I’ve got so many funny memories but one of the funniest was at my Uncle Paul’s wedding back in 1976. Uncle Paul was marrying Auntie Sarah and they’d met down at the local jazz club in Canterbury a year or so before. I was 14 at the time and me and my sister Jenny, who was 12 then, were head bridesmaids along with another 3 of our cousins who were all younger than us. So, with us being the eldest girls we knew we had to be kind of role models for the younger ones. Keep a tight ship as it were. We’d had three dress sittings previously and how happy we were to have finally got the dresses sorted!

Anyway, we were all getting ready at Auntie Sarah’s house, it was a beautiful day and everything was fine. Auntie Sarah was looking so elegant and stylish, sipping champagne with strawberries and the house was full of people getting ready. The funniest thing though was my younger sister Jenny, as she burst into the house running late with all her bags and her dress on and running up the stairs like a girl possessed she shouts to me ‘Sam, I’m here! Oh shhhhh’…. You could literally hear the fabric go!!
As she was running up the stairs in such excitement in her beautiful bridesmaids dress she stepped on it and ripped the dress about 2 inches…. but right down the arse!!! hahahaha!!

(Ed: just adding extra here in case you want to use it as I got carried away with the story…)

It wasn’t funny at the time because Jenny was in bits and trying not to cry in front of the little ones so we had to keep it together. We didn’t know what to do though, and time was pressing on, so keep in mind we were still frantically trying to act like we were in full control of the situation, we said to everyone ‘please darlings could you all have a look around the house for safety pins for us?’. Not long after little Mary and Jimmy ran up cutely together with a baby’s nappy pin which was huge and would have looked ridiculous but the best bit was little Gina, who was only 7 bless her, bringing a badge she’d found which said ‘I am 3 today’, and actually it was the right size of pin to hold the seams together!! So, although the badge part was on the inside and you couldn’t see it, Jenny’s dress was mended but we never ever could stop secretly saying to each other whilst walking down the aisle and giggling like little giddy kippers ‘‘I am 3 today!’’