The Story of Us (hubby and me) Part 2

First, a quick summary of our beginnings: met in grade school, became friends, never dated each other but did date each other's friends and relatives, kept in touch, came back to Wyandotte at the same time, decided to see if I could love him as more than a friend, chased him until he caught me(almost dying will get them most of the time if it is meant to be), and finally introduced to his family as his fiance.

In late February or early March, D and I were sitting around talking when I started the following conversation:

"When are you going to ask me to marry you?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you know you are going to ask me."

"Yes."

"So why don't you go ahead and do it now to get it over with?"

"I don't know."

"You do want to ask me don't you?"

"Yes."

"So......."

"All right, will you marry me?"

"No.........Now ask me again."

"No."

"I had to turn you down or it would have appeared that I was too anxious. So go ahead and ask me again."

"No."

"Please, I'll say yes this time."

"No."

Well you get the idea. He never did ask again. He just introduced me as his fiance and then the plans were on. We decided to get married over Thanksgiving. I was in my last semester of school-the whole almost dying thing caused me to miss my spring semester- and that seemed to be the best time.

Then, on D's birthday, the very next one after the fateful first real date thing, we went out with a couple who had just gotten married the summer before. They started talking about how great being married was and how we shouldn't wait until November. The next day as D and I were talking, I mentioned moving the date to October. He said, "Let's flip a coin. If you win we move the date up, but if you lose it stays the same." We flipped the coin and it landed in the trash can. But hey, I won. I then got the calendar and the first week end in October was the 2nd. Yep, that is our wedding anniversary.

We got married on a Saturday afternoon at 2:00. My mom was not happy since several people had to work and couldn't come if it wasn't held at night. We got married in the First Baptist Church of Wyandotte and it was filled to capacity. Extra folding chairs had to be brought out to seat everyone. D comes from a large family of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and so do I. Of course, my parents knew many people through their years of working in the ministry, and yes, my mother invited them all. One of the things I'll always remember is that some of our former school teachers came. So now that I am a teacher, I try to go to as many weddings as I can.

We chose fall colors and the bridesmaids' dresses were floral peasant dresses with an outlined apron made with eyelet on the front and a tie in the back. The colors in the material were red, burnt orange, brown, yellow, and green. They wore eyelet scarves on their heads. Most people are a little shocked when they look at our wedding pictures. Many laugh. We were, however, doing our "thing". AFTER ALL, IT WAS 1971!!!!! Oh Yeah!!! The carpet runner in the church was also burnt orange so it blended in quite nicely. After seeing our wedding pictures, one former member of the family said that my bridesmaids looked like Denny's waitresses. Did I mention that he didn't stay in the family very long?

My nephew and little brother, who are the same age and were about 6 at the time, were the ring bearers and my niece was the flower girl. Before we ever got started, the ring bearers got into a fight. I promised my nephew that he could beat his uncle up after the wedding but at the moment we just needed to get through the wedding. After the ceremony, someone came in saying something about the ring bearers fighting in the rain outside the church. At least, they got through the wedding first. In our wedding pictures if you look really closely, you will notice the wet pants legs of the two youngest males in the picture. (You might also notice the eyes of one of the groomsmen; he was quite mellow.)

My Granddad Dareing was supposed to help with the ceremony but someone from his church died so he opted out of my wedding to have a funeral. I've never quite gotten over that. I understood because that was who he was but still it bothered me. My dad's youngest brother, Uncle Mike had the services until Dad gave me away. Then, Dad took over and did the ceremony. It was beautiful. Dad always did a great job of marrying and burying people. Dad threw D a curve by having us both repeat all of the vows instead of just saying "I do" or "I will". Dad was ornery that way. In the pictures D looks a little rugged but then he and his male friends and relatives had had way too much fun the night before. In the picture of us walking down the aisle afterwards, I look like the cat that ate the canary and he looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He still gets that look every once in awhile.

Because the kitchen area was not built onto the church until a year or so later, the reception area was a back classroom. People went in one door, came out the other, and then had to sit in the sanctuary. Most people would have opted for a bigger church in Miami, but according to my mother that would have hurt the feelings of the church members. Hey, I didn't care. I got married to my one and only. The reception was especially nice because two dear friends of the family, Corrinne Campbell and Dorothy Richardson, were in charge. Corrine got special orange, green and yellow mints, and since our cake topper was two white doves, she made some ceramic doves to sit on the table. The only glitch was that Mom forgot the gingerale for the punch. No one seemed to notice, and she didn't even notice until she got home and found it sitting in the living room.

As we were leaving the church, I threw my bouquet and D's Grandma Sutton caught it. She was shocked, amazed, and embarrassed. She said she didn't want it to fall in the water (Did I mention it decided to rain on October 2?)

We had a lovely little honeymoon trip to a cabin near Jane, Mo. We stayed in Tom Thumb's cabin but that is another story for another time.