Mr. & Mrs. Lennon

The marriage certificate of John and Cynthia Lennon; the only piece of evidence from August 23, 1962. No photographs were taken.

On August 23, 1962, John Winston Lennon and Cynthia Powell got married at Mount Pleasant Registry Office in the late morning/early afternoon. Cynthia was driven there by Brian Epstein while John, with Paul McCartney and George Harrison, was already there along with Cynthia’s brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Marjory Powell. Tony and Marjory were on a 'lunch break’ from work to quickly attend and represent the Powell family. Meanwhile, John's family was not there due to Mimi's boycott and would receive her wrath if anybody dared to show up. Yet, Paul and George were there to support John, the Beatles’ family. Ringo Starr had just joined the band for a few days but wasn't invited, he wasn't that close to John, Paul, and George just yet.

It was cloudy, raining- not exactly ideal wedding weather but then again, it's what England is known for. Cynthia wore her best black and purple checkered two piece suit (jacket and skirt) with a white blouse given to her by Astrid a year before. Her hair was up in a french braid pleat and she did it herself. Brian was the Best Man, but there was no Maid of Honor, bridesmaid, flowers, not even a darn camera to take pictures! How could anyone not even think of bringing a camera along? I can't ever understand that! Then there's the typical wedding traditions:

Something old… her purple & black suit and handbag (purse)

Something new… a new life growing inside her

Something borrowed…n/a

Something blue… feeling blue

When the register asked for the groom to step forward, jokester George did so but I guess the register wasn't amused. Just as the ceremony began, a loud drill started! The small wedding party couldn't hear a thing! This sounds like a perfect setting for a sitcom… it was hard for everybody (except for the register) to keep a straight face.

Artwork by Cynthia of her wedding to John

“There was a drill going on all the time outside. I couldn't hear a word the bloke was saying. Then we went across the road and had a chicken dinner. I can't remember any presents. We never went in for them. It was all a laugh.”

John, 1968

“I don't remember much about John's wedding. It took place in August 1962. He just went in the registry office in Liverpool one afternoon and in the evening we got into the car, went to the gig (we actually did a gig that night), and it was, 'Well we got married!’ It wasn't hushed up, it just wasn't mentioned to the press. There was no wedding- it was a five minute thing in the Registry Office. It was different in those days. No time to lose.”

George Harrison

The concert was in Chester and it was booked long before the wedding was planned, possibly before Cynthia announced she was pregnant. The wedding party (minus Tony and Marjory) went to Reece's restaurant where they had the lunch special and the newlyweds were toasted with water since Reece's didn't have an alcohol license… which is probably a good thing considering that drinking alcohol is a no no for pregnant women, although it was probably not known of at the time. During lunch, Brian did have a wedding gift for John and Cynthia: his apartment that he occasionally used (mainly for his gay trysts) since John still lived technically at Mimi's and Cynthia's apartment wasn't exactly suited for the growing family. After lunch, John helped Cynthia moved out of her apartment before he went to Mimi's to get his things (I wonder if Mimi was there? Silent treatment?) before going off to Chester while Cynthia arranged the apartment and putting things away.

“The ballroom was long and thin and the dressing room was to the right of the stage. Halfway through our set, mid song, John Lennon jumped up on the stage and yelled at us: 'How many of our fucking numbers are you going to play?' I was very very annoyed and jumped up from my drumming seat, I was the nearest to him. Luckily Dave Williams calmed me down. We were not some up and coming group we were very experienced and you just don’t do that to fellow artists. Well in those days if you lived in a rough area you could always look after yourself and I just reacted instinctively. After Dave calmed me down we just carried on playing. After all, at the time they were just another group, yes they were popular but so was Rory Storm, Faron, Blue Genes, Kingsize and Gerry. And everyone covered the popular numbers, our own and each others. We found out when we came off stage that John had got married that day, Brian Epstein was best man and wanted to keep the wedding hush hush as he felt it would mar the Beatles image with the fans when they found out. Paul and George were also at the wedding as witnesses. John’s Aunt Mimi had boycotted the wedding because she strongly disapproved. Brian treated the wedding party to a wedding breakfast at Reece's Cafeteria in Liverpool. It was also revealed later that Cynthia was pregnant. So bearing all this in mind we forgave him, it must have been a very demanding day for him.”
Harry Prytherch, band member from The Remo Four an opening act for The Beatles in Chester, 2011

“John was dismayed but bowed to the inevitable, though not as dismayed as Mimi or Brian. This wasn't in Brian's plans for the boys at all- a Beatle had to be footloosed and fancy free and available… Although the whole affair was very private and had been hushed up, at one point John did say that he hadn't really wanted to get married and felt pushed into it… No, wedding bliss was not John's scene at all. 'Christ,’ he said after a gig in Chester as we were packing up, 'I can't believe I went through with it.’

Tony Bramwell

“I didn't marry a Beatle. I married a broke student who played the guitar and ponced all my grant money off me for fags*.”

Cynthia, 1999

*Fags is a British slang term for cigarettes

“My wife married me not because I'm a Beatle, but because she loves me.”

John

“Even I only learned the news several weeks later, when I told John of my own plans to marry my girlfriend, Beth, the following March. 'So how about you, John?’ I bantered, well aware of John's disparaging attitude towards the holy institution of marriage, 'When are you and Cyn going to get married, then?’ 'We already are married,’ he said with an embarrassed grin, then hastily changed the subject. He clearly viewed his wedding as a little more than a trivial nuisance and something hardly worth talking about.”

Pete Shotton, 1983

John showing off Cynthia's wedding ring with Ringo Starr at the Peppermint Lounge Club in New York City, February of 1964

Neil Aspinall didn't know John was married other than he and Cynthia were living 'in sin’ whenever he dropped John home from gigs. One day John brought along Ringo to meet Cynthia but said no word about them being married. Cynthia was making Vesta Beef Curry for John but had limited portions; Ringo politely refused the curry and a sandwich she also offered to make other than tea. Cynthia didn't know at the time Ringo’s childhood illnesses and his sensitivity towards certain foods, especially spicy like curry. Their meeting was awkward and standoffish for a little while until it eventually wore off and became good friends.

“When Ringo joined the group, I never told him I was married. At the time I didn't want it to get around and I didn't know how well I could trust him to keep it secret. But it came out one day when we Beatles went to an accountant’s office and he asked, 'Do you have any dependents?’ and I said, 'Yes, I’ve got a wife.’”

John, 1965

“John got married just after I replaced Pete, but nobody told me. I found out when we were to see an accountant about our tax and John started claiming for a dependent. The other two knew, I supposed he wanted it kept secret at that time, and I still wasn't in the inner circle.”

Ringo Starr, 1964

“I didn't go to the wedding- John never even told me he’d got married. John and Cynthia were keeping it a secret from everyone. If something got mentioned, it was, 'Shh, Ring’s in the room…’ John didn't tell me anything until we went on tour and got to know one another in all the doss houses where we camped.”

Ringo Starr

“We were both sort of bowled over by the fact that we were married. It wasn't a question of 'Have we done the right thing?’ It was all perfectly natural that we should be together. But John didn't get a real chance to be first a real husband, or later, a real father. Once he got on the Beatles bandwagon he couldn't get off, even if he wanted to.”

Cynthia, 1985

To me, I don't think of John and Cynthia's wedding as a 'shotgun’. Elopement, sure, but not shotgun. It wasn't as if John knocked Cynthia up after an one night stand or a very brief relationship. They had been together for four years at that point. To be honest, I am surprised that a pregnancy happened then rather than earlier as they were a couple of horny rascals at every chance they had. Whatever he may have felt, John was there. He arrived at the register office before Cynthia did. Cynthia believed that John seemed to have taken the title of husband and soon-to-be father in stride as she noticed the look on his face while they were having their wedding lunch.

Rather than calling Cynthia 'Miss Powell’ or 'Miss Prim’, John started calling her 'Mrs. Lennon’.
Of course, there's always that negativity looming around. Both John and Cynthia doubted that they would have gotten married if she hadn't gotten pregnant. Deep down, they were drifting apart. She was going to be an art teacher while John was a working and traveling musician. They had different outlooks on their future. Shortly after they got married, John traveled to London to record Love Me Do to be released as a single and, in one day, The Beatles recorded their first album, Please Please Me, released in early 1963.

John at the Cavern Club in Liverpool during the afternoon on August 22, 1962, about 24 hours before becoming a married man

“I asked John the crucial question, 'If Cyn had not been pregnant in 1962, would you have gotten married?’ He thought for a long time and then replied, 'It’s a hypothetical question after the event but I don't think so.’ I was left with the impression that John was never truly in love until he met Yoko Ono…”

Tony Barrow

“On different occasions both John and Cyn indicated to me that they married because baby Julian was on the way and without this binding factor both might well have gone their separate ways as soon as the Beatles took off, rather than 6 years later. To have kept the baby but not married would have taken a more courageous soul than John, who was bold but not brave beneath his leathery mask of bravado.”

Tony Barrow

“They were totally opposites but right for each other and, although they came from different backgrounds, they were a perfect match. I think they would obviously have taken longer to get married, but it would have happened. They loved each other very much. There was no separating them.”

Phyllis Mackenzie

“I lived for the moment. I was never really dreaming about the future or marriage or babies. It never entered my mind. I was just very, very happy just to be with him. I’m quite a survivor, so probably inside me I thought, 'Well, I can probably survive whatever happens.’ Youth is very brave and as I said, love is blind. I didn't think about the future.”

Cynthia

“My talents and aspirations had to be put on the back burner, but that was as much my fault as anybody's else’s.”

Cynthia, 1999

“Brian Epstein had a flat near the art college in Faulkner Street, and we moved in there until we got ourselves sorted out.”

Cynthia, 1988

“You know something, when you're young, love is very blind. I had no idea what was going to happen. We were just living for the moment. And that was the way it should’ve been and it was. So, I didn't know. I probably thought at some stage that he would never, ever make any serious commitment or anybody and that he would end up as a drunken bum on the streets. But, I mean he was lucky. He was in the right place at the right time and he had a lot of support from his friends. And of course, meeting Brian, which changed his whole life.”

Cynthia, 2005

“Even though we were at Liverpool Art College together, he was not supportive of my painting. He didn't have time. My painting had to go out of the window. I left college when I became pregnant with Julian and so I didn't get my piece of paper to say I was going to be an art teacher. All I've got is a National Diploma- which I'm very proud of and which hangs on my wall.”

Cynthia, 1995