Turning back the clock for war-time wedding

Steve Mendham and Penny Daynes getting married in the chapel on the small Hethel airbase which they have helped restore

SARAH BREALEY
13 July 2009 15:00



The bride and groom arrived in the back of a 1942 troop carrier, with anti-aircraft guns behind them.

They made their promises in front of a congregation dressed in 1940s clothing, in the chapel where 65 years ago many American airmen would have said their prayers and took communion before departing on their last missions.

Steve Mendham and Penny Daynes had their wedding blessed on Saturday at the 389th Bombardment Group Memorial Chapel in Hethel, near Wymondham.

Today it is a quiet, remote spot, but from 1943 to 1945 it was the Hethel air base, home to American airmen and Liberator bombers.

Together with other volunteers, the Mulbarton couple have spent years restoring the chapel and its wartime murals.

The blessing of their wedding was the first such ceremony to be performed there. However, the building is not licensed for weddings, so they had a quiet register office ceremony in Norwich before the blessing at the chapel.

Miss Daynes, 49, an insurance worker at Marsh, said: “It was just indescribable. It was a perfect day.

“There was so much emotion in that room; you could have heard a pin drop.”

Mr Mendham, 48, a maintenance engineer at Wymondham leisure centre, said: “I don't think we will ever forget it. This place is our heart and soul.”

The wedding was celebrated with wartime food, including Spam sandwiches, ginger cake and syrup cake made to recipes by Marguerite Patten. The cake had bullets instead of pillars and was topped in sugar models of the couple in their wedding gear - a 1940s dress for her and an American second world war colonel's uniform for him.

Keeping to the military theme, the couple are spending their honeymoon in a military tent at the War and Peace Show in Kent - the largest world's military show.

Are you celebrating a family event in an unusual way? Contact the Evening News newsdesk on 01603 772443 or email newsdesk@archant.co.uk

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