History – Come one, come all

By Lachie McLean and Patsy Montgomery

When the Nova Scotian settlers first arrived in Waipu in the 1850s, a marriage was taken by the minister in private homes and later celebrated by the community with a party, with some being described as “wild”. As the community grew, weddings were eventually held in the church with a wedding breakfast, sometimes followed by a dance in the hall, where everyone was expected to go. These were known as open weddings.

The last open weddings were held in the mid-1960s when there were only about 900 people living in Waipu. A couple of these were the marriages of Keith Gordon to Joan Sandford and Malcolm Sandford to Valerie Finlayson. These two couples were non-Nova Scotians whose families were, and still are, heavily involved in community activities.

About a month before Joan and Keith’s wedding, as was the custom, a kitchen evening was held in the Coronation Hall. All the locals came and brought an item for the couple’s kitchen, and a supper and dance was held. Joan recalls getting about 24 casserole dishes! During the evening, Joan’s father Jack announced the date and time of the wedding, inviting the entire community, and telling everyone that his wife Molly would oversee the catering. In this, she was assisted by the mothers of classmates of the bridal party and friends. Jack provided a pig, Chris Gordon a sheep, Len Bowmar a sack of crayfish, all served cold. Molly and the local ladies provided the salads and desserts. Jessie Mckenzie, the school sewing teacher, made Joan’s wedding dress as she did for most of the brides in the district.

Keith and Joan’s wedding on November 23, 1963, was somewhat eclipsed by the assassination of President Kennedy that very same day. They estimated that over 400 people attended the service in the Presbyterian Church and later the wedding breakfast in Coronation Hall. The only formal photographs taken were outside the church because the celebrations had to be over in time for the local farmers’ evening milking. Sports teams often joined the celebrations. Joan and Keith later had a smaller party at the Sandfords’ Finlayson Brook home before they departed on their honeymoon.

However, the very last open wedding in Waipu was Malcolm Sandford and Valerie Finlayson in 1965. As the cows were dry, the dance was held after the evening wedding breakfast. Malcolm recalls Alan constantly having to tell David Ryan to turn the band’s volume down as it was the beginning of amplified sound replacing the old acoustic bands of piano, violin, saxophone, banjo and drums.

A ritual at the end of the weddings was doctoring the newly-married couple’s car with stones in the hubcaps and confetti in the suitcase before they left on their honeymoon. Apparently one unfortunate Waipu bride and groom even found people hiding under the nuptial bed when they arrived at their hotel.

By the mid 1960s the community had grown too big for open weddings, so this old custom has now become a distant memory. The Waipu Museum thanks Keith, Joan and Malcolm for their recollections, and we celebrate the memory of the late Val Sandford.

Dateclaimer: In July, Waipu Museum will host an evening of stories of “Old Waipu” as part of the Winter in Waipu celebrations.