Presents and honeymoons

“You couldn't expect people to give you presents. You were just grateful if relations turned up. We went to Weston for our honeymoon. You didn't have enough coupons for new clothes  to go away in".

Rhona was married just after the war, in 1949”

"Everything was still on ration. Everybody clubbed in to make a wedding cake, somebody had a few sultanas, somebody else gave you some margarine and so on, otherwise you couldn't have had one.”

“When my mum was going to make my wedding dress you were only allowed four yards of material per person, even if you had the coupons. We stood outside the door of Lewis's in Birmingham asking people if they would mind getting us some material if we gave them the money and the coupons so that mum could make the dresses for the wedding.”

“You couldn't get 22 carat gold rings at all, but I was walking through Birmingham with my mother-in-law and we saw one in a tiny jewellers. My mother-in-law bought it then and there. It was £10, which was a lot of money in those days. You were doing well if you earned £10 a week When we got married I was earning £3 a week and my husband was earning £6. We started buying a house for £1,500, the mortgage was £6 a month and it was a job to find the money”.

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