My Parent's Wedding Anniversary

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Wilkinson
Just Married!  29 August 1958

My parents were married on 29 August 1958 in Hamilton, Massachusetts at Christ Church, the Episcopal chapel.  Today would have been their 54th Anniversary.  My mother often tells me that she wanted a candle light wedding ceremony, but the church didn't allow it.  Hurricane Daisy hit New England just before their wedding, and she almost had her wish, but the power was back on in time for the wedding, and there was minimal damage to the coast.  They held the wedding reception at the United Shoe Machinery Corporation employee golf club in Beverly, since both the father of the bride and the father of the groom worked for "The Shoe".

My parents wedding photos have faded a lot over the years.  About ten years ago I removed all the photos from her plastic wedding album and we put them into an acid free archival scrapbook.  But the photos still continued to fade.  Last year I scanned them all and wondered aloud on Facebook how to restore the images electronically.  Genealogist Sharon Gillis, one of my "Facebook Friends", saw my comment and offered to play with one of the images since she had just finished a PhotoShop class.  My parents' wedding photo was one of her first projects, and she did a great job!  Thanks, Sharon!  I'd love to "fix" the rest of the images someday.

Mom and I had a lot of fun looking over her photos.  It is especially fun since my daughter is in the middle of planning her wedding, so we've been comparing photos, dresses, and the customs between a wedding in the 1950s, my 1983 wedding, and the upcoming wedding in 2013.  And it is fun to look at the photos and remember my father, who passed ten years ago this month.  Don't Mom and Dad look so young and beautiful in these photos?

The photo above has been restored.  The following photos are in their original condition:

This photo of Mom and her parents
is in the worst condition

My parents and their wedding party (left to right)
back row- Buddy Allen, Dick McKenney, Barbara Allen Thacher, Mom, Dad,
Bob Wilkinson and Ed Thacher
front row- Janet Allen, Sandra Thacher and Barbara Allen

My mother's family- The Allens
Left to Right- Stanley Allen Jr., Bob Allen, Buddy Allen, Barbara Allen Thacher,
Stanley Allen, Gertrude Allen, Mom, Dick Allen, and Don Allen

Mom's neice, Sandra, caught the bouquet
and nephew, Mickey (Stanley Allen III)
 caught the garter

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo