W is for Our Wedding Day...a Comedy of Errors

     Looks like the perfect family photo following the perfect wedding, right?  Well, the perfect family part is right but the perfect wedding...hardly.  Truth is, we are all laughing in this photo because of all the little things that went wrong that day.  For any brides-to-be out there who fret and worry over every little detail, take a deep breath and relax.  Details aren't really as important as you think.

     I had planned every detail just the way I wanted it.  It would be my dream wedding.  It had certainly started out that way.  I had found my dream wedding dress in Bride's magazine.  I loved it and knew the one I bought would have to at least be a close knock off.  I was working in a bank in Louisville at the time and one day at lunch some co-workers and I were walking down 4th Street and stopped to look in the window of a bridal shop.   I nearly fainted from shock when right there in front of me stood a mannequin with MY wedding dress on.  Not just a close copy, but THE actual dress I had fallen in love with.  Things were off to an amazing start.

     Fast forward a few months to our wedding day.   It was a hot, beautiful, did I mention hot, June day.  Probably the hottest day of the summer.  I arrived at the church early to see that everything went off as planned.    First delivery to arrive was the cake.  It was beautiful!  Covered with daisies, as was planned.  I love daisies and that was the flower of choice for my entire wedding.

     Next came the florist.  After decorating the sanctuary and placing everything just so so, she brought my bouquet and the rest of the flowers to the basement where I was getting ready.   "I'm so sorry," she apologized, "but there was a problem with the flowers.   My supplier was completely out of daisies.  I had to substitute astors."   I was heart broken.  Astors were not daisies.  How could this be happening on my perfect day!  She tried to explain that astors looked similar to daisies (and they do), but she kept apologizing.  I knew it wasn't her fault so I told her it was okay and not to worry about it.  Then I just had to get over it and move on in my own mind.  This wasn't going to ruin my day.

     The time arrived and the ceremony went off without a hitch...or so I thought.  If you look closely at the candelabra in the background of  our pictures you will notice there are no flames flickering.   Apparently, when Kenneth's brothers came out to light them they wouldn't light.  They fooled with them for sometime and I was told someone from the audience even came up and tried to help without any luck.  We later found that the florist had forgotten to remove the plastic covers or pull the wicks through them or something along those lines.   Whatever the reason we had no candle light during the ceremony.

     Moving right along, the ceremony is over, pictures were taken, and the reception was wonderful.  We are preparing to leave for our honeymoon when we realize the preacher has gone back to Louisville without giving us our marriage license.    Being young and dumb naive as we were, for some reason we thought we had to have our marriage license before we could leave.  What if someone didn't believe we were really married!  I'm not sure what we thought was going to happen.  Anyway, we began to call the preacher's house (this was before cell phones).  No answer.  We decided to go back to Kenneth's parent's house until we could reach him.  For 2 hours we try to call and finally reach him.  He and his wife had gone out to eat before going home.  Of course he laughed and assured us we were legal and didn't have to have them.  He would sign them and send them to us.     He didn't sign them until the next day and when we got them he had

 put the wrong date on them...just where he signed them, though.  They were correct on the actual wedding date.

     We have since been able to laugh at all the little mishaps that made up our wedding day.  It just goes to show that the important things are not the material details.  What's important is the love between 2 people that want to start a life together.  In spite of all the funny moments it was still our perfect day and 40 years later I wouldn't change a thing. 

Until next time...that's my view.
Kat