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Strangers solved our 57-year wedding mystery

Aileen received a blast from the past through a Facebook message
Aileen and Bill Turnbull. (Image: Supplied)
Aileen and Bill Turnbull. (Image: Supplied)
  • As confetti showered down on Aileen and her groom, Bill, they were thrilled to have a cinecamera capturing their special day
  • Shortly after their nuptials, the pair tracked down a projector on which to watch the footage
  • They had a ball reliving their big day after the fact
  • Bill returned the projector to his mate but when others wanted to watch the wedding reel, it was nowhere to be foundโ€ฆ and so their wedding mystery began
  • Decades later, a stranger overseas posted a photo of Bill and Aileenโ€™s big day on Facebook. He said heโ€™d been trying to track down the newlyweds.
  • Aileen Turnbull, from Mount Warren Park, Qld, shares how the stranger solved their wedding mystery after 57 yearsโ€ฆ

Stepping out of the church in my beautiful wedding dress, I smiled at the crowd.

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โ€œCongratulations,โ€ cheered my friends, as they threw confetti over me and my handsome new husband, Bill.

โ€œStand over there,โ€ instructed the wedding photographer.

Bill and I, both 20, stood on the stairs of the Mastrick Parish Church in Aberdeen, Scotland as the photographer snapped away at us

It was August 5, 1967.

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Bill and I on our wedding day. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and me on our wedding day. (Image: Supplied)

I wore a beautiful white satin dress that Iโ€™d seen in a shop window on my bus commute to my job at a department store.

My colleague Margaretโ€™s husband, Gilbert, had a cinecamera, which creates a series of photos to produce moving pictures, and he took some footage of the wedding, too.

โ€œWalk this way,โ€ he instructed, so Bill and I faced his camera and smiled.

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Afterwards, our guests went to a new restaurant in town for the reception.

It was a beautiful day.

Bill and I had met when we were 15 and both worked at a department store. I had a job in accounts and he was the lift operator.

We were engaged by 18 and married two years later.

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Bill and I on our wedding day. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and I were thrilled to have our special day captured on cinecamera. (image: Supplied)

After we got back from our honeymoon in Edinburgh, Margaret asked if weโ€™d like to see the cine footage Gilbert had filmed.

โ€œOh, yes please!โ€ I said.

โ€œYouโ€™ll need a projector,โ€ she said, handing me the cine reel.

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One of Billโ€™s colleagues, Brian, had one and leant it to us.

Bill brought it home from work and set it up in our living room.

โ€œIsnโ€™t that lovely,โ€ I sighed, reliving our wonderful day.

Not long afterwards, Brian asked for his projector back, so Bill packed it all up and gave it to him.

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Some weeks later, my mum asked to see the footage.

I searched for the reel high and low.

โ€œI canโ€™t find it anywhere,โ€ I said to Bill.

He asked Brian, but he said he didnโ€™t have it.

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Footage of our special day had disappeared. It was a complete wedding mystery.

Bill and I with Susan and Craig. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and me with Susan and Craig. (Image: Supplied)

I was sad, but weโ€™d made a wedding album and had lots of lovely pictures framed, so I soon forgot about it.

In 1969, we had our twins Susan and Craig, and three years later our daughter Donna was born.

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Then, in 1981, Bill was offered an opportunity to move to Australia for work.

My sister Rhonda and her family had already emigrated and loved it, so I jumped at the chance.

We settled in Brisbane.

I got a job on the switchboard at Griffith Uni and Bill headed up an electrical motor parts company.

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As years passed, Bill and I became grandparents and both retired.

One afternoon in October 2024, I was sitting on the couch with my iPad. I donโ€™t often check Facebook but for some reason this day I did, and something caught my eye.

There was a group for people whoโ€™d grown up in Mastrick, Scotland.

I joined the group and the first thing that came up was a wedding photo.

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Bill and I in Brisbane in 2000. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and me in Brisbane in 2000. (Image: Supplied)

โ€œOh my goodness,โ€ I cried, my hand covering my mouth in shock. โ€œBill, look at this, itโ€™s us!โ€

โ€œWho has our wedding photo?โ€ he asked, confused.

โ€œI donโ€™t know,โ€ I replied.

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Itโ€™d been posted by a woman named Pamela.

The caption said that someone named Terry had posted on another Aberdeen group back in April about an old cine reel heโ€™d discovered of a wedding held at Mastrick Parish Church.

Heโ€™d been going through some old navy reels and our wedding had come up.

He watched the footage but couldnโ€™t recognise anyone in it.

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So, he put up an appeal on social media.

Straightaway, I sent a message to Pamela.

Thatโ€™s me in the photo, I wrote.

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She instantly responded.

You need to contact Terry Cheyne, she said.

So I did.

He also responded immediately.

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Bill and I on our 50th wedding anniversary in 2017. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and me on our 50th wedding anniversary in 2017. (Image: Supplied)

Iโ€™d given up hope of ever solving this wedding mystery! he wrote, obviously amazed.

He told me his uncle had kept all his old navy footage.

โ€œAsk him what his uncleโ€™s name was,โ€ Bill said so I did.

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It was Brian. That solved our wedding mystery!

Terry had kept boxes of his old cine reels in his attic and now that he was retired, his grandson had suggested he transfer them all onto DVD.

Heโ€™d done so, and discovered our lost wedding footage.

Would you like to see it? he asked.

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Oh yes! I replied.

He sent it to us as an internet link.

Bill and I sat on the sofa and watched as our wedding from 57 years before came to life on the iPad screen.

It had no sound, but was in full colour.

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It was so surreal. So many of our guests had since passed away. Weโ€™d often reminisced about them but to see our parents and Billโ€™s grandparents moving around was just incredible.

Bill and I celebrating our 52nd Wedding Anniversary in 2019. (Image: Supplied)
Bill and me celebrating our 52nd Wedding Anniversary in 2019. (Image: Supplied)

My flower girl, my niece Karen, then two, now 59, handed me a horseshoe for luck and you could see me lean down to kiss her.

โ€œIโ€™d forgotten about that,โ€ I said to Bill in amazement.

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Next day, our son Craig, 55, popped over to watch it with us. Weโ€™ve since sent the link to all our relatives, who think itโ€™s wonderful.

Weโ€™re just so thankful to Terry for finding us and solving our wedding mystery.

Someone else mightโ€™ve thrown it away, but he decided to track us down.

We hope to visit Scotland soon and would love to meet up with Terry to thank him personally.

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What a special gift it has been to be reunited with footage of that magical day after all this time.

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