Monday, January 19, 2009

Wedding 1972 style

Okay, I admit it. I have "wedding on the brain" right now. Tresa e-mailed me their vows and I sat at my computer crying as I read them. Are you kidding me? If I am crying sitting all by myself in my workshop in front of my computer in my sweats and t-shirt...can you tell me what I am going to do when my little girl and her wonderful guy are reciting those vows at the wedding?

Are you married? What kind of wedding did you have? If you aren't married yet, what kind of wedding would you like if you do get married?

Irv and I got married in 1972. We were 20 years old. I'm not sure how I would have felt if any of my kids had said they were getting married at the age of 20, but things were a little different back in my day. Most of the girls didn't go to college. We got jobs, lived at home, got married and started our families. It was definitely the right thing for me. It was all I ever wanted. I came from a fairly large family where there were always kids around. I loved kids and I couldn't wait to have my own.

Our wedding was at the beautiful Catholic church in town. I converted to Irv's faith since I really didn't practice one of my own. It required classes. We also had to take classes to make sure we knew what married life would be like and what was expected of us by the church...and that was to be good Catholics and to have lots of little baby Catholics. (I feel a religion blog coming on...maybe tomorrow)

Our wedding was the traditional Catholic church wedding with mass. We had a pretty good sized bridal party and wow the girls had the greatest dresses and hats! Yes, hats!!! I found the dresses in a bridal magazine and had to call the company to find out where we could get them. I thought that was so cool.

My dress.....very virginal. Every square inch of my tiny little body was covered with fabric, from half way up my neck, down to my fingertips and down to my toes! I had a long veil and felt like a Princess....a very covered Princess. The dress was definitely me!

The girl's dresses covered them as well. It was a good thing I had selected empire waist dresses for them because both of my sister's were pregnant for my wedding. One was almost 5 months and the other was a very large 6 months! My sister-in-law that was not in the wedding was also 6 months pregnant. Talk about a fertile family!

We thought our reception was just the best. It was at this remodeled barn that belonged to the Knights of Columbus. We ate dinner downstairs...yummy family style with chicken and beef, mashed potatoes, some kind of vegetable, a salad and rolls. Hey, it was 1972 and that was the popular option at that time. We could have selected a buffet! Our cake was beautiful including the lovely plastic "topper"!

After dinner we went upstairs for dancing. Yes, we did the traditional tossing of the bouquet and garter, but we also had to do this thing where I wore this little satin apron that one of Irv's little Polish Aunts made. It had all these little tiny plastic babies hanging from it and a pocket. Men paid to dance with me and the money went in the little apron. Not sure of the significance of the babies, but it must have had something to do with keeping the family name going! With money and babies, what more would we need! HA!

Besides the fact that it was the hottest day of the year and the air conditioning went out for a while, it was a nice wedding with lots of family and friends. It started us on our way to what is now a 36 year marriage.

I'm sure I will continue to have "wedding on the brain" until after the wedding, so please bear with me. Just wait until Tresa or Bernadette gets pregnant and I have "baby on the brain"!

7 comments:

T.Allen said...

What a sweet story! I got married in 1991, it was a small informal, but beautiful ceremony performed by a justice of the peace in a small room adjacent to the room we'd have our reception in once it was done. It was just the family and our closest friends; we were 18and 22. I wore a vintage A-line lemon yellow dress that fell mid- calf with a beautiful capelet and he wore an Italian suit with complementary accessories. It's been 17 years now...the guy and I-we met in a nightclub during my freshman year of college at age 15(NYC/fake ID)...good times. And yes, I'd probably lay right down and die (twice!) if either of our two children insisted they were getting married as soon as they became "legal" as I did. From the looks of things, they may never leave...I'll worry about that later.

Great post, funny we just discussed taking our video (VHS) and having it put in CD-Rom! Kinda makes me feel old.

Lanyardlady said...

What memories this brings back! Gotta love the virginal gown and the superbad tux! We were married in 1977; the bride wore ivory chiffon in 85-degree heat, and the groom wore all the rage: a snappy ginger tux with ruffled shirt and cummerbund. The groom's mother cried so hard the pew shook, and they put rice in the vents of our car so that when we turned on the AC, it blew all over us.

Love this story and can't wait to read more wedding—and baby—stuff!

aliceinparis said...

Aw, what cuties! Yes, 20 seems so young now. My daughter is 19 I cannot imagine her getting married next year!!! She's never had a boyfriend. I was married at age 33.

My Inspired Reality said...

Oh what wonderful memories Kathy:) I love your wedding photo. OK, it is time to share some of my wedding photos I think, soon. We got married at home in Malaysia. My husband wore a suit and almost fainted in the tropical heat:)

Woodland Fay said...

Enjoyed your blog which I found by cruising the twitter time line. Nick and I married in Dec 1972, I was 21 Nick 25. Still together and happy even after working together at home in various artist pursuits for most of those years. A minor miracle in it's self. Look after one another regards F

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

Congratulations to Tresa!

I loved reading your wedding story! Mine was similar, as I was married in 1974 at 21 years of age and I'm Catholic.

I became a grandmother for the first time in December! My son and daughter-in-law's baby boy. It is the very best feeling in the world!

Jonara Blu Maui said...

I loved this post! I think it's so fun to see old pics...and I love your wedding story after 36 years..thats awesome! I'll have to do mine...I'll let you know when it's up!

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