After our engagement, someone gave us a journal-type book entitled Our Wedding Book. In it are sections we filled out to preserve the details of our story—where we met and fell in love, how we announced our plans to marry, bridal showers and parties, the wedding ceremony, honeymoon, etc. Luckily much of the story has been recorded and it is from there I write my thoughts today.
Ernie and I were introduced on the evening of June 13, 1971, a week before my 20th birthday. Our mutual friend, Gary Totman introduced us. He and Ernie were school mates at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science and Gary and I had lived across the street from each other from the time we were 4 years old. We attended Oakton Methodist Church and it was there Ernie came to attend a musical program called “Tell It Like It Is.”
After that very brief meeting, we went our separate ways but a week later, much to my surprise, I received a birthday card from Ernie. On that same day both Gary and Ernie came by to visit me at my house and the three of us went for a ride around town, over to Reston, that budding, new planned community, then to a carnival in Vienna. From that time on Ernie and I began seeing more and more of each other, even though Gary had cautioned me, “You don’t want to mess around with him—he’s one of those dang Mormons!”
During the next year we were together as much as possible, even though I was attending college about 3 hours away down in Farmville VA and Ernie was in living and working in Arlington. In our wedding journal book I recorded some of the highlights of that first year knowing each other: celebrating Ernie’s birthday with friends in Richmond, spending Thanksgiving at my house, the Christmas party given by my parents for a few friends, the New Year’s Eve party at Ernie and Gary’s apartment, the night Ernie got snowed in at my home, the teddy bear Ernie bought me for Valentine’s Day, and the wedding weekend of one of Ernie’s cousins. We had no cell phones or email and rarely called long distance, so we mailed letters back and forth. Oh how we lived for mail down at school!
Finally, school was out for me – I had completed my junior year of college – and we continued spending time together in the spring and summer of 1972. On the evening of July 22nd, after a quiet dinner for two that Ernie cooked at his apartment, he proposed. A couple days later, we, rather he, announced our plans to marry over a spaghetti supper at my house. Ernie was so nervous he hardly ate a bite but managed to announce his intentions by the time supper was over. My mother said she was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner and my dad just grinned. Both my parents have always been very fond of Ernie!
Prior to the infamous pasta dinner, Ernie had called his mother in Pembroke VA to tell her the good news. That night we celebrated our engagement by attending a Roberta Flack concert at Carter Baron Amphitheatre in Rock Creek Park with our friend Lisa Getchell and her boyfriend Brian Klare.
After much discussion and consulting the calendar, we decided that our wedding would take place at 4 pm on July 21, 1973 and that we would get married in the LDS chapel on Scotts Run Road in McLean where we attended church. I was baptized into the church on Sept. 12, 1972 and because of our family situation and my short membership in the church, a chapel wedding was in order. Our temple sealing would come at a later date. Wedding plans began to firm up over the course of the next few months.
Before the new year, I had found my wedding dress at Hecht’s department store at Tyson’s Corner Mall. It was an A-line style, empire waist, with lace insets and seed pearls in the long sleeves and bodice. The train was full and the veil elbow length. The invitations we selected must have been trendy for the times. They were on cream paper and opened like a greeting card with a black and white photo of us on the front. The message portion was written paragraph style. I don’t recall how many we mailed out to friends and family, but approx. 140 people attended the wedding ceremony and reception.
The bridal party consisted of a maid of honor (my cousin Faith), two bridesmaids (Ernie’s sisters, Brenda Jo and Ella Mae), a flower girl (my young cousin Dana Whiteheart), a best man (Ernie’s boyhood friend Peyton Dowdy), four ushers (my brother Steve + three of Ernie’s friends) and a ring bearer (Ernie’s nephew Donnie Crawford). Our soloist (Ann Garland Smith) was a college friend of mine and the organist (Barbara Hanson) was the funeral home organist.
At this point in our story I must interject what we call the "Flower Girl Legacy" in my family. Let me explain. In 1950 at the age of 10, my mother’s younger sister Linda was a flower girl in her wedding. When Linda got married in 1960 I was a junior bride’s maid in her wedding. When I got married in 1973, Linda’s young daughter Dana was a flower girl for me. When Dana got married in the early 1990’s, my daughter Shannon was in her wedding. Shannon got married in 2004 and Dana’s daughter Cassidy was her flower girl. So if the tradition continues, someday Shannon’s future daughter will be in Cassidy’s wedding. At Shannon’s bridal shower a photo was taken of all of us flower girls in a row and has become a cherished possession.
We asked Ernie’s bishop from “down home” to perform the marriage and he was to be assisted by Bishop Ellis Packer of the Falls Church Ward. At the last minute he became ill, so his counselor Zane Mason stepped in for him. We asked the organist, Barbara Hanson, to play several songs before the wedding ceremony began. They were: "One Hand, One Heart," "Today," "A Time for Us," "Cherish," the theme from the movie Love Story, "Exodus," "The Sweetheart Tree," "More," "The Lord’s Prayer," "Never My Love" and "Love, Look at the Two of Us."
My mother had a tall ceramic cat bank she kept change in and dedicated the amount inside toward the cost of the reception. When the day came that we broke open the kitty, we found a mysterious $100 bill inside and really oooo-ed and ahhh-ed over that. Our reception was very simple, with cake, punch, mints, nuts, and finger sandwiches served in the cultural hall of the chapel. Because we weren’t aware of the “rules” we had candles burning on the serving table. My brother Steve provided taped background music for the reception. The cake was white pound cake decorated with white icing and yellow sugar roses. The top layer contained a small live floral arrangement of yellow roses and white daisies. My bridal bouquet was also yellow roses.
Photos of the wedding party were taken outside during a very sunny, hot and humid break in a rainstorm. By the time Ernie and I left the reception it was storming again and we just about got drenched. I’m sure the rice the guests threw at us made a very fine mess.
After the ceremonial bouquet throwing and garter tossing, Ernie and I left for our wedding night and our week long honeymoon. We hopped in our red ’73 Buick Skylark and drove from McLean down to Petersburg VA where we spent our wedding night in the bridal suite at the Holiday Inn. The next day we left for Nags Head, NC to enjoy a few days at the beach. The weather was perfect. Upon our return we began married life living in our first apartment at Coralain Gardens on Arlington Blvd. in Falls Church. How did we ever afford that $200/month rent for that 2 bedroom apartment?
Ernie fondly recalls the display of all our wedding gifts that my mother set up in our spare bedroom at home. I carefully recorded each gift and promptly sent thank you notes. My gift registry pages list 172 gifts we received. I’m sure that list included shower gifts as well.
Stuck in one of the pages of the journal book are charge receipts from some wedding expenses. Here are some of the items Ernie had to pay for: $45.76 for his tux rental, $45.76 for two nights room rental for an out of town guest, $13.27 for our wedding night steak dinner, $21.60 for rental of the bridal suite at the Holiday Inn, $114.40 for several days room rental at the Sea Foam Motel in Nags Head. It must be noted that our marriage license was purchased for $7.00 from the Clerk of the Court in Fairfax County on June 28, 1973. Last but not least, keep in mind that when we got married Ernie Myers had $120 in the bank. Period.
No comments:
Post a Comment