40 years ago today...

MARRIED AT LEICESTER

Miss Marea Lynn Tailby of 14 Barrington Road, Stoneygate, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Tailby, of 12 Nithsdale Avenue, Market Harborough, and Mr. James Michael John Roberts, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. E. Roberts, of 207 Mere Road, Leicester, were married at Holy Cross Priory Church, New Walk, Leicester.

The ceremony was conducted by Father Mulvey. The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a full length white Empire line dress in pure silk choffon, with full peasant sleeves gathered into armbands at the elbow.

The armbands were made of velvet and decorated with pink and white flowers. Her hair was decorated with pink and white flowers.

She carried a bouquet of mixed white spring flowers.

The bridesmaid was Miss Julie Roberts (bridegroom's sister), who wore a white broderie anglaise mid-calf length dress, gathered into a pink sash at the waist, and ankle length pantaloons, trimmed with frills.

She also wore a white satin poke bonnet and carried a posy of pink flowers....

Forty years ago today, Marea and I were married, so today is our ruby wedding anniversary, and yes, I have bought her rubies.

Christmas 1968 was cold and bright; snow had fallen and there was a cold wind.

Getting married at Christmas wasn't easy; we had great difficulty getting flowers and a wedding car was almost impossible. I did a deal with Mann Egerton (high end car dealer on London Road, Leicester) to dress their Christmas window, which was to have the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in it, in return for a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and driver to take us from Leicester to the reception at Market Harborough.

I created a huge shocking pink melinex parcel with a gigantic bow from which the car spilled out onto the sales floor. A couple of days before Christmas there was no confirmation that we would get car and driver, so I rang the Managing Director and said I would send him a bill for 20 guineas (£21) for dressing his window. This was enough of a threat, and he confirmed that we would have car and driver for the 27th December. (£21 may not seem a large amount of money, but I was earning about £10.50 a week in those days.)

We left that evening for London, dined at a 'Golden Egg' and took a coach down to Lymne and a D68 to Paris for a 4-day honeymoon. Paris was also frozen, but magical. We stayed just off Montmartre and had the time of our lives.

I'm now going off to get ready for dinner at Stapleford Hall so perhaps I will write more tomorrow.