War Doesn't Stop Love!

WWII Army nurse weddings required navigation of strict military regulations. Marriage was allowed, but it was highly discouraged by the Army Nurse Corps. Pregnancy led to an automatic discharge. Nurses usually wore their dress uniform for the ceremony, unless they were able to find a wedding dress. Many nurses continued serving after marriage, often working with their spouses. However, they were not permitted to live together.

Weddings were often hastily put together as neither bride or groom could get more leave than a weekend at best. But the weddings were joyous events and created some hours of 'normal' during wartime. The bride and groom's military colleagues threw themselves into creating the best bridal showers, bachelor parties, and receptions they could with available materials. Those colleagues substituted for absent parents and siblings. Loving head nurses often assumed the role of mother of the bride. 

In my novel, Dear Nora, Nora writes home: "Last weekend, one of our Red Cross girls married her GI at All Saints, and they really did it up with bridesmaids, groomsmen, flowers, music, candles, cake, dancing—the works. Everyone was invited. The other Red Cross girls were
bridesmaids and wore evening dresses. Colonel McCann gave the bride away. A local seamstress did a beautiful job creating the wedding dress from a silk parachute. A sea of cameramen filmed the wedding so if you see a wedding in the newsreels, look for me."