The entire country will celebrate my daughter’s nuptials on the Fourth of July. Well, maybe a few folks have reasons other than another a Hershberger wedding to take the day off, but we don’t. Over a year ago, my daughter and her fiancé elected the Fourth of July as their wedding day. The novelty of the idea and the fact that most people have the day off and could come, even if it was on a Thursday, appealed to them.
Having done a wedding in 30 days and another with three months notice, I love knowing a year in advance. I have had time to save up for the day and plenty of time to shop. I began shopping last July when I saw heaps of drastically marked down snappers and sparklers that she wants to use instead of rice, bird seed or bubbles. I watched as my daughter tried on wedding gowns in three states. Then last fall, she and her college friends went shopping, found a dress and ordered it.
Over Christmas break I told her to concentrate on wedding plans and arrangements. She said, “tomorrow we are going to pick up my dress. The bridesmaids will try on gowns, find a style that suits them and be fitted.”
I tagged along, watched the girls flirt with themselves in the mirror and sigh blissfully when my daughter modeled her fairy, princess gown. I wrote a check for the balance of its cost. To celebrate our purchase we laughed and talked around a table in a restaurant with lights so low I could not read the menu.
The day after Christmas I thought we would shop clearance racks for clothes for college. She did try on collegiate apparel, but we came home with clearance priced clothes for her honeymoon, the perfect pair of strappy shoes to wear down the aisle, gifts for attendants and ribbon for pew bows.
Originally, she said her colors would be red, white and blue, but no stars and stripes, thank you! You should have heard the scorn dripping over the phone when I told her I had seen the perfect wedding gown: A strapless, glove tight, formal with a bodice of white stars on blue, red and white striped skirt edged with blue with stars. It was all covered in spangles and beads. It was perfect – for a political convention.
Nonetheless, it was her idea to purchase paper plates and cups decorated in stars and strips, for the reception. And she was the one who saw the half priced ribbons: blue ribbon with white stars and white and red striped.
“These would be perfect for pew bows, but they are still expensive,” she said. I assured her, “it really isn’t too bad compared to having them made. How many do you think we need?” She took five of each.
I wrote checks and loaded stuff in buggies without a question until she pointed to the blue Christmas wrapping paper with gold stars. “That would be great for wrapping wedding gifts.”
I was incredulous, “you want me to buy that paper and give it to the guests to package gifts for your wedding?”
“No, Mom. I want it to wrap up gifts for the attendants.”
Greatly enlightened, I put the wrapping paper in my buggy, wrote the check and took it to the closet with the other items waiting for this summer’s event.
The wedding may be on the Fourth of July, but the fun and check writing have already begun.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)