Say Yes to the Dress
I ended my last wedding post with telling my parents about my engagement. They were not at all surprised. Daddy just asked if I was sure Jimmy was a Christian. He didn’t ask about where we planned to live, our financial situation or whether I planned to continue my education. Making sure I was marrying a Christian was what he was most concerned about. That speaks volumes about “My First Hero.”
Mother immediately started thinking about the wedding plans. I don’t know what other future brides were like in the mid-70’s but I sure don’t remember any like I see on the TLC show, “Say Yes to the Dress,” nor did I know any “Bridezillas.” The biggest decisions I had to be concerned about were choosing the wedding party, our wedding colors, the dress for the females in the wedding, ordering invitations, a cake and flowers, reserving a photographer and scheduling the minister for the ceremony. There was no question that we would get married in my church.
Frankly, I wasn’t too concerned about any of those things. That’s just not me. Looking back, I failed to truly appreciate the role my mom played in the wedding planning because she literally did it all.
It was a given that she would make my dress as well as the bridesmaids, the flower girls and the jr. bridesmaid’s. She was an excellent seamstress and had done all that for my sisters weddings.
I got engaged in November, 1974, and set the wedding date for June 7, 1975. Because Mother always hosted our large family for Christmas (17 of us) and had to shop for all of us, the wedding planning didn’t start until the new year. In January, after selecting our wedding party, she and I went shopping for material. Pastels were popular for weddings and we found some blue material I liked and they had some yellow material just like it. Thus, the colors were chosen. For some reason, I wanted blue in my dress, so she selected a white eyelet and said she would thread some blue ribbon through the eyelet around the neck and waist of the dress. That was fine by me. She selected the wedding dress pattern with my approval and the other dress styles and got busy sewing. I really didn’t know what my dress would look like until I came home from college one weekend and tried it on. Then I said Yes to the Dress! It wouldn’t have gone over too well if I’d said No. It was such a special photo opportunity. HaHaHa!
Jimmy was in charge of ordering tuxedos for the guys after I told him the wedding colors. I had no idea what they looked like until I walked down the aisle. He was the only one who got fitted. The shop had on record the measurements of two of the guys and Jimmy told the clerk that the others guys were about his size.
We ordered the cheapest invitations we could find. Mother ordered the flowers and cake from a local friend and secured a photographer. The flowers, cake and photographer were the biggest expenses.
Jimmy and I planned to get married in my church but weren’t crazy about the current minister. My parents didn’t care who we asked to marry us but Mother did start prodding us to ask someone when we hadn’t done so by May! We were just so shy when it came to that.
Finally, we worked up our nerve one Sunday afternoon. We had been riding Jimmy’s motorcycle around when we passed by a minister’s house. He was the minister at the Presbyterian church. I was Methodist and Jimmy was Baptist. But, we both knew this minister as my former school bus driver and his former substitute teacher. So, why not ask him, we thought.
We drove up on the motorcycle and knocked on the door. Charlie greeted us and invited us in. We visited a short time (I’m sure he was wondering why on earth we were there). Finally we blurted out that we would like him to be the minister for our wedding. To our astonishment, he immediately starting crying!! Being so nervous and not expecting this reaction, we almost bolted. After a bit, he explained that he was crying because he was so touched and honored that we were asking him. He then started quizzing us about our future plans. After learning that Jimmy had just been laid off from his job and that I didn’t have one, he tried to talk us into postponing our wedding.
After some discussion, I bluntly told him that the invitations were already ordered so plans were not going to change. So, he agreed to marry us.
Gosh, thinking back on all this, everything sure seemed simple compared to all the details so many current brides-to-be now worry themselves about. What kind of plans did you make for your wedding or your childrens? Did it include countless months and hours of planning or was it as easy or easier than mine? Well, easy for me; Mother not so much!
Nothing has changed. I still don’t worry about planning and attention to detail, as many of my family and friends know!
Enjoying your blogs!