No wonder thousands of wartime weddings and passionate love affairs took place during those heady years. Was there ever a period in history when romance was so exciting, so terrifying, and yet so wonderful as during wartime?

Wartime weddings, a candid snapshot shows a man in a uniform and greatcoat passionately kissing his bride on the church steps, she wearing a white gown, flowing veil, and fur jacket, while a smiling bridesmaid, also in a fur coat, looks on.

Here are photographs of some lovely wartime weddings, just in time for Valentine’s Day. I included all the information I could find about them, but some couples are unidentified.

This elaborate wedding, with matching bridesmaid dresses, took place in Sydney, Australia between Sam White and Jean Davidson. Sam was on leave from the HMAS Parramatta. His sister Ella White was the bridesmaid in blue.

Formal portrait shows bride in long white gown with sweeping train and groom in a naval uniform, flanked by a bridesmaid in a filmy pink gown and another bridesmaid in a matching blue gown, along with two groomsmen in brown suits.

This couple who married in Leeds, England is unidentified, but I love the bride’s shy smile and her huge bouquet of roses.

Wartime weddings, groom with dark hair and moustache wearing an army uniform stands with bride in long gown and veil holding a huge bouquet of roses.

Typical of wartime weddings, it wasn’t only grooms who were in uniform! Ernie and Joan Howe of Cambridgeshire, England were both in the armed forces when they married on October 3, 1942.

Black and white photo shows couple standing together on front steps, both wearing Royal Air Force uniforms, their shoulders dotted with confetti, looking very young and nervous.

A pretty bride in a ruffled organdy gown with huge sleeves, a three-tiered wedding cake and a handsome groom made this wartime wedding especially beautiful.

Wartime weddings, grinning American soldier with bare head stands with his smiling bride in a white dress with voluminous puffed sleeves and a heart-shaped headdress and veil, preparing to cut a three-layer cake.

Rose Boulay became a war bride when she married Horace Boulay of Belledune, New Brunswick. She was one of 43,000 British women who married Canadian men during the war. This photo can be found on the Canadian War Brides Facebook Page. Melynda Jarratt of Fredericton, N.B. is the leading war bride expert who has written books on the subject.

Wedding party stands outside a door, the groom in a Canadian army uniform with a bride in a long lace gown, two groomsmen in suits, two bridesmaids in long gowns and short veils, and two little twin girls in white dresses and bobby socks with short veils on their heads, holding bouquets.

No information is available about this glamorous couple, but they look like movie stars in this most glamorous of wartime weddings. The bride is wearing a smart hat with a birdcage veil and carrying a large fur muff, complete with a tiny face. That was the height of fashion back then!

Wartime weddings, a dashing naval officer in uniform with an attractive blonde woman in a suit and hat, a net veil covering her face, her hands buried in a large fur muff.

I’ll bet the groom endured all the typical jokes about wearing a skirt, but doesn’t he look dashing? Eswyn Lister was one of the first war brides to arrive in Canada, when she married Stu Lister. This photo is found on the Canadian War Brides Facebook Page.

Grinning couple stand in front of a pair of wooden doors, he in uniform with a kilt and sporran, and she in a long white dress and veil, holding a large bouquet.

This Australian wedding photo was unearthed in a historic collection; the names are unknown. The little attendants are simply adorable, even if they don’t look very happy.

Wartime weddings, a groom in uniform and a blonde bride in a white gown and veil, two older men in suits, a bridesmaid in a long flowered gown, and two very young attendants, a boy in satin pants and a girl holding a basket of flowers.

Did you ever see two people look so radiant? The bride is gorgeous in her simple green dress and corsage, and the young man is just beaming with pride.

Colored wedding portrait of attractive young couple, she in a pale green dress and hat with a corsage of pink roses pinned to one shoulder, and he in a brown American army uniform.

Here’s a very stylish wedding. The lovely bride resembles Grace Kelly in her elegant satin gown, carrying an armful of lilies.

A wartime wedding in summer, the bride and groom standing at the foot of some steps, he in a khaki uniform and the bride looking very cool and elegant in a sleek white satin gown and a veil, holding a bouquet of lilies in one arm.

Jean Morley of Claremont, Ontario and Harvey Maclean were photographed on their wedding day in a Halifax, Nova Scotia, dockyard chapel. Sadly, as with many wartime weddings, they had one night together before Harvey was shipped out.

Wartime weddings, a very youthful and happy couple holding hands, both wearing uniforms issued by the Canadian navy, she with a corsage pinned to her jacket.

This English bride named Doris is so overjoyed to have her soldier home again that she doesn’t care about his missing leg. She married her French Canadian sweetheart and moved to Montreal, where they had a long and happy marriage. Doris is carrying a silver paper horseshoe for luck, which was common among war brides.

Snapshot of a happy wartime wedding, the one-legged Canadian soldier on crutches with one pant leg pinned behind his kneee, and the bride in a dress and fur jacket holding a lucky wedding horseshoe in one hand.

British society girls also married in wartime weddings, including Deborah Mitford, aged 21, one of the famed Mitford sisters, who married Andrew Cavendish in 1941 and later became the Duchess of Devonshire.

A British officer in uniform holding his cap in one hand walks out of the church with his bride on his arm, who is wearing a long dress with an elaborate floral headpiece and a matching bouquet of cascading white flowers.

This bride wore a purple suit and a hat with a feather in it when she married her handsome Canadian soldier. Cathie and Glen Elliot are pictured here on their wedding day on Christmas Eve, 1940, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Cathie is carrying the traditional silver paper horseshoe for good luck.

Colored photograph of a Canadian soldier in a khaki uniform and the bride in a purple suit and hat with a purple feather, her lucky wedding horseshoe slung over one arm.

Most war brides were British, and after the war they travelled not only to Canada but to the United States, Australia, New Zealand and wherever their husbands lived. Claire Dunlop moved to New Zealand following her wedding to Pilot Officer Allen Dunlop on September 16, 1944.

Bride and groom stand under an arched brick doorway, he in an air force uniform and she in a knee-length pastel dress and a short veil, wearing a corsage and carrying a pair of gloves in one hand.

Clothing was rationed during the war, like everything else, and you had to save your clothing coupons to buy new garments for wartime weddings. Ruth Moll and her sister Gladys pooled their coupons to buy a wedding dress they could share. First Gladys wore the dress, then it was altered for Ruth, shown here at her wedding to Lieutenant Bert Schmidt on December 7, 1943, in Albury, New South Wales. Photo credit: Australian War Memorial.

This sepia photograph show the bride, lovely in her full-length white gown adorned with lace rosettes, while her groom, the best man, and the bridesmaid are all wearing Australian uniforms.

Are they both brides, or is the girl on the left a bridesmaid? No information is available about this wedding. But don’t the girls look beautiful, and aren’t the boys smart in their uniforms?

The bride and her bridesmaids, both dark-haired and smiling and resembling sisters, wearing long gowns and veils and carrying bouquets, are flanked by the groom and his best man, both dressed in American naval uniforms with white caps and white belts.

Charles Miller of Bald Rock, Nova Scotia married his war bride Violet in a lovely wedding on January 12, 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Note the matching bridesmaid dresses, and the huge bouquets of flowers, even in January.

A windblown wedding party standing on the church steps, the groom in a Canadian army uniform, the bride in a long white gown, two men in suits, two bridesmaids in matching gowns with puffed sleeves and covered buttons, a little boy in white pants and a white shirt, and behind them all, a smiling priest in his cassock.

An unidentified English gunner marries a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service in London, October 1939. Her friend decorates the bride with a lucky horseshoe. Photo credit: National Museum of Photography.

Wartime weddings, a candid snapshot of the bride and groom outside the church, flower petals raining down on them, while the bridesmaid pins a lucky horseshoe to the bride's bodice; all three are wearing uniforms.

Canadian soldier Paul Dumaine of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec was taken prisoner of war at Dieppe, France on August 19, 1942 and didn’t see his English fiancée again until the war ended in May 1945. In a desperate effort to end the war sooner, Joan joined the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service herself, after Paul became a prisoner. Here they are on their wedding day on July 4, 1945, just weeks after the war ended. Paul was still very thin and weak from his imprisonment, but both of them look so happy that their long separation is over!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all lovers, young and old!

A beaming dark-haired man in a Canadian soldier's uniform and his equally delighted bride wearing a white dress and veil and holding a bouquet of flowers.