Before we got married we were together 25 years.
On the night before our wedding Ron went to Fleur de Lys. I was at Church Road all night in our flat. We had to separate before our wedding. Ron woke up in the morning and he had a big hearty breakfast – I have photo of this in our wedding album. I woke up in the morning of our wedding in our flat and I had a breakfast but not like Ron I had cereals.
Ron got ready at Fleur de Lys and put his nice suit on and his nice top hat. I got ready in our flat and at about 10am I went to Debenhams and had my make up put on my face. Then I came home and put my wedding dress on, and went up to Cathedral Road Lounge and had my hair done.
The wedding was at 11am. Ron went to the registry office first in Bohemia Road, and then I went there by car and met him at the register office. When I got there Desmond was emotional and he was crying because he was so happy he was marrying Susie. I was emotional too because I was so happy that I was marrying Ron.
We had invited lots of our friends and they already there when me and Ron arrived. We had to wait a little while before we went into be married, and then we went in and the lady registrar introduced herself and we had a little talk about what we were going to do. Then we said our vows to one another and the lady spoke and said “Ron and Susie are getting married. Does anybody object?" And no one did - they were all laughing and clapping and enjoying ourselves. I didn’t know if it might happen because it does in films, but if they had we wouldn’t taken any notice anyway we still would have got married!
Then we made a speech to one another and put our rings on – I put the ring on Ron’s finger and he put the ring on my finger. I made a speech to him and he made a speech to me. We put the rings on each other’s finger and the lady said "You are going to have photos taken now" and we went out in the garden at the back of the registry office and we had photos taken. The photographer said "Get your friends to sit with you". The first photo was of me, Ron, and his brother. After that the man said "Bring your friends now" and we had photos of everyone with me and Ron.
After that we went out in the car park and our wedding car was out there and we had some more photos taken with the wedding car. Everyone was cheering us throwing confetti. It was a nice sunny hot day. After that the man took a photo of us getting in the car – then we got in our wedding car and they all waved good-bye to us. Then we went to Hastings Football Ground for our reception.
When we went in the place was full of food and drinks – the staff had made a lovely do for us. It was beautifully decorated and it looked brilliant. Me and Ron were really pleased. We had so many presents on the table waiting for us to open and then we sat down at our table and had a dinner and a drink. There was a DJ playing music – everyone came up and congratulated us they said well done for getting married. One of the staff worked at Church Road made a speech for us. Me and Ron made a speech and said thank you to all the staff, thank you to everyone coming, thank you for doing the food and for decorating Hastings football ground for us.
Everyone was dancing with us. When it came to our wedding song they called us up and said "The bride and groom!" The wedding song was Simply the Best by Tina Turner. After that we danced to it and Ron said "What are you doing?" and he called everyone up and said "Come on people get up and dance!" and I laughed and said "What are you doing? This is our wedding song it’s supposed to be just us!!" But he called everyone onto the dance floor with us.
Then everyone went home but we didn’t. We went to a hotel for one night. It was a lovely hotel – a lovely bedroom for us as a married couple. It felt very exciting to be married to Ron. We had a drink with the staff in the bar whilst they sorted our bedroom out. All our friends and the staff went home and me and Ron went to bed.
We woke up the next morning, got dressed, and then we went to the hotel café and both had a full English breakfast. Then one of the staff came to pick us up and took us back to Cathedral Road in our flat. Then we spent the rest of the day together.
Because we didn’t have a honeymoon we went to friend’s house for two weeks. She gave us nice things to do. Then we came home and spent the rest of our time together and when Cathedral road closed we moved into our current flat on the 10th floor of St Leonard’s flat. Then we spent the rest of our lives together until Ron passed away last year. We had a very happy life together. We had our wedding anniversary on the 30th June and we always celebrated our anniversary together. We had fifteen years together as a married couple.
This is for other people. If you got married to your partner look back on your wedding. If you feel sad and upset and if you have photos and words of your wedding look back on that as well. Think of the happy life you had together and remember the happy times together. If you feel down always look at your wedding photos and other photos and look back on your photos.
My best wishes to you and stay safe.
Dictated by Susie