Our wedding blooper was when Wayne gave me a hardy kiss after we were pronounced man and wife. My hat fell off. I was so embarrassed. My sis Lila, our only attendant, picked it up and placed it back on my head, I was so embarrassed. It did not bother Wayne at all and Lila just chuckled.

April and Burton were married on July 18, 1969 at the Byron Christian Church. Owen, aged four, served as their ring bearer. It was a very hot day on the day of the wedding rehearsal. So to shorten the length of time and to avoid the heat, a lot of the rehearsal was done by verbal instructions in the sanctuary. The back rooms were not air conditioned where the groom and attendants were to be, so they sat in the pews while being instructed. On the evening of the wedding, we gathered in the basement awaiting the time for the wedding to start. I got word from Burton’s attendants that they could not find Owen. He was attired in an all white tuxedo and after recent rains, I could only imagine him being outside in a puddle. We searched everywhere we could think as I started to panic because it was time for us to start the wedding. I was almost in tears when someone decided to look in the crowd for him. There he sat beside the organist’s mother where he had sat the evening before. The mother said she wondered why he was still sitting there at the time. The air conditioner went out and we suffered from the heat. April said a bead of sweat trickled from her wet hair straight down her back and she could barely stand the tickling as it finally settled as low as it could go.

Jim and Rita married in June of 1970 at Boulder CO. Mark was just shy of two years old. I dressed him in a suit with short pants and a bow tie. He was to remain with his sisters at the back of the chapel while his daddy and I were ushered down the isle. I was just about to be seated when I heard a commotion and heard someone say “Isn’t that so cute.” I turned to see Mark running down the isle after me. He sat beside me beaming with pride. He had broken loose from the girls and made his own way to his mama.

When our daughter, Karen, and Craig got married in 1975 she used her two little nieces, Amy and Elizabeth, as her flower girls. At the rehearsal she told them to just pretend to drop the petals on the isle so we did not have to do the extra clean up later. Amy was older than Elizabeth so she felt she was the “leader” of the two. On the actual wedding night, Elizabeth daintily took a few steps forward, stopped every few feet as she bent down to the floor and pretended to drop petals. Amy who had moved on a few feet ahead while she dropped her petals, turned around and gave Elizabeth a disgusted look and loudly proclaimed “You are supposed to drop them dummy!” The once hushed crowd turned to audible chuckles.

The next year our daughter Kathy got married at the same church. She asked Elizabeth, who by then was a pro, and Amy’s little sister to serve as her flower girls. The wedding night came and Sara proudly held her little basket of petals at the start of the isle, but tripped over the isle cloth and as she landed on the floor, she spilled the whole basket of petals. She got up looked at her empty basket and darted down the isle toward me sobbing her little heart out. I cuddled her and let her lay down beside me. She fell asleep immediately. After the vows were read and the wedding was over the photographer took an adorable picture of her asleep on the pew.

In 1991 Kent and his wife Ann were married at the same church. They chose Daniel to be their ring bearer. We had instructed him to be nice and follow the rules for his job as ring bearer. We told him to stand still and not make any funny faces. At first, he stood there in his black tuxedo beside the best man looking as cute as any little boy could. It seemed he was following orders perfectly, when all of a sudden he turned toward the crowd and started making all sorts of faces, even spreading his mouth open with his fingers. He was quietly ushered down from the podium to the family. To me, this is what makes a wedding cute.