Almost 60 years on from losing the footage from their Aberdeen wedding, Bill and Aileen Turnbull had given up hope of ever seeing it again.
The couple walked down the aisle at Mastrick Church on August 5, 1967, and were only able to view their wedding video once before it went missing.
They had borrowed a projector from a work colleague but did not realise the film was still in it when it was returned.
Bill and Aileen, both aged 77, moved to Brisbane with their three children in 1981 and said the lost footage gradually “went out of their minds”.
This was until Aileen stumbled upon a photo from their big day shared on a Facebook page for Mastrick residents last month.
Missing wedding film found in Aberdeen
Terry Cheyne, from Aberdeen, captured most of his own footage during his time in the Royal Navy.
It was not until he got all his tapes back from his uncle and transferred to DVD that he realised he had the stranger’s wedding video in his collection.
“When I left the Navy, my uncle told me he was downsizing so I went to rescue my films and just threw them in a cupboard for years and years,” he told Claire and Pete on the Original 106 breakfast show this morning.
“I then met a guy who could transfer them to DVD and on the first film there was a wedding of people I didn’t know.
“Everyone had passed away and I’m the oldest in the family, so I had nobody to ask who it was.”
After he retired last year, Terry became determined to solve the mystery and decided to share a post on the Aberdonia Unlimited Facebook page.
After six months with no replies, Terry had given hope – until someone shared his post on the Mastrick group page.
‘We can’t thank him enough’
Aileen, who grew up in Mastrick, had only been a member of the Facebook group for five minutes when she saw her own wedding photo pop up.
“I was absolutely amazed, I couldn’t believe it,” she told Claire and Pete.
“If I hadn’t done it, there’s no way I would have seen the photograph Terry put in.”
The couple then discovered the work colleague they had borrowed the projector from in 1967 had been Terry’s uncle.
“Terry had been sending back films, so what we think probably happened was our tape got mixed up with his film,” Bill, originally from Kincorth, said.
“We just got on with life and it went out of our minds.”
The couple hope to meet Terry the next time they visit Aberdeen to thank him in person.
We both can’t thank him enough,” Aileen said. “We can’t wait to get over there and meet Terry in person and thank him properly.
“He’s put a lot of thought into trying to track us down, we’re very appreciative of that,” Bill added.
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