John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Friday 21st March 1969
"It was all very quick, quiet and British."
John Winston Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar by special licence in a three minute ceremony on Friday 21st March 1969.
It was John Lennon who commented on his marriage ceremony being so conventional. Who would have thought that one of the great icons of modern music would have had such a simple and 'British' affair?
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The Daily Mirror of the time reported a few paragraphs about the event and published one photograph of the couple in Paris after the event. Life and celebrity was a lot simpler in the 1960s. An historic newspaper like the Daily Mirror can convey the distant past better than any other medium and make an evocative gift; grainy pictures and terse phrases, celebrity lives reduced to a few lines of prose.
"This was the Beatle's second marriage and his wife's third."
This was one sentence in a newspaper that sums up the couples lives before meeting and becoming one of the most recognised marriages in modern times. The couple had met less than a year earlier. How they met is still disputed. Was it at the Indica gallery of John Dunbar, where Yoko was exhibiting or was it in 1965 while Yoko was in London working on a book of musical scores?
Newspapers in those days rarely went into the details about a couple and their past lives. The newlyweds were treated with some respect but archive newspapers do give telling little details that fascinate. How much will you pay for your wedding licences? John Lennon's solicitors in London arranged the wedding licence in Gibraltar for the sum of £4 14s!
Fashion
What hasn't changed about newspapers is their coverage of the fashion of the day. The Daily Mirror was very taken by the bride and bridegrooms' footwear in 1969, 'Yoko.wore a white crepe mini-dress and tennis shoes.John wore white tennis shoes too.' It's remarkable that the paper didn't describe the rather fetching hairy-coat that made John look like a Yeti on the prowl but instead focused on the couples honeymoon footwear.
When collared by reporters John did say that this was the second attempt to get married; 'We've been trying to get married since last Friday. First we tried to marry on a cross-channel ferry.' That's more like it! The icon did try something unconventional; but he and Yoko settled for a simple ceremony, a British territory, in a quiet ceremony.
Was John joking when he said about his first attempt at marrying Yoko?
'Unfortunately they have stopped that sort of thing on the ferries. Too many people were getting married and all the officers were so busy they had no one to drive the ship.'
Will you marry in a quite ceremony? Will you be looking for some venue that no one else has thought of and have you chosen your footwear?
Historic Newspapers supply original newspapers for special dates in your life in a variety of impressive gift packs including the anniversary folder which contains a newspaper title of your choice for your special day and one for each of the couple's birthdates. All newspapers are 'refreshed' and come with a certificate of authenticity that can be personalised.
