This amateur home move from the Hayes collection records a post-war wedding. Other films in the Hayes collection are similar as they are all home movies that depict family events, the community, or foreign countries where the family has holidayed. These films are a documentation of the events going on within the family's life. The 1940s saw an increase in the number of marriages especially before and after the Second World War, this increase in marriage numbers could be due to the...

This amateur home move from the Hayes collection records a post-war wedding. Other films in the Hayes collection are similar as they are all home movies that depict family events, the community, or foreign countries where the family has holidayed. These films are a documentation of the events going on within the family's life.

The 1940s saw an increase in the number of marriages especially before and after the Second World War, this increase in marriage numbers could be due to the changing attitudes of the younger generation during the war. Many of the younger generation would have heard about the countless deaths and decided that life was too short and can be unexpectedly taken away, therefore, they should do whatever they want. In this period marriage was encouraged due to the high death rates of the war, this meant that they needed to replace an entire generation that was wiped out and since having children out of wedlock was still a big controversy in this period, encouraging marriage was the only way to increase the birth rate.

The changing roles of women during this period meant that women were now working and being educated, but the pressure to get married and have a family still strongly remained, especially with the beliefs that the men were the breadwinners for the family. It seems like the pressure for women to get married was coming from a societal led initiative and from the government as by the early 1950s many employers still operated a ‘marriage bar’ which prevented married women from certain occupations like teaching and clerical jobs, and those working were also sacked upon marriage. The government also encouraged marriage as after 1945, soldiers were promised their old jobs were waiting for them and that women would return to being housewives. During this period, there were many adverts that encouraged women to become housewives and many other adverts portrayed women as homemakers.
Weddings during this period were less formal due to the lack of money and rationing Britain was experiencing. At this time, brides either wore wedding dresses a relative had worn or one they had rented from someone else but sometimes brides wore a more business-like suit as this could be repurposed and worn again. Church marriages were also quite common in the post-war period but have declined in modern society due to the lack of religious beliefs and the appeal of other venues, for example, hotels, country houses and on beaches in foreign countries.

In today’s society there is less of a focus on getting married and starting a family especially on young women, women are now encouraged to have a career and travel before they get married and have children. Many women are waiting to get married until their 30s while in the 1940s, the median age for a woman to get married was 20/21 years old. Furthermore, societies marriage rates are decreasing along with birth rates but divorce rates are increasing in comparison to the rates of the 1940s. Furthermore, in today’s society, weddings are seen as a form of entertainment, with shows like Say Yes to the Dress and Don’t Tell the Bride being extremely popular. These shows also demonstrate the extravagance and price of a wedding, with many brides choosing dresses worth over £1000 and Don’t Tell the Bride giving the groom a budget of £10,000 to plan their wedding.

Bibliography
PowerPoint Presentation (census.gov)
1940s Wedding Dresses & Groom Attire (vintagedancer.com)
https://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/post-world-war-ii-1946-1970