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‘The drink was free so everyone had a good time’: Dundee couple celebrate 60 years of marriage

60 wedding anniversary dundee
Loraine and Stanley Neave are celebrating 60 years of marriage. Mhairi Edwards/DCT Media

“The drink was free so everyone was having a good time”, said Loraine Neave about her wedding day, 60 years ago.

Loraine and Stanley, who are now 80 and 87 respectively, met while working at Veeder Root in the city.

“I worked in the office and Stan worked on the assembly,” Loraine said.

“We started dating not long after meeting at work.”

Loraine said she was surprised when Stan proposed to her.

60 wedding anniversary dundee
The couple met while working at Veeder Root.Mhairi Edwards/DCT Media

“We were supposed to be going on holiday down to Blackpool with my brother and his wife, and just before it, he proposed.

“Then we went and chose an engagement ring and went down to Blackpool for a holiday over the weekend.”

She added, laughing: “He wasn’t the most romantic.”

After the news spread at the factory, Stan and Loraine were ribbed at work.

“Because I worked in the office and he worked on the floor, I would have to go down and pay out the wages,” Loraine said.

“And they used to say ‘Oh just hand her the money, she’ll be getting it soon enough’. So he took a lot of ribbing on the floor.”

60 wedding anniversary dundee
The couple said ‘everyone enjoyed’ the wedding. Supplied

The couple were engaged for a year before getting married on September 2, 1961.

Everyone had such a good time

The ceremony was held in the Lochee West Church, before moving to the Palais Dance Hall for the reception.

“McDougalls, the bakers, they did the purvey,” Loraine explained.

“There was a lad that worked in Veeder Root, he had a band – a proper band that used to play on the radio, and he said ‘I’ll come and do your wedding’.

“Of course all the drink was free – nobody wanted to go home because everyone was having such a good time.

The Palais dance hall in Dundee
The couple had their reception at The Palais on September 2, 1961. DCT

“Stan’s family, a lot of them were singers and things so it was a really good wedding everyone enjoyed it.”

The couple had just recently begun renting a flat, so any money they had went into putting it together. Because of this, the couple decided to have a honeymoon closer to home.

Loraine recalled: “My dad gave us a loan of his car for a week so we could go about in it.

“He filled it up with petrol and would just go a day here and there because the weather was quite nice.”

She said when she returned the car to her dad, he wasn’t best pleased at the state it was in.

Wedding picture
Loraine and Stan stayed close to home for their honeymoon. Supplied

“I remember I handed the car back to my dad with no petrol in it because we didn’t have enough money for it when we handed it back. It was a really good wedding.”

Proud of the life they built

Loraine said that she and Stan have lived a “lucky” life, saying: “We’ve been very fortunate that our children, Richard and Pamela, have gone on to get good jobs and we’re incredibly proud of our grandchildren.”

The couple will be celebrating their diamond anniversary with friends, as some of the family couldn’t make it back home due to the pandemic.

60 wedding anniversary dundee
The couple will celebrate their anniversary with friends. Mhairi Edwards/DCT Media

“My son hired a car to take us to a restaurant,” Loraine added, “So we’ll be going out in style!”

Loraine said she would advise married couples to work together to overcome problems.

“I would say don’t be put off by something unforeseen happening,” she said.

“You need to stick with it to get through life – that’s the way we go through life.

“We’ve had things that have happened and you think ‘Oh goodness me, we’ll never get through this’ but we always have done.

“But you just have to stick with it.”