Wedding Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers to display and share old wedding photos, wedding invitations, and announcements!
My feature bride and groom today are my parents – John Taylor and Carrie Chapple. If my father was still alive, my parents would have celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary this month/year.
On Sunday the 3rd of April 1949 at 4 PM
John Willie Taylor and Carrie Chapple
Were married!
Their private ceremony was officiated by Rev. Jessie Glover, the Pastor of Canaan Missionary Baptist Church that was located at 2500 Altoona Street at the time. The ceremony and reception occurred in the home of my mom’s sister and brother-in-law — Edward and Ella Louise (Chapple) Marshall who lived at 1708 Chew Street in the Greater Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas community.
Special guests and members of the bridal party in the group photo above were (standing l to r): Joseph Chapple (Father of the Bride), the Best man, John Taylor (Groom), Carrie Taylor (Bride), Sue Wesley (Maid of Honor), Faye Short (Soloist), Ethel (Abram) Chapple (Step-Mother of the Bride). Guests not shown were Juanita Boykins (pianist) and Willie Crosby (photographer).
The groom wore a double-breasted black suit, white shirt, black tie and black shoes. The bride’s wedding gown, veil and opera length bridal gloves in white were purchased from Solo Serve, a popular discount retail chain in downtown Houston, for $25.00!!
Their graduated tier wedding cake with white butter icing topped with a miniature bride and groom was made by her step-mother, Ethel (Abram) Chapple.
If I didn’t know this couple personally, I would have thought their wedding day wasn’t a happy one. Why? No one smiled! There were no smiles on the faces of the bride, the groom, members of the bridal party, or guests in any of these wedding photos! As I got older, I often teased my parents about these pictures. I even asked them, “were you two marrying under duress?! They would simply laugh and shake their heads at me in disbelief, not realizing that I was being serious with them.
Well, despite the solemn looks they had in their wedding photos 67 years ago . . .
they have been all smiles and looking good together ever since!
Claiming Kin Genealogy 
It was truly a beautiful wedding! Does your mother still have the dress? Also, was the best man your uncle (groom’s brother? He looks so young!
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Nell, thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my parents wedding day post. No, mom no longer has that dress. I wish I could tell you more about the best man, but I don’t know who he is. My dad passed away in 2010, so I never got a chance to ask him about his best man. My mom, who is 87 years old now, cannot remember his name because he was a close friend of my dad that she got to meet a few weeks before the wedding. My father was just 21 and mom was just 20. So they were very young indeed. Again, thank you!
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You are so welcome! I enjoyed the read!
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I love it! I wished they smiled more, but I guess they didn’t really smile for pictures back then. Grandmother looked so beautiful in her dress! What a dress!! Pawpaw looks so handsome! I love this!! I miss Pawpaw.
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Hi Sweet Potato #1! Thanks for checking out your grandparents feature. Yes mom’s dress was beautiful, but the fact she paid $25 for her whole wedding attire, blows me away. They looked so young . . . very cool photo of them indeed!
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Hi,
I want to let you know that your blog is listed in today’s Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/04/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-april-8-2016.html
Have a great weekend!
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Thank you so much for the inclusion; I so appreciate you!
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@genealogyisfun – thank you so much for the inclusion on last Friday. I truly appreciate you!
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You’re very welcome!
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Just beautiful!
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Hi LindaRe and THANK YOU so much sis! I had so much fun writing about my parents’ wedding today.
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$25! What a beautiful dress for such a low price. I wondered about those solomn faces too and I’m glad they had a happy life together. Maybe they were just stressed about the ceremony.
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When mom told me how much she paid for her whole wedding day look, I was totally blown away with the cost too! Her dress was very beautiful. And those my brothers and I have teased them about these photos, they were indeed a very handsome and happy couple. Thank you!
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Love it!!!
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Thanks @LaConnie! I had so much fun writing this piece. Now I’m just waiting to hear my mom’s reaction to this feature about her wedding day — ROFL!!!
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