<p>
</p>
<p>“Photojournalistic” is what our photographer calls it. =)</p>
<p>I really like that the pictures tell a story. We budgeted everything out and spent a little less on things like flowers, and we did the invitations and programs ourselves, and we didn’t hire a videographer, and we got our friends to do the music, and I made my own veil, and then we put all the budgeted money we had left over into the photographer. We were absolutely not disappointed with our choice.</p>
<p>Late October 1984, glorious autumn. We were living together (<em>gasp</em>), and in the middle of renovating a rambling old Victorian house in Sag Harbor (eastern Long Island, before it became uber-fashionable and expensive) when we decided to get married, with two weeks planning. I found a simple day dress bought off the rack I can’t even remember where. Eight people total at the ceremony, including H and me and our best man and matron of honor who flew in from Chicago. The weather was unusually warm, and we had a swimming pool, so the morning of the wedding everyone was splashing and relaxing and drinking champagne. (Maybe there was orange juice too, but all I seem to remember is champagne.) The town judge came to the house around noon to conduct the ceremony in our ballroom (Yes, this “money pit” of a house actually had a ballroom, which we were converting to a library. We just pushed the dropcloths and paint cans out of the way temporarily). Then we had a lovely lunch for the entire wedding “party” of eight at a restaurant in the village. That afternoon we had 50 people over to the house for wedding cake. And more champagne. In the midst of dropcloths and paint cans.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the lovely wedding tales. Here’s mine:</p>
<p>Decor and dresses: Christmas season 1978. The church was decorated, but my mom went around town and bought every spare poinsettia she could find to line the aisles. Beautiful. My dress was from the sale rack at Nieman-Marcus – pseudo Victorian ivory georgette. My one attendant wore green velvet and the house party all wore Christmas red. (Somehow they all had red gowns already.) My wedding cake was a plain tiered affair, but my sister added sprigs of holly berries from her garden. (I am pretty sure our total budget was less than $1,000.)</p>
<p>The medical report: Two weeks before the big event, DH-to-be contracted mono AND strep throat. Somehow his wisdom tooth became infected and he had an emergency procedure to remove it. </p>
<p>He lost a lot of weight and had to have his suit taken in. He was sick in bed up until a few days before the wedding. Everyone had a big laugh at “in sickness and in health” during the ceremony.</p>
<p>My new SIL came from out of state and stuck through everything despite her stomach virus. Guess who ended up with that virus? I spent my wedding night throwing up in the fancy bathroom of the honeymoon suite. </p>
<p>We put off New Orleans for a day and somehow new DH found chicken noodle soup for me. Eventually we pushed on to New Orleans (driving with many stops) and I swigged Peptobismol for the rest of the week.</p>
<p>Anyway, it seems to have worked out ok. We’ll celebrate 31 years this holiday season.</p>
<p>Ho ho ho.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>NYMomof2, was it August 16th by chance? We were married 8/16/80 in Houston in the middle of a heat wave and it was hotter than Hades. The weekend before it appeared that Hurricane Allen was heading straight for Houston, and I remember my mom put all our wedding gifts up on couches and tables in case it flooded.</p>
<p>Due to poor prior planning on the wedding date, I had to take my Medical Technology registry exam the day before the wedding. When I went in for my pre-marital doctor checkup (I don’t think they still do that), I showed my dr. with some concern the huge red whelps all over my abdomen and torso. He said, “Is there anything stressful going on in your life right now?” Ha! So I told him about the exam and the wedding. He gave me some cortisone pills but smiled and assured me he thought it would all clear up on the honeymoon. :)</p>
<p>My bridesmaids wore dusty rose, too. Recently I saw a color somewhere online that was supposed to be one of the new color trends. I don’t remember what they called it, but it looked suspiciously like dusty rose to me. Here’s another thing…it seems to me that absolutely everyone used to decorate their first bedroom in their wedding colors. Mine was dusty rose.</p>
<p>My-3-sons, I was feeling so guilty for laughing out loud at your eye travails, but HONESTLY! LOL!</p>
<p>27 years today. Light rain for our outdoor ceremony, relaxed fun indoors. My mother bought my wedding gown in the Back Room at Loehmans- she tried it on herself, my dad cried and they bought it. Not only did I wear it, my sister did too! My bridesmaids flew in from all over and so their dress was a white thing from Laura Ashley (which had stores everywhere) which really wasn’t very bridesmaidish- and since they ranged in height from 5’-5-10 it all looked a bit of a mush. </p>
<p>I had the same band who had played at my parents’ wedding, and the caterer was a family friend. I had finished med school 2 weeks earlier in another city, so I left absolutely all the planning to my mom!!! I picked the husband, she did the rest. </p>
<p>Best story. My husband’s father is Greek and we sent invites to all the Greek relatives, 4 of whom came. But, 48 hours before the ceremony we had a telegraph from his cousin Yiannis which said:</p>
<p>I will be in San Diego (he was a merchant marine) on 29 May and would like to attend the wedding. I looked at the map at it does not appear too far. Please send directions. </p>
<p>We were married in Boston area! Glad Yiannis wasn’t the captain of the ship!!</p>
<p>CONGRATULATIONS, Robyn!</p>
<p>I love this thread, so I’ll join in.</p>
<p>H and I lived together. He made a big deal about not having a ‘fancy’ wedding. Since we’d already called off one engagement 4 years before due to wedding stress, I listened and kept it low key. He didn’t want me to wear a ‘wedding’ dress. OK, I got a beautiful ivory white lacy blouse and (hey! dusty rose, satin pants. His jacket was dusty rose cordoroy. We lived near San Jose, but got married in Tahoe Nevada (faster, easier and no blood tests in Nevada). I made the arrangements with the hotel over the phone. We paid for it all (one year out of college and both engineers, we were rich rich rich!) Only close family and his dad and one brother attended. His mom was too sick to travel.</p>
<p>So we get to Nevada, he hadn’t grabbed my wedding clothes! When they were hanging right beside his, I kind of thought that when he went to the closet specifically for wedding clothes he meant ALL the wedding clothes. silly me. I begin to stress and cry.</p>
<p>My parents showed up late, no rehearsal dinner (I cry more and H offers to buy me pizza!! for my pre wedding dinner, sniff!! LOL ) </p>
<p>… but … my mom had a dress she was making me in the car for fitting (purple velvet) And she added a white satin lace bottom to make it long and stayed up all night sewing it. We got married at the CalNeva … married on the Nevada side, walked across the line for dinner on the CA side. And for the finale … There was a massive snow storm that closed the roads and the hotel was beyond full, so we had our wedding party sleep with us and gave their room up for my parents who couldn’t leave as planned. It all worked out. … except the cake which was supposed to be carrot and was just plain white and I haven’t heard the end of that yet. </p>
<p>31 years this past Jan.</p>
<p>robyrm2, the story of your wedding dress made me cry. What a lovely story. </p>
<p>We were married just after Christmas 1984 in the Log Chapel at Notre Dame. the chapel is small and is not normally decorated for Christmas since campus is pretty much closed down over Christmas so my mother and I forced paperwhites for the church. My older sister had been married in October at Sacred Heart, the big Church at Notre Dame, with all the trimmings, hoopla, etc. My younger sister and I were among the twelve bridesmaids and had to wear pink pouffy dresses that itched. So when I asked my younger sister to be my one and only attendant I had to say “Will you be my maid of honor I promise you can pick your own dress and it will be something you can wear again in later life” really quick without breathing. Thankfully she said yes. </p>
<p>I wore my mother’s wedding dress (a white cotton tea dance dress from the 40’s), another sister bought my husband a Brooks Brothers tuxedo from the 40’s in a second hand shop. Both fit beautifully. Because the chapel was so small we opted for taped music so we could have more room for guests ( we both come from large families). My husband made a beautiful tape of music. My father and I both forgot which song we were supposed to go down the aisle to and started down the aisle two songs too early, so my husband stood at the front of the church making shooing motions with his hands and mouthing “go back, go back.” I didn’t care, I just kept going. When I got to the front of the church I turned around and one of my sisters was standing at the back of the church waving my bouquet over her head. </p>
<p>Our best man had flown in from doing job interviews and arrived at the church just in time, changing his clothes in the car on his way from the airport. Since he had the nicest car of any of our friends, he insisted on driving us to the reception. I got in the back seat and it was full of all his dirty clothes! </p>
<p>Reception at home, my mom and I made a buffet supper for every one, shrimp curry, rice, and fruit salads. A beautiful cake from a Swiss Bakery. </p>
<p>I still remember it as one of the most beautiful days of my life.</p>
<p>We got married June 26, 1982. I was one week away from my 20th birthday. DH had just turned 23 in May. DH’s parents and their friends threw us an after rehearseal party at the Kiwanis club, a swinging place in our tiny southern town. A DJ and all the alcohol one could ever want kept the party lively. It certainly did contribute to DH’s uncle hitting on DH’s sister’s roommate all night long. It further contributed to DH’s college roommate being sick all over DH’s car the night before our wedding. Also my aunt and uncle were in the middle of a messy divorce. They arrived separately. The tension was palpable. My mother ( it was her bro.) was practically sick with worry over all of it.</p>
<p>None of the above bothered me in the least. I was the happiest person alive. </p>
<p>We def. had a low budget wedding. Since I was still in college, I had no money and since Mom was against the whole thing to start with ( “you are too young”), I tried to make it as painless as possible. </p>
<p>I got my dress off a clearance rack . It was sleeveless with a lace covered v-neck and wide lace that sort of drapped over my upper arms. Mom made some lace things (don’t know what theywere called but were in all the wedding magazines in '82) for my arms that went from my wrists to elbows with a ribbon tied at the wrist. I have always been a hat person so wore a hat. Carried blue and white roses attached to a lace fan.
My cousin sang “Longer” by Dan Fogelberg.</p>
<p>Also had one of those puffy slips to make the dress stand out. It could not be found when it was time to go to the church. So Mom (in her full wedding regalia hiked up as far as possible) pulls down the fold-out attic stairs and climbs up in the 1000 degree attic to find my sister’s old prom slip. I wore it. The original was later found in the coat closet???</p>
<p>The bridesmaids (all family members…mom insisted) wore baby blue polyester dresses ordered fr. Montgomery Ward catalog…we lived in a town of 3000…not many shoppping options and I was looking for cheap! They were all stretchy with elastic waist- one size fits all kind of dresses. The wedding invitations were ordered from an ad in the back of a bride’s magazine. </p>
<p>DH and all the groomsmen wore navy blue tuxedoes with white shirts and blue bow ties.</p>
<p>My best friends from h.s and college were honorary bridesmaids and wore various prom dresses fr. years past. </p>
<p>The reception was in our church fellowship all…hey, it was free. The roses on top of the wedding cake were cut from our neighbor’s rose bushes earlier that morning.</p>
<p>The honeymoon in Florida pictures looked so romantic in the Bride magazine. Don’t know why it didn’t occur to us that a south Fl. honeymoon in June was the stuff of horror movies. It was miserably hot, the mosquitoes were as big as birds, the Gulf of Mexico was nasty due to a recent storm and we had the rental car from H—. Of course we charged the whole thing and spent the next year paying for it. Who cares? We were married and happy. We always joke that our honeymoon was the worst vacation we every had. We’ve had lots of good ones since. Our 27th anniversary is next month.</p>