This is the marriage of Mr and Mrs Collins, of Newcastle, not the Collin’s from Pride and Prejudice, although this wedding does seem very glamorous as the colour film beautifully shot in Kodachrome shows, illustrating that the fabulous pre-WWII haute couture did indeed hit the North East. Whereas most people will video their weddings now, in 1938 portable cameras and projectors, coupled with the introduction of Kodachrome colour reversal film for 16 mm in 1935, and for 8 mm in 1936, also...

This is the marriage of Mr and Mrs Collins, of Newcastle, not the Collin’s from Pride and Prejudice, although this wedding does seem very glamorous as the colour film beautifully shot in Kodachrome shows, illustrating that the fabulous pre-WWII haute couture did indeed hit the North East. Whereas most people will video their weddings now, in 1938 portable cameras and projectors, coupled with the introduction of Kodachrome colour reversal film for 16 mm in 1935, and for 8 mm in 1936, also brought home movies within the reach of some well off families as we can see here. But putting it into the context of the times ordinary people did not have electric light until the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, the 1930s are remembered for mass unemployment, though by 1938 the worst of the depression was behind us as unemployment continued to fall. By 1938 it was around 10%.

 Yet the great age of cinema going in Britain was also in the 1930s when most people went at least once and sometimes twice a week. These early films were black and white but in the 1930s the first colour films were made.  Though radio broadcasting began in 1922 in Britain when the BBC was formed, and by 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio, television didn't launch in Britain until 1936.  It wasn’t until 1967 that BBC2 broadcast its first colour pictures from Wimbledon. By mid-1968, nearly every BBC2 programme was in colour. Six months later, colour came to BBC1.  So, Mr and Mrs Collins guests would have had a real treat watching themselves in colour in 1938.

Although it was a July wedding the weather was the usual British affair with gusts of winds and possible rain so many quests donned fur stolls on top of their fitted suits or just below the knee dresses, which wouldn’t go amiss in today's fashionable circles. Interestingly the classic top hat and tails look for the men has hardly changed at all. But it is the bride and bridesmaids who take centre stage, all beautifully adorned with the largest of bouquets. It's perhaps only these and the bridesmaids’ hats that really date the wedding.

This is a church wedding and St George’s Church in Jesmond, Newcastle in 1938 looks the same today. However, research has shown that over 70% of all weddings are now civil marriages, with 85% of those in approved premises, such as hotels, castles, or stately homes. Religious marriages are now more unusual at 30% – the smallest proportion recorded since national marriage registration began in 1837.

The Marriage Act of 1836 allowed for non-religious civil marriages to be held in register offices. These were set up in towns and cities across England and Wales. The act also meant nonconformists and Catholic couples could marry in their own places of worship. The concept of marrying for love for most of history would have seemed irrelevant. Marriage was essential for day-to-day survival, for passing down inheritance, for reproduction and social acceptance.  It wasn't until the Victorian era that it became accepted as a foundation for marriage. Strategically, politically and geographically Victoria had to find the right royal to marry as soon as the 18-year-old was enthroned, and the royals of Europe were not slow in sending their eligible young men to woo her. That Queen Victoria married for love to Prince Albert was not lost on the nation.

Perhaps today we can choose to get married or not, unlike our parents or grandparents who had an obligation to. Settling down, buying a house and having children in your 20s is not possible or necessarily high on the agenda of the independent 21st century young person.   And then there’s the crippling cost of the wedding itself. An online survey of over 4,000 brides and grooms by the wedding planning website ‘Hitched’ suggests that the average cost of a marriage in the UK is over the stunning figure of £27,000.

 Mr and Mrs Collins had their reception at the Gordon Hotel, Clayton Road, Jesmond, and were driven there in a silver Rolls Royce. But as with anything with that date stamped on it, we think of their fate as the looming clouds of war descend.  When Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, a year later Britain waited 48 hours to reason with Germany. As we know, this all failed, and with all his warnings and predictions proved right, Churchill was invited back into the Cabinet, in the same job of First Lord of the Admiralty that he had held at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914.