Wedding Announcement

August 2, 1980

Sometime a few weeks after our wedding we posted our wedding announcement in the London Free Press. The picture at left was used with text that read:

Mr. and Mrs. Reg Quinton (sic!)

Kathryn Graham, of Vancouver, and Reg Quinton, of London, exchanged wedding vows on August 2, 1980 at a moving outdoor ceremony on the campus of The University of Western Ontario, London. Chaplain Charles Scott conducted an original wedding service which he wrote with the bride and groom. The bride's attendants were Alison Preston of Vancouver, Monica MacMahon of London, and Joan Watson of Belleville. The groom's attendants were Mike Schwan of Toronto, Gord Graham of London, and Ken Edmonstone of Walter's Falls.

Kate and Reg would like to express special appreciation to their parents Jack and Doreta Graham, of Belleville, and Maurice and Margaret Quinton, of Walter's Falls. They would also like to thank their friends and relatives from far and near who made the occasion such a happy one. The medieval recorder music provided by Connie Varner, Monica MacPherson and Jenny Beale which preceded the ceremony was appreciated by all attending. Also appreciation is expressed to the staff at the University Food Services who provided an excellent meal and gracious service.

Following the reception the couple were entertained by N.F.G. at the Cedar Lounge and honeymooned at the Park Lane Hotel in London. They are pictured above in their going-away outfits. Photo by Farnsworth.

The title "Mr. and Mrs." is in error. Kate never had any intention of taking my name but we had not been explicit with the paper. We ought to have caught that before it was published.

Transcribed and posted 2025/08/18 on the occasion of our 45th wedding anniversary.

Our Wedding

Click for more images ...

Kate and I were married on August 2, 1980 — a Saturday afternoon of the Civic Holiday weekend outside in a garden by the Ivey Business School on the campus of the University of Western Ontario (where I was a PhD student in Philosophy, where Kate later got her PhD in Psychology).

Kate was a half hour late for the service and a little shower came up afterwards. Both odd omens but it seems to have worked out well.

We had an afternoon reception for our family, friends and guests at Somerville House and we partied that evening at the Blue Boot/Cedar Lounge with Alison Preston (Kate's maid of honor) and Neil Farnsworth (the photographer) where the infamous punk band NFG were playing. It was a hoot!

The photo at left is one of a group of wedding photos taken at a demolition site by our friend Neil Farnsworth (he was a classmate of mine). We used another photo from that day for our wedding announcement in the London Free Press. The paper was somewhat reluctant to post our announcement, "We can't see your eyes", "It will cost you extra", etc. but did agree. For many years afterwards we'd have people, who we didn't know at all, come up to us and say "We have your wedding announcement posted on our fridge!" We were "fab" back then -- or so we tell the young ones.

We met on the May 24th weekend (aka Victoria Day) through Kate's brother Gord who was also a classmate of mine. Kate was living in Vancouver B.C. at the time (that's a long plane ride away) where she was working on a PhD in Psychology at Simon Fraser. She was visiting her parents (Jack & Doreta) who were adding an addition to their cottage north of Kingston. Gord had invited me along to help hammer nails. Kate and I had met briefly a couple of years before when Gord and his wife Monica first came to London but we count the May 24th weekend of 1980 as our first "real" meeting. Somehow we clicked and some 10 weeks later we were married.

"Still crazy after all these years."