This last week we mailed off our RSVP to a friend’s wedding. We, unfortunately, will not be able to attend. We do wish them the best and know that she will be a beautiful bride. While admiring her invitation it did bring up memories of our own wedding.
We were married November 7, 1981 in Minden, NV. If you don’t know where Minden is, it’s a small town in Northern Nevada. We had a small wedding that we planned in less than five weeks and which I often refer to as a “Murphy’s Law” wedding. Everything that could go wrong did.
Our colors were baby blue and white. I really don’t like blue, but we went with this color because my best friend and maid of honor had a blue dress the she wore at her mom’s wedding. We were trying to save money so we decided that blue was the color for us. A few days before our wedding my friend brought her dress over for me to see. It was the worst looking dress I have ever seen. She didn’t have it cleaned so stains from the previous time that she wore it where horrible. My mom decided that she could make a dress, problem solved or so I thought for the moment. So off to the fabric store we went to find a pattern and fabric. The day of the wedding the dress was held together with everything under the sun except duct tape and if they came in colors other than gray my mom probably would have used it. The flower girls dress was made from the same fabric and held up the same way so at least they matched.
Since we lived in a small town it was hard to find a wedding dress on short notice, so my mom found someone to make me one, problem solved or once again I thought so. My mom had a friend who was a seamstress; I use the word seamstress loosely as the dress that she came up with was worse than the maid of honors dress. She used gingham as the fabric, who used gingham for a wedding dress? Now if you have never worn gingham it itches like crazy and weighs a ton. My dress came all the way up to my neck and was long sleeved so I was red and blotchy from head to toe, an attractive look for a bride. With every wedding dress you need a veil. It was made from a very heavy mesh that was so heavy I couldn’t see through it with a three foot train and not to mention the thing weighed a ton. My sister used a million hair pins to pin this thing to my head. It wasn’t coming off unless I pulled my hair off with it.
My husband decided to get a perm right before we were married, which wouldn’t have been so bad but he looked like he had a blond afro. I gave him one thing to do for the wedding, order the tuxes without my help. Now it sounds like a simple thing but I now know that he needed a little more guidance then what he had. The best man and my step dad were in baby blue tuxes, stop laughing it was a popular color when we were married, and my husband showed up in white, which would have been ok if I was wearing white but my dress was cream. When I got to the church and saw him I was livid. Let the problems begin . . .
As soon as the shock wore off on what he was wearing I went into the church only to discover that the flowers had not arrived and the bows for the pews were on the wrong pews. The bows were an easy fix but the flowers not being there was stressing me out. They did arrive soon but were the wrong flowers. My bouquet was made with some smelly white flower instead of the white carnations and roses that I had ordered and the maid of honors bouquet was a rose bush. We quickly removed as much of the bush as we could and did what we could with my bouquet. I wish I could say that wrong flowers were the only problems but I can’t. My brother, who was the usher, showed up in ripped jeans, a silk shirt unbuttoned to his belly button and duct taped tennis shoes, I kept asking what was wrong with the suit he was supposed to wear, his answer to me was he didn’t like the suit. Ok so I would seat people myself, problem solved, and then my sister’s boyfriend (now husband) stepped in and took over for me what a blessing he was. My aunt who looked a lot like my mom showed up to the wedding with a big gulp cup full of whiskey, more to come later about my aunt and the amount of whiskey she consumed. My mother-in-law was crying so loud and saying things like “don’t do it”. To make the event more enjoyable the organist was playing music that was more fitting for a funeral than a wedding, it really set the tone for the event.
As my step dad came into the room and asked if I was ready I starting laughing and said “no, I’m not doing this” I didn’t mean get married, I love my husband and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him but I could walk out there and face my guests. My step dad in his not so nice way said “yes you are I didn’t put on the monkey suit for nothing” he then proceeded to toss me out the door where I promptly landed on the floor in front of everyone. I’m sure that I made quite an impression on not only my new husband but also on my guests. So I picked myself up off the floor, pretended that everything was ok and proceeded to walk down the aisle with my step dad. As I stood there taking my vows I couldn’t help myself I started laughing, not just a small little giggle I mean the kind of laugh that tears started rolling down my face. My husband was so surprised and he kept nudging me and saying stop laughing it’s not funny. I laughed so hard that soon other’s joined me. After taking our vows we turn around and the minister introduced us. Somehow the best man stepped on my train, I fell back and lucky for me he caught me. So once again I made quite an impression on our guest.
After the wedding we went to the reception where the problems continued. Remember how my aunt showed up with a big gulp cup full of whiskey. She had managed to drink the whole thing at the wedding. Still this would have been ok but everyone thought that she was my mom and so most of our pictures have her in it and not my mom. She also proceeded to make a big announcement that let’s just say was not appropriate for a wedding and soon after that she passed out on the buffet table in the potato salad. My mother-in-law continued crying and saying things like “I can’t believe that you did this, you have ruined your life”. The cake was the wrong color and flavor. I was so miserable that I would only stay at the reception for about two hours and then I had to get out of there. I told my new husband that I was leaving and he could join me or stay at the reception it was his choice. He decided to join me.
We left to go to Caesars Palace at Lake Tahoe where we had a nice room that had a heart shaped tub and a huge bed. We went and had a buffet dinner since we were unable to eat at our reception and came back to our room where my new husband proceeded to call his mother and talk on the phone. I went to bed because I had had a big day. The next morning I looked at my new husband and said “if we could survive our wedding and reception we could survive anything” and then we both laughed because that was pretty much all that we could do at this point.
We later found out that people had been placing bets at our wedding on how long we were going to be married. Three years was the longest that we were given. We have lasted 29 years and are still very much in love. My aunt has since past away but I will always have the memory of her at my wedding, people soon discovered that she was not my mom and the photographer apologized for taking so many pictures of her and not my mom, my mother-in-law finally did accept me around our 24th year of marriage and we have proven everyone that while our wedding wasn’t perfect it was still our day. We wish our friends the best in their new life together and have no doubt that they too will have a long and happy marriage.
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