THE DATE
1985: Most nuptials occurred on a Saturday, with the majority taking place in June, July and August.

INVITATIONS
1985: Snail mail was the only way to send the 150-200 formally-worded, cream-coloured heavy card stock invites to your guests. And, you had to hand-address each one!

CEREMONY
1985: The religious ceremony was held in a sacred space (church, temple, etc.), where you and your mister faced the officiant while speaking traditional vows.

RECEPTION
1985: A cash bar was common—maybe that’s why wedding expenses were lower back then! The room was often decorated with paper flowers, balloons, white mini-lights or rented plants. The tables were decked out in tulle and mini-bud vases (usually containing a rose), with low centrepieces that used flowers, candles, or baskets of fruit.

FLOWERS
1985: Conventional choices were the norm: red, pink and white roses.

CAKE
1985: The three-tier fruit cake covered in marzipan then swathed in royal icing was still in vogue. A few brides moved outside the cake box to choose pound or butter cakes in chocolate, carrot, black forest, banana, mocha or lemon flavours. While the average bride paid $150 for a cake that fed 175 guests, back then you could still fork out up to $5,000.

FAVOURS
1985: Guests were given matchbooks monogrammed with the newlyweds’ names and wedding date, and Jordan almonds or candy in net bags tied with ribbon.

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO
1985: It was all about colour images, formal scenarios and still photography, with the photographer using an SLR camera.

MUSIC
1985: The '80s hipsters chose “Crazy for You” by Madonna as their song. Other choices that year were “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and The News, “You Give Good Love” by Whitney Houston and the always classic “At Last” by Etta James.

Photography Jim Allen. First published in Weddingbells Fall & Winter 1985.