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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Janette Waller of Renfrewshire Libraries on behalf of Marjory MacArthur and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

In 1945 the war in Europe ended but my husband was a Pipe Major and was to spend the next year touring Europe and playing at various celebratory events. He came home on leave and we got engaged, planning to marry as soon as he was demobbed. I had always wanted a white wedding, even if I had to cut a hole in a white sheet and hang it over my head!

A family friend in Canada said that she had an old white dress that I could use for my wedding. It was chiffon with a nice pattern, and we took it to a dressmaker. There was enough material to make a skirt and sleeves, but not enough for the body. I had a cousin who worked in a finishing mill in Alexandria and she supplied a length of ivory satin, which was enough for the top and underskirt. My aunt was recently married and lent me her veil and headdress. My girlfriend’s dad could get shoes painted any colour. I had a pair of navy blue sandals and he took them and painted them white. My fiancé Donald managed to get me a pair of silk stockings from somewhere in the black-market in Germany, and that completed my bridal outfit!

I wanted a proper wedding cake, but that was going to be difficult because it was during rationing. However, relatives from Canada sent dried fruit, tinned butter and icing sugar. A friend who was a baker undertook to make me a lovely iced cake. My mother knew a family who lived in a smallholding near the Red Smiddy. They kept hens and so they supplied the eggs. My fiancé’s cousin was at college in Aberdeen and she found a shop that sold wedding favours. I was absolutely delighted with my traditional rich wedding cake.

The wedding was at the Templar Halls in Paisley, but they couldn’t supply any meat for the meal. Lots of friends supplied the meat from their allocation of rationing, and we managed to have steak pie for the wedding guests. My fiancé spoke to his friends in the officers’ mess, and they contributed drinks for the reception. We also had what we thought was proper champagne, but we later found out it was sparkling German wine — but it was just as good as the real thing!

I had a lovely white wedding and a very happy life with my husband Donald. We were married for 44 years until his untimely death in 1990. Nowadays when I hear a bride-to-be saying how much stress is involved in planning a wedding, I always smile when I recall my own white wedding.

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