Saturday, June 17, 2017

Father's Day, and an anniversary

Tomorrow is Father's Day, and the day after, June 19th, would have been my paternal grandparents' 69th wedding anniversary. I promised you all some more family photos, and what could be better than vintage wedding pictures? Grandma gave me copies of all of these to keep forever.


June 19, 1948
  


The bride and groom with the maid of honor, grandma's cousin Clara, and the best man, grandpa's brother Johnny.

You guys.....wasn't my grandmother beautiful? And her dress...!!! Just lovely.

I also got a copy of their wedding announcement that ran in the newspaper. Back in those days, they spared no detail when describing a wedding in the society columns. Here are a few excerpts I thought you might find interesting:

Miss Margaret Martin Weds Mr. Czmiel in Rites at St. Louis Catholic Church, Dillon

In an impressive service on Saturday morning, June 19, at the St. Louis Catholic church in Dillon, SC, Miss Margaret Martin became the bride of Joseph Stanley Czmiel of Chicago. Rev Lawrence Sheedy of the Dillon church assisted by Rev. Maurice Shean of Rock Hill officiated........

......The lovely little chapel was decorated with tall floor baskets of white dahlias and gladioli. Sprays of ivy entwined the altar rail, where burning candles were placed..........

....The lovely young brunette bride, given in marriage by her father, was beautifully gowned in white slipper satin, with sweetheart neckline and long fitted sleeves ending in points at the wrist. Her full skirt, attached to a fitted bodice, ended in a wide cathedral train. She wore a fingertip veil of bridal illusion edged in rose point lace and caught to a halo of tiny beads. The bride carried a white prayer book topped by a white purple-throated orchid, and showered with satin ribbons.....

The bride had as her only attendant her cousin, Miss Clara Lou Hardwick of Aynor. She wore a blue taffeta dress fashioned with sweetheart neckline, fitted bodice and full skirt, and carried a colonial bouquet of yellow rosebuds encircled by Shasta daisies. She wore matching taffeta mitts and, on her head, a bandeau of roses and daisies.

Mrs. Martin, mother of the bride, wore Eleanor blue crepe with softly draped hipline and self embroidery, and on her shoulder, a corsage of pink roses.

Mrs. Czmiel, mother of the bridegroom, was gowned in beige. She also wore a corsage of pink rosebuds.

Immediately afater the ceremony the bride's parents entertained with a wedding breakfast at their home on Marion street, which was made attractive with numerous arrangements of white gladioli, dahlias, and snapdragons. The bride's table, centered by a triple tiered wedding cake tipped by a miniature bride and groom, was especially lovely, decorated with gardenias tied with maline and white satin ribbons......

.....During the afternoon, the bride changed her wedding gown for a dressmaker suit of white gabardine with which she wore black accessories and the orchid from her prayer book. Following a brief wedding trip the young couple will be at home in Chicago.

There was plenty more I left out, like who provided the nuptial music and the pieces they played ("Oh, Perfect Love" by Gurney and "Ave Maria" by Shubert, as well as the traditional marches), the usher/groomsmen names and where they lived, and who greeted guests, worked the bridal register, presided over the dining room and "assisted with hospitalities" at the reception. There was also a bit about my grandmother being a recent graduate of Winthrop University, and my grandfather being a veteran of WW2 and serving in Europe.

Clearly, wedding announcements were a big deal back in those days!


A year later, on June 12, 1949, my grandparents' first child was born, my uncle Paul.

A perfect picture for Father's Day: my grandpa with his first-born son.

Grandma was a pretty young mother. And look at the telephone in the background!

Grandma sewed all the fancy lining and ribbons on this bassinet.

My great-grandmother, Emma Martin, visiting Chicago when my uncle Paul was born. She's on the left, and my other great-grandmother, Angeline Pierog, is on the right. Can anyone guess what kind of car they're posing beside?

My grandfather's sister, Ann Czmiel, and his brother, Johnny Czmiel, with their new nephew.
I hope you've enjoyed these old family photos! I had so much fun looking through them and picking out ones to share here!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Go show your family some love, especially the older generations if you're still lucky enough to have them in your life. I feel very fortunate to still have grandma around at her grand old age of almost 90 years old.

31 comments:

  1. I like this trip down memory lane, yes, your grandma was a beautiful bride and the gown is stylish. I read the newspaper announcement, wow, the papers were thorough in those days. Thank you for the cute dog card which arrived yesterday, I see a doggie like my Bounce in the lower left corner of it.

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    1. I'm glad you liked the card! I saw the dog that looked like Bounce on the cover, too. :)

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  2. We just don't do it like they used to, do we?
    Gorgeous.

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    1. We really don't. I'm sure grandma and her mother spent hours attending to all the little details of etiquette. Days gone by.

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  3. The telephone, plus an 'English Rose' aluminium kitchen unit in the background. Good looking family too.

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  4. What wonderful photo. Your Grandmother was a beautiful Bride and your Grandfather very handsome.
    All my photos were burned in a fire so I do not have this luxury. Thank you for all the wonderful memories.
    Hope you are having some nice days off.

    cheers, parsnip and thehamish

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I'm so sorry you lost family photos in a fire. That just...sucks.

      My days off were great, unfortunately they flew by much too fast!

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  5. Your grandmother had a beautiful wedding dress Jennifer. I collected some photographs from my brother last week so I know how you are feeling; very joyful! Your photographs look very American to my English ones. (That is not a criticism, just an observation). I will publish my mum's wedding picture next week on her anniversary and you will see what I mean!

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    1. I shall look forward to seeing the picture of your mum and seeing what you mean! Thank you!

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  6. Beautiful photos, i like the one with the 1948 kitchen:)

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    1. Me too! It's such a great snapshot of life in the 1940s!

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  7. Wonderful family history. Keep those photos safe.

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  8. Such a gorgeous wedding dress. I love all the details in the announcement. I know absolutely nothing about the weddings of my grandparents and very little about my parents' wedding. My mother said they got married in her mother's living room. I wish I knew who was there and what my mother wore.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. I had no idea my grandma and aunt had all these photos and newspaper clippings saved from those days. I feel very lucky to have so many details about my family history.

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  9. Love the phone; I'd have one of those today!

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  10. What a great collection of memories. The top wedding photo is simply lovely. And I remember those phones, my grandmother had one just like that.

    alphie

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    1. The top photo is my favorite of the wedding. I love the expressions on my grandma and grandpa's faces. So sweet.

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  11. What a wonderful collection of photos! You're very lucky to have them. Your grandparents were married exactly 8 months after my parents. My only guess at the car is Buick because of those "ventiports." '54 Riviera?

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    1. I have no idea about the car. I was hoping someone here might know. I could probably ask my aunt.

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  12. Wonderful old pictures. I am glad that the newspaper didn't go into lurid details of the wedding night! That at least stayed private. I noticed that your grandmother and maid of honour were standing on some sort of platform in the third picture down. I think your grandparents grew up in America's best times.

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    1. There wasn't a platform; there was a rug in front of them and what you're seeing is the edge of it. If the newspaper had had any honeymoon details I'm sure we would have heard all about it! Ha!

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    2. I need to get my eyes tested. To me it still looks like they are standing on something while the two men are not.

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  13. Great post! I love those photos. The dresses were beautiful. The newspaper announcement is gloriously old fashioned and personal. I am hoping you tell us what kind of car that was.

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    1. "Gloriously old fashioned and personal" is exactly how I feel about it! Life seemed so much more.....graceful?....in those days.

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  14. I don't know what your parents look like, but I can definitely detect something of your grandmother's radiant smile in some of the pictures of yourself you have shown us before on your blog.
    Wonderful dress, and I love the bridesmaid's outfit, too!
    Happy times for a young family, with their first child. The new uncle and aunt look a bit skeptical :-)

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    1. Thank you, Meike!

      I love the dresses, and the descriptions of them (even grandma's "going away" outfit was described). I had a feeling that you might enjoy those details. :)

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  15. Hi Jennifer -- Thanks for popping by my blog today! What wonderful photos of your grandparents' wedding. I definitely recognize the styles and wedding fashions in them -- my parents were married in 1946. Funny how all weddings of a certain era have a similar look, isn't it?

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  16. I absolutely arore that kitchen ... The telephone makes it,,i have a telephone just like it

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