Continuing from last week's marriage theme, I thought we'd fast forward 27 years and take a look at my own wedding day in September 1986.
In contrast to my parents relatively short courtship (see previous post), our's lasted 7 years. By the time we got round to tying the knot, my husband Lloyd was 26 and I was 25. Given this long period I'd clearly had years to think or even fantasise about how I wanted my wedding day to pan out, but beyond knowing that the colour pink would feature and that there would have to be roses and a yellow and black vintage car to take me and Dad to the church (inspired by the film
Genevieve about
The London To Brighton Veteran Car Run), I had no grand plan, so basically made it up as I went along.
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| Me and dad off to the church in the yellow and black Vintage Rolls Royce |
My original intention had been to hold my wedding reception at
Porchester Hall (Bayswater). I knew the building well as I had learnt to swim in the adjoining baths. Seduced by the wood panelled walls and crystal chandeliers in this stunning Victorian venue, I could picture myself and my future husband having our photographs taken on the main staircase; a vision of glamour and elegance. But this wasn't to be, the hall was already booked and our options were limited. So we were left with
The Sidings Community Centre in
West Hampstead; the place where one of my sisters had held her wedding reception the previous year. Not the prettiest of venues inside it has to be said, a typical community hall with gym markings on the floor and ugly prison like grey brick walls. But the facilities were good, there was plenty of parking, pretty gardens for photographs and more importantly just up the road from my parents house in
Kensal Rise; vital for ferrying food to the hall as quickly as possible. Mum with help from my brothers and sisters would be doing all the catering. Reckless you may think, but in the years that had passed since mum's own wedding day she had managed to build up a varied and impressive repertoire of dishes, our family celebrations particularly the buffets were now legendary, there was never any question of hiring outside caterers.
The weeks went by and not only was mum busy buying anything that she could in preparation for the vast wedding buffet, she also took it upon herself to carry out the alterations to my wedding dress.
This massive job involved taking the dress apart completely, cutting out various inches of fabric to fit my tiny frame and then sewing it all back together again; a real labour of love. Looking at the dress with it's scalloped hem and V shaped waistline, you would wonder how on earth she had managed it, but she did and it was perfect (remember this was the 80s the
Lady Di effect and all that!).
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| Me and mum and that dress |
I had also set my heart on pink tablecloths which were to go on the smaller round tables for the guests to sit at. I probably could have hired them from somewhere, although there were very few companies around and of course no internet. But once again mum was having none of it; she spent weeks going to
Portobello Market, buying up old white sheets which she cut into rounds, hemmed and then dyed a beautiful shade of pink, I think she must have made around ten of them.
My mother in law also wanted to be involved with the arrangements so asked if she could organise the wedding cake and flowers for the guest tables. I had no idea what the cake would be like because I left it up to her to decide, but I knew she would go for something unique.When she bought the wedding cake round to my parents house the week before the wedding I wasn't disappointed. Rather than go for the traditional round or square tiered (with pillars) cakes that were popular at that time, she'd chosen a cake in the shape of three different sized bells finished in
Royal Icing and decorated with
Sugar Flowers. They were presented on a specially made stand which I covered in pink tulle netting.
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| My wedding cake, the three bells and a small section of the dessert table |
Even my grand-mother who was about 83 at the time wanted to get in on the act. She was enlisted to do the little tags for my wedding favours. She cut out little cards with pinking shears, punched a little hole in each, threaded with ribbon and then wrote our names and date of marriage on each one in her beautiful handwriting.
There was only one disagreement and that was over
'Jellied Eels'. You see my husband's family are from the
East End of London. Over the years I had attended many weddings on his side of the family and knew that the eels, together with the awful plastic basins they were presented in were part and parcel of their family celebrations. In fact his grand-mother, Doris (or Doll); a typical east end matriarch, a lovely lady but someone you really didn't want to cross, told me in no uncertain terms that there would have to be jellied eels, and to go with them, brown vinegar and pepper. I had a job convincing mum at first; her reputation in jeopardy by these fishy interlopers, but in the end she accepted my pleas and the eels were in.
The community centre didn't have it's own bar so drinks were bought on sale or return from my husband's uncle who ran an off-licence in
Chingford , we had a full bar with
'Veuve Du Vernay' for the toast and at dad's request, bottles of red and white wine on each table; there were no returns.
The hall was arranged with the main buffet table down the centre and the desserts and wedding cake and favours along the top in the shape of a T (did you think dessert tables were something new?). There were the round tables with the pink cloths for the guests to sit at and a separate table for the children decked out in tableware featuring whatever the character of the day was, I can't quite remember. The bar was located in a separate room where there was another table displaying a selection of seafood. A beautifully dressed salmon from
Scotts of
Mount Street (courtesy of my sister's godfather
Eugenio, who was chief oysterman there at the time), sat cheek to cheek with the bowls of jellied eels, plates of prawns, smoked salmon and a variety of molluscs. It's taken me 27 years to see what mum did here; very clever.
I had no balloons or bunting or paper pom poms or fairy lights, there were no chair covers or large centrepieces; just the little floral arrangements organised by my mother in law. I had asked that the main buffet table be decorated with a pink tulle swag and fresh pink roses, which had been beautifully done by my friend and chief bridesmaid Karen. When I stepped into hall for the first time the ugly features in the room faded into the background and all I saw was the table laid out with this amazing buffet, I actually said "Wow!". Mum and dad, brothers, sisters and other family and friends had worked so hard and really pulled out all the stops. Sadly this photo (below) only shows part of the table, it continued for another few feet, but just to illustrate what was here I would like to list the dishes as far as I can remember. Bear in mind that most wedding buffets at this time would have consisted of a couple of plates of sandwiches, sausage rolls a green salad (no dressing)), ham and a few chicken bits. A lot of these dished were made up from scratch, with many of the salads consisting of a number of ingredients. See below.
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| A section of the buffet table in the main hall with pink cloths in background |
Meats
Roast and sliced Beef, Pork, Turkey, Ham, plus accompanying sauces, chutneys.
Roast Chicken pieces
Cocktail sausages
Chorizo,Salami
Paté
Salads
Rice, Potato, Pasta, Green, Bean, Curried Fruit, Coleslaw and Russian which I will talk about in a future post.Crudités and dips.
Eggs
Eggs Mayonnaise (hard boiled, halved and dressed with mayo, sprinkling of cayenne)
Spanish Omelettes (Potato, onion, egg)
Scotch Eggs
Pastry
Quiche
Veal and Ham Pie
Pork Pies
Sausage Rolls
There was also bowls of Coronation Chicken and rice that had also been prepared by the chef at Scotts Restaurant. Having panned in on the photograph once it was scanned in I can also see a large lasagne that was made by a friend at my work.
Cheese and Biscuits, French Bread, Crisps, Olives, Nuts
The fish bar which I spoke about earlier and the dessert table with a selection of shop bought gateaux, cheesecakes, fruit and the wedding cake. Interestingly no sandwiches.
A couple of years ago, we visited the home of one of my husband's old workmates, he and his wife had been guests at our wedding. On the table in the sitting room were some photographs that he had taken on the day. They weren't pictures of us or the many other friends that had also attended, they were pictures of the buffet. He picked them up for us to look at saying that it was
'the best food, I have ever had at a wedding' considering that 25 years had passed and he still remembered I took that as a real compliment and of course, he wasn't wrong.
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| Me, hubby and the caterers ; mum, dad, brothers and sisters |
Ps. Our wedding song was 'Stuck On You' by Lionel Ritchie. In the summer of 2001 we visited New York with our two children.Walking along the road we came across a crowd of people just by Central Park watching Lionel Ritchie playing that very song; you couldn't make it up.
Text Copyright Antoinette Satchell 2014
