We chose a Saturday afternoon at 3:30, the hand of the clock on the upswing during the ceremony. It was my mom and I who carefully and frugally planned the day, beginning with my dress, which was ‘worn’ for a bridal fashion show and cost $60.00. This was 1965 and my father was a junior college administrator, my mother, a homemaker; there was not a lot of extra cash for fancy parties.
The church was an old, Gothic brownstone, one block from the library in Glendale, California. It was my family’s church, Presbyterian, large and conservative. About 650 of our closest family and friends came striding down the aisles of that glorious old sanctuary to hear us say, “I do.” That number was possible because people didn’t ‘do’ dinners for wedding receptions in those days. It never occurred to us.
We offered wedding cake (baked by a neighbor), nuts in a cup, buttery mints, punch, coffee and tea. Homemade table decor graced rounds of eight, set up in the church gymnasium where we greeted our guests. . . all our guests. I don’t think we ever ate a bite of cake, past the obligatory one for picture-taking. . .
To read the rest of our story, I invite you to join me at A Deeper Family today. I am so grateful to be writing in that space. . .
