The Twenty-Minute Wedding

I was inspired by a recent post at Open Book http://chapternext.typepad.com/openbook
to write about my wedding day, July 2, 1964. Would you believe that I worked at the hospital from 9 am to noon on the day I got married? Well, I did. And when I left work, I went to the hair salon to get a "shampoo and set", as it was called back in the day. The ceremony was to be at 6 pm, at the Norfolk Naval Base Catholic Chapel, and my Matron of Honor came to drive me to the church about 5 pm. I was dressed in a white lace chemise dress, which I sewed on my 1940 Singer sewing machine. I also made my pill box hat (a la Jackie Kennedy); covered in matching lace and dotted with seed pearls and a short veil. White peau de soie heels completed the outfit, along with tear-drop pearl earrings. I carried a white prayer book, on which sat a bouquet of blue hydrangeas and coral tea roses, also made by me, and cut from my landlady's yard.

For reasons I won't go into now, none of our parents attended the ceremony. It was planned that way. Suffice it to say, I am now sorry for that decision. My landlady's husband, a very good friend, walked me down the aisle, and our landlady gave a reception for us in her back yard, complete with wedding cake (home made and yummy) and booze.

During the ceremony, I had an out-of-body experience, sort of. I felt as though I was in the balcony, watching the ceremony take place. It was weird, since I was on the altar - and seemed to be watching myself on the altar. The same thing happened to me when I was four, and having my tonsils removed. But I had a good excuse then - I was sedated.

The only other thing I remember from the ceremony, was looking over at my fiancee and seeing a small green bug crawling up his neck. I flicked it off - and he didn't know why I had flicked his neck - but he didn't make a big deal of it, thankfully. There were about 9 people at the wedding, including the Priest. A friend of my fiance offered to be our photographer, and we accepted that offer, much to our later chagrin. We have only a few pics from that day. He was amateur to the maxx, unfortunately.

We all went to my landlady's house for the reception, which was really very nice. Another friend of my husband's had offered to drive us to our honeymoon destination - Virginia Beach. We could go no farther than that, as we both had to be back at work in 4 days. Our chauffeur was a poor driver - and he had been drinking - and we almost "bought the farm"(sorry Angie) before the honeymoon started. We came so close to having a major car wreck that we were both emotional wrecks! The rest of the honeymoon was wonderful, though, unless you count the next morning at breakfast, when 2 girls my hubby had known in college approached our table - not knowing we were honeymooning - and just oozed their exuberance at finding him! I dispatched them immediately, as you might imagine.

The next night, we attended a dinner theater performance of "Carousel". It was the first time I had seen a play live, so I was enthralled. Just today, my husband noted that there is to be a performance of "Carousel" by our local theatre group and offered that we go in honor of our anniversary this summer. I think I upset him when I declined the opportunity; I never did like "Carousel" much.

After 4 days, we returned to Norfolk on a Greyhound bus, and started what has turned out to be a 41 year odyssey together. I wouldn't have it any other way!