I got the guy of my dreams, that is for certain. But the rest was an awful lot of compromise. All that talk about the wedding being for the bride and such didn't know Danny. He was all up in my planning business and frankly, I should have put my low heeled foot down and gotten my way. But circumstances being what they were, I thought I better include him because from the time we were engaged to two and a half months prior to the wedding, Danny and I were the only ones planning.
My mom and my dad were not overly enthused by my upcoming nuptials. In fact, I am pretty sure Mom thought the longer she ignored it, the sooner it would go away. Oddly, this was the one thing I was set on following through with, whether she helped or not. Lucky for me, my Aunt Mary Ellen, at Thanksgiving, shamed my mom into getting involved. After that, it was really quite wonderful to be doing wedding stuff with my mom.
Danny was set on having a very traditional wedding. I got a few wedding books, showed him a few ideas and was shot down at every turn of the page. I did not get my dream dress or my dream walk down the aisle song. Other than that, I didn't have a strong opinion on the rest of it. My parents insisted on a Mass. My friend, a former bridal consultant insisted that my dress be true white so it didn't clash with Danny's dress blues belt. My sisters insisted on a non bridesmaidy bridesmaid dress. All of these things were fine by me.
The Mass turned out to be the one hour that I was center stage, Danny and my first meal together and Danny's First Communion. Mom was right on that one. I snuck in my favorite childhood church song, Let There Be Peace on Earth. We had the very common reading from 1 Corinthians 13:13, you know the one about faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love. We have certainly taken that reading to heart over the years. Faith, hope and love are present every single day in this union.
The dress was my second choice. Choice number one was from the Beautiful Girl song scene in Singing in the Rain. Do you remember the flapper style wedding dress with 1.2 miles of tulle train? That was what I wanted to get married in. Instead, I got married in the top selling wedding dress pattern of 1926. I wore my mother in law's veil as my own mom's veil was too yellow. I had a handkerchief from my Grandma Snow and my garter was made for the fabric from my great grandmother's wedding dress on my mother's side. So there was my new dress, borrowed veil, old handkerchief and garter. I also wore a blue garter, that seems to be the only blue option.
The wedding march had always been the one from The Sound of Music. But how do you sell that to a guy that didn't even know the movie let alone understand all the emotions tied to that song. How could Danny had known that I married the Captain on a weekly basis growing up? How could he understand that this was a logical choice for me to use? How could I understand that my traditional wedding guy would pick trumpet voluntary. How would I ever guess that Danny would make amends on this many years later!
My mom was stunning in a red suit. Danny's mom was as well in a purple suit. My sisters had simple black jersey dresses. I wore a hundred dollar polyester dress. Violet orchids. bold and cost effective. No professional photographer, but a very generous aunt and uncle. A pretty full church. Our dear friend Linda sang songs from Pete's Dragon and An American Tail. My Dad never gave me a kiss at the end of the aisle. Danny was so hoarse from boot camp that even I had trouble hearing him vow to be mine. Danny's best friends from high school stood up there with him. I don't think they realized exactly what was going on. A couple of kids playing wedding, and then playing house, and then war and then playing family.
Danny, I cannot begin to tell you how happy you have made me. And not just that smiling happy but that my heart is about to burst because I cannot fit anymore happy into it kind of happy. You have given me the world, well the nice parts of it anyway. You have loved me through the cuts and scars, even when I used them against you. You kept at it. Don't even get me started on these babies of ours. Who would have thought that the likes of you and me would have created the likes of Ashlyn, Hayley and Jacob. Those are our best works.
And look at what we have done. We have done ok, that is for sure.
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