Wedding night under the table!

This is my parents on their wedding day in August 1940. I noticed several people have been putting their parents' or grandparents' wedding photos on blip so I thought I would do the same.
It looks like a studio portrait but I know they were married at St James' Church, Lees with Crossroads Nr Keighley. At the time my mother lived on the family farm at Flappit Springs just up the road and they walked back from the church.

My dad was in the army at the time having been amongst the first to be called up in 1939 at the age of 21. My mother was 2 years older. Unlike the First World War weddings he didn't have to wear his uniform but the wedding was timed for his leave, not sure where from. He was down in Cheshire as an army cook for a while before going abroad as my mother used to take her bike on the train and stay with him at a village called Audlem nr Nantwich.

I remember my mother's outfit well as although it is seen here in black and white it spent many years in my dressing up box! It was a pale green crepe and she lent it to her sister in law to be for her wedding later in the war as her family couldn't afford much, but she said it was never the same afterwards!

It was the last day of August and a bit of an ill fated day to chose for a wedding as it was the night the Germans bombed Bradford! They could see the flashes in the distance and spent their wedding night under the kitchen table. I don't know how much leave he had but there as no honeymoon. No wonder my sister wasn't born until 1947!

For more about the night Hitler came to Bradford see here.