Write Stories About Family Weddings

Today is our 52nd wedding anniversary. The pink bells remind me of the ones that topped our wedding cake in 1964. My mother and I ordered the cake from the local bakery, whose owners happened to live next door to my parents. What a lovely surprise when they refused to take any money for the cake, giving it to us as a wedding gift.

Our wedding was quite small by today's standards. We had twenty people celebrate the big day with us. Our immediate families and a couple close friends. Even so, we were married in church and I had a traditional wedding dress in the style of the day. It was ivory peau de soie with a waltz-length bell shaped skirt, appliqued embroidery on the bodice. My veil was attached to a Jackie Kennedy pillbox circlet to match the dress. We had a wedding dinner at a supper club after opening gifts and being toasted with champagne at my parents' home. The reason that our wedding was not a big one is that the groom declared that he was not coming if it was over 20 people. I thought it pretty important that he be there, so I caved! To this day, he still claims ours was one of the nicest weddings he ever went to.

Ken had just started a new job in a bank so no time for a honeymoon. We spent the night at a nice hotel near O'Hare airport and went on to our new home the next day. The 'new home' was a furnished apartment in Zion, IL which is located in about the farthest northeast corner of the the state of IL. Right on the shore of Lake Michigan. I remember a romantic walk on the beach that Sunday.

When I talked to my mom the next week, I mentioned that I hoped she saved the leftover wedding cake in the freeezer so that we could enjoy it on our first anniversary. "Oh, there wasn't any left. Your three brothers ate all the leftovers that night!" And then she also told me that middle brother had come down with the measles that night, as well.

Even 52 years later, our wedding week-end seems like only yesterday. Events like this stay with us in our memory bank. There are wedding stories of all kinds that should be recorded and kept somewhere for others in the family to read. They are a perfect addition to your Family Stories Book.

Think about it--your children and grandchildren would probably like to read about your wedding. It doesn't matter if it was a huge extravaganza or very small. Or perhaps an elopement, which is what my own parents did. They kept it a secret for a full six weeks. My mother never wrote the story about their unusual wedding but she told the story many times. I am the one who wrote it for her grandchildren and others to read. How many women get married in a scarlet red dress and have to wait for the Justice of the Peace to answer a phone call and plan a fishing trip in the middle of the ceremony?

What are the wedding stories in your family like? Happy? Humorous? Sad? Miserable? Weddings bring out all kinds of things in families--good and bad. They all deserve to be recorded sometime, somewhere, somehow. If no one in your family has done so, take it upon yourself to write the story of your wedding. Or your parents' wedding. Or that of your children or siblings--anyone you are related to.

How about those wedding stories where you were a bridesmaid or a groomsman? Lots of good stories there.

Our wedding in 1964 with my parents

2016