Three weeks before my daughter's wedding, our family ate breakfast one morning. It was then that the subject of wedding invitations came up for discussion. The discussion turned to issues such as wedding preparations, wedding invitations, and wedding photos.
After breakfast, my youngest granddaughter asked her mother to look at the wedding photos of her grandparents. She replied: "Okay, Honey, but there aren't many wedding photos of grandma and grandpa."
At the insistence of the little girl, her mother came to our room and with our knowledge and consent, pulled out an envelope with old pictures. The colour of the pictures faded and the images became a little yellow and blurred, because these were taken in the 1940's when colour photography was still in its infancy. There were no digital colour photography or high resolution images taken at the time.
"Mommy," asked my granddaughter, "why were grandma and grandpa not wearing wedding dresses? Grandma was not wearing a wedding dress and grandpa wasn't wearing suits. Why?"
Before he could answer, my wife and I left our room. Her grandmother hugged her and smiled: "Dear Audrey, why are you asking? What's wrong with the pictures?"
"Every bride wears a wedding dress and every groom wears a wedding suit. Why not you and your grandfather? Have you made any wedding invitations?
Now I joined the conversation by telling Audrey that we did not wear the usual Affordable suit Singapore because 1: we did not want to wear them and 2: we could not at that time.
Although she was young, Audrey's curiosity was aroused. I explained that at the time, there was a war. Food was scarce and hard to find, household necessities hard to find and extravagant wedding dresses could only be found by the very wealthy. Her grandmother added that yes, we would not be able to buy wedding dresses and even if we could afford them. Many of the people in Singapore then living lived in fear of the Imperialist Japanese Army which, a few days before our wedding, invaded and occupied the British Colony.
