Yann wore his Father's wedding tuxedo that was midnight blue, and had a cream silk bowtie. I wore my Grandmother Amaro's wedding dress that she never liked, and I found in the bottom of her closet squished in a brown paper bag. The wedding dress was in silk with lace and glass beads. It was so fragile, with little tears and moth holes, my mother and I thought it would fall apart the minute someone hugged me, or if I dare danced. The dress remained intact which was a miracle. My father was a bit dismayed that I, his only daughter, wanted to wear an old tattered dress for her wedding, amongst doing other things that weren't "normal" for a bride. He said, "People are going to think I am cheap." Instead of giving in to his opinion, I would roll my eyes and shake my head, "But it is the way I want it."
My cousin Sheba/Julie on my request brought Cally lilies from San Francisco for my wedding bouquet, which I tied with a piece of lace and satin that I had found at a second hand. My Belle Mere made my wreath for my head the day of my wedding, because I had forgotten to get it together. I wore a gold bangle from my Grandmother that every women in my family wore on their wedding day.
Yann said his vows in French, and though I said mine in English. We did not have bridesmaids or groom mens. My family walked me to the altar. Two good friends read the readings at Mass, Doug and Donna, and Donna gave the homily instead of the priest. My friends Andrea and Bob played the music beautifully for our marriage mass. My cousin Diane made our cake. Instead of photographers, I gave a few friends throwaway cameras and asked them each to take photos as they wanted. I told Francoise to take a photo of us leaving the church. It is my favorite photo, we only have a handful of photos. But this one sums on the day exactly as I remember it.
We danced to "Stand by Me" (That our friend Bob with his band played) because we had seen the movie together. Every two seconds during the movie Yann would ask, "What are they saying? What does it mean?" Stand by Me was cemented as our song.
And even though it poured rain that day family and friends stood outside the church in two narrow lines, creating an alley way to the turn of the century car, that was borrowed from our friends the Martins. Their son, our friend Dean drove it for us. The family and friends who stood outside waiting for us to leave the church, had handfuls of rice. Yann did not know what he was in for, they threw a TON of rice on us, it hurt so we made a run for it to the car. We found rice in our hair and clothing that evening when we went to bed.
Leave a Reply