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A Wedding To Remember — Mine

A year ago, I was preparing for a wedding — my own. I could never have imagined what was in store in the near future. I am so thankful that it is not this year.

Of course, when you marry you need a dress. I thought I had that covered. There was a dress in my closet that I purchased for a cruise but never worn. My daughter-in-law helped me into it. While it was alright, it was not really a good color for me. Beige and I do not exactly get along. I am too pale.

I had seen a dress on the Internet that I really liked. It was a lovely shade of blue. My children told me to order the dress and see which one I liked the best. I took their advice.

At the beginning of April, I placed the order. Toward the end of the month I got a confirmation from the supplier that I would have the dress by the end of May. Oh no. That would never do. The wedding was June 1.

I was going on a shopping trip to Erie soon so I guessed I was going to have to look around there to see if I could find a dress.

My granddaughter and I had volunteered at the hospital on a Tuesday morning. She came home with me so that I could try a dress that I found as well as the one I had to see if either was acceptable. I trusted her judgment.

When I tried the dresses on for her, she told me the jewelry that I had was not the right thing to wear with either dress.The dress was OK, but not exactly what she envisioned either.

On my trip to Erie, Pa., I would look for a dress and/or some new jewelry.We went on-line so I could show her the dress I was waiting for.

She pressed a few buttons and told me — miracle of miracles — the dress I was waiting for was in my mailbox that day. We went to the mailbox and retrieved a very small package. Could this possibly be the dress? If it was, I suspected it to be quite wrinkled.

It was back to the undressing and trying on phase. The dress not only was not all wrinkled, but it fit me perfectly. She looked at me and pronounced that this was the dress I should wear. I had the perfect jewelry so I was all set. It was just past the middle of May.

I am not sure where that dress came from but they must have waited for the order, then made the dress! I made a note to not order from that company again.

We ordered the wedding cake, complete with blue flowers. My daughter and granddaughter came up with the flowers – a bouquet of silk flowers so that I would not have to worry about my allergies.

The day of the wedding arrived. I had my son drive me and the meat I had cooked for the dinner afterwards to the church. Everyone was worried because I had not arrived.

A funnier ceremony you could not have imagined. We had no rehearsal – none was offered. I trusted the organist with all of the music. It would not require much on her part.

I followed my daughter and granddaughter down the aisle on the arm of my son. When I got to the front of the church the minister told me to sit down. That meant that I was on one side of the church and the groom and his son were on the other side. I thought it strange at the time, but I had no idea what the minister planned. We did as we were told.

When he began to read the vows, I could keep still no longer. I said, “Aren’t we supposed to be together for this?” At this point all of the children and grandchildren laughed.While we repeated our vows and the ceremony continued it was laughter the whole way. He told us to repeat after him, but gave us nothing to repeat. Then he paused after each phrase to be sure I answered correctly. The wedding rings were exchanged — without being dropped thankfully.

At least that kept the ceremony light. When it was done, he did introduce us as husband and wife. The dinner was served by the ladies of the church and went off without a hitch. The cake was different story. After we did our initial piece the rest of the cake was cut by my daughter and granddaughter. There was a divider between the layers which made the cutting quite a challenge.

A couple weeks after we were married, I got to thinking about the license. We received it from the minister. On June 10 I dug it out to look at it. It said that if it was not turned in to the county in 10 days, we were subject to a fine. I sent my husband to the church with the portion that belonged there telling him to just give it to the secretary. I took the finished portion to the courthouse. I found out later that the minister should have taken care of that. He was the one who would have been fined.

Well it is now a year later. We are legally married, but who could have predicted what 2020 would bring. We have spent the last two months sequestered at home for the most part watching reruns of old shows. We go to the store about once a week for groceries. There are no sports being played so there is nothing on that score to watch. We have seen no one except for those we have seen by acceptable safe distancing.

All I want is for things to get back to normal.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell, Pa. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.

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