Although it's been 60 years since their wedding, the details of the sunny, winter day of August 20, 1960 are still vivid for Margaret and Ron Sharpe.
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Reminiscences shared at the couple's 60th wedding anniversary celebrations, scaled down due to COVID restrictions, gave guests a glimpse into how a wedding was celebrated in those earlier, and somewhat simpler times.
Margaret Laverty and Ron Sharpe's wedding reception venue, the Riverhaven Motel, didn't quite survive to mark the anniversary milestone.
When the bulldozers moved through the Moorhouse Park precinct last month to make way for the new Shoalhaven bridge works, a lot of memories, special occasions and good times were swept away in their path.
Though it had become a bit shabby in its later years, the Riverhaven Motel was once a popular place for wedding receptions.
The wedding refreshments enjoyed by Margaret and Ron's 57 guests consisted of salads, cold meat and trifle for dessert.
Their beautiful wedding cake was made and decorated by Maconachie's bakers, while Margaret and Pat carried bouquets of camellias and carnations from the Miss Nobles' florist in Nowra.
The 19-year-old Margaret designed her own wedding dress, which was made by her cousin Patty, a Sydney dressmaker. Her going away outfit, a powder blue dress, was made by her mother, Eileen Laverty. Eileen also hand-coloured the photos taken by the wedding photographer of Mac's Studio, Nowra. Margaret remembers having her hair permed a couple of days before the wedding by Marie Bass Salon.
The couple was married at St Michaels Catholic church by Father John Ward. They walked down the aisle to the strains of Schubert's Ave Maria, sung by soprano Vonnie Muller, while Margaret's uncle Clem played the organ, and later the piano, at the reception.
Margaret's bridesmaid was her childhood friend Pat Gerrey (now O'Dwyer) who had been her next door neighbour growing up on Illaroo Road, while best man was Ron's brother-in-law, Ray Henry.
Margaret and Ron honeymooned in Manly.
And just to show you can't always believe everything you read in the newspapers, when the Nowra News published the wedding report back in 1960, they initially put the wrong couple's photo with the story and had to issue a correction.
Margaret and Ron have lived in North Nowra all their lives. They have six children and 16 grandchildren and many friends throughout Nowra and the Shoalhaven. Congratulations!
