July 3, 1948, was a fine day for a wedding. The sun was shining in Toronto, with a temperature of 26°C (79°F). On that summer day, 72 years ago, my parents began their life together.
Unlike today, no official wedding photographer would have been hired to document the occasion. But a recently discovered packet of black-and-white negatives revealed a collection of random snapshots of my parents’ wedding day and reception, a wonderful complement to their few formal studio portraits.
The ceremony took place at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, an Anglican church on Westmoreland Avenue in Toronto. The casual shots below were captured outside the church.
Studio portraits were typical at the time and often the only photo documentation of a couple’s marriage.
Descriptive wedding announcements were often published in the local newspaper. This item, from the Toronto Star of July 6, 1948, was typical in focusing on the fashion choices of the bride, her attendant and both mothers. Not a word about what the men were wearing!
“The Spanner,” an internal employee publication of the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) where my father worked, published this announcement of their marriage in its October 1948 edition.
The two photos below were taken in front of my grandparents’ home on O’Connor Drive in East York. My parents lived there the first two years of their marriage while saving to buy a home of their own.
The wedding reception was held in the garden behind the now-defunct Diana Sweets restaurant on Bloor Street West.
Parents of the bride are in the left photo below. The picture on the right of the groom’s parents surprisingly includes another bride in the background! It would be hard to imagine a couple today willing to share their reception venue with another bride and groom.
Below are a few of the wedding guests:
Left: My mother’s cousins Bert Breckels and his wife, Violet; and Eileen (Breckels) Walker and her husband, Reg
Right: My mother’s uncle and aunt, Stan and Mary (Strachan) Breckels
Below left: My father’s aunt Margaret (Mitchell) Black, her husband, George, and their daughter, Helen
Right: My mother’s uncle Bob Strachan and her aunt Phyllis (Baty) Townsend
Photo credit, Diana Sweets Restaurant: https://chuckmantorontonostalgia.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/postcard-toronto-diana-sweets-restaurant-bloor-street-location-188-boor-at-avenue-road/
Nicely done Nancy. We kids all remember the original photos of the 2 of them , but what a treat to see the rest.