08-02 Wedding 1955

Mary and I were married at the London Registry Office. It was not a very romantic setting, but it was about pleasing my father. He could not enter a church, which had to do with the Plymouth Brethren religious teachings. But looking back at the photos of my bride, I am filled with love and pride.
Dad was in good form, nevertheless, and made everyone feel they were attending a momentous event. All the close family but brother Ian attended the wedding ceremony. Dad and Ian had a fight earlier in the day, and Ian took the train home.
The reception was held at the home of Mary's folks and what great fun it was! Early in the morning, the refrigerator went on the blink, and “Eatons” sent one up to the house right away. All the food was stored for half a day in the neighbour’s fridge. Love the group photo with Uncle Lou and Aunty Anna here from Chicago. Mary’s classmate Marilyn Martin was there, the only one of our friends in attendance.
Of course, grandpa and grandma Halter were there. I did not know at the time that she was in pain, suffering from stomach cancer. She died not long after we were married.
We headed to Niagara Falls for our honeymoon and were booked into the famous Brock Hotel. We stopped to clean up the car and get all the confetti off of our clothes and out of our hair. We tried to look sophisticated booking into the hotel, but when they asked me how I was to pay my account, I took out my traveller’s cheques and a cloud of confetti flew through the air. I could see all the staff behind the counter trying to stifle a laugh.
The shot of Mary with the Falls in the background was taken the next morning. We headed into the finger lakes district for a short one-week honeymoon.
At one of the lodges, where we stopped for a couple of days, Mary is seen rowing our boat. We had perfect weather for an ideal honeymoon memory.
The best bit of humour from our honeymoon was Mary's insistence on bringing all of her nursing books so she could study. Her worry was having to write her RN or Registered Nurses exams as soon as we got home. These books weighed a ton.
But, son-of-a-gun, somehow we just could not seem to find the time to open those books.