My Wedding Day

Elizabeth Elliott

One of the best days of my life

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning in September 5th 1979. I was 26 years old and I was getting married to my sweetheart Alex at St. John's Church, Paisley at 3:45pm. That was 28 years ago and we never had a bad day until he died on September 18th last year. It was 28 years of marriage bliss.

On the morning of my wedding I was very nervous. I woke at 7am and I hoped that everything would go well. My Bridesmaid Linda came over to my house at 9am and we went to the hairdressers in Moss St. You could smell the freshness of the hairspray and the lotions. We chatted away to everyone in the shop. I think it was the nerves as we talked all the time. We left there about 11am and the weather was still good so we kept our fingers crossed that it would stay nice. My mum, neighbours and friends were all gathered in my house. When we returned we had lunch. We all enjoyed our salad sandwiches, trifle and tea. We didn't want to eat too much because we would be having a big meal at 6pm in the Glynhill Hotel, Renfrew Road where our reception was being held.

It was now 1:30pm and I thought that I had better start getting ready to put on my wedding dress. The sun was shining and the birds were singing in the trees outside my bedroom window. Everyone was so excited and happy. At 3pm my Uncle James (my dad's brother), who was giving me away in place of my dad who died 11 years ago, came in and said how beautiful we looked in our white and cerise dresses. There was a big cuddle for us all, including my bridesmaid's son Scott. He was 4 years old and looked so smart in his kilt and was feeling so proud to be my page boy. There was a crowd of well-wishers gathering outside my house ready to throw lots of confetti over all of us. We got into the limousine and drove for about a mile to the church for 3:30pm. It was crowded with relations, friends, neighbours and work mates all there to wish us well. Alex looked so handsome standing at the alter with his best man James. I remember thinking how very lucky I was to be marrying such a loving, kind, thoughtful and handsome man. He was a perfect fiancé and soon to be perfect husband. We exchanged vows and rings and became man and wife. When we came out of the church the sun was still shining and everyone was showering us with more confetti.

It was 4:30pm now and we went to have our photographs taken in the church grounds which provided an idyllic setting surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers. After that we went to the Glynhill Hotel to greet our guests and have more photographs taken. We were ready for our meal which consisted of melon, prawn cocktail, fruit juice, chicken fish or steak pie and followed by black forest gateau, apple pie or ice cream then tea or coffee and biscuits. After the speeches we cut our beautiful wedding cake to the huge applause of all of our guests.

It was now 7:30pm and I thought 'gosh we have been married for 3 to 4 hours now'. We were all ready now to have a great time doing the Scottish country, ballroom and disco dancing. The slosh and alley cat were also included. Everyone was on the floor enjoying themselves. We left the Glynhill at 10pm where the reception was in full swing and went back to our new home in India Drive, Inchinnan and got ready for our fabulous honeymoon in Blackpool for 2 weeks. This was definitely one of the best days of my life. The next was when my son Thomas was born on 5th October 1981, when we were both so elated and proud again.