding. He wanted to be married to me - but is not a fan of huge parties. I think I was lucky he didn't suggest we elope and have no party at all!

Also I was quite 'unconventional' even then. (surprise!) I liked a mix of hip-hop, and heavy metal music with a large splash of what we'd now call emo and some new romantic stuff too. So when I was deciding what to wear for my wedding I knew I didn't want a big flouncy white dress (wedding dresses in the late 80s and early 90s were VERY big) At first I thought about just a black wedding dress but they were really expensive and I've always been cheap (stop sniggering at the back) in the end I settled on traditional English hunting attire. I bought a red jacket (which I still own and wear) at a clothing sale where models sold off the clothes they no longer wanted after a photo shoot, I think I paid £5. I already owned a long black skirt and some black thigh-high boots, I bought a wing collar shirt and a hat with a tiny black veil. Sorted.

Remember how cheap I am? As we were only inviting 10 close friends we decided to have our reception at Pizza Express. They kindly reserved the entire upstairs for us (no extra charge) decorated it with banners and balloons and streamers (no extra charge) and even all signed a card for us! We just asked that we could order anything from the menu and they should keep bringing wine and champagne and that we'd pay afterwards. It was the best and cheapest wedding reception I've been to!

My grandma made our cake too - so that was free (and extremely tasty!) Here she is with me before the reception. (sadly my grandma died while I was pregnant with DD so she never met her - but that's a whole other story)


And here is the cake she made, and the bouquet she made too - with silk flowers, so I still have it.


and here (finally) a picture of Mr TM and I cutting the cake.



My wedding day, over 20 years ago. Does it all look terribly dated? Yes I think it does, but it was a super day, and we had great fun, and here we still are over 20 years later.

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