Love, look at the two of us

Today is Robb and my 32nd wedding anniversary!!!!

Is it because time flies when you're having fun?

Or is my mind going and I can't gauge things by time anymore?

It seems like yesterday that my dad and I borrowed a load of chairs from a friend's church, and we set them up at park early that morning.  Of course, then it rained a bit.

From what I recall, my parents and maybe sisters were there making sure the chairs were dried off before the wedding that afternoon.

Robb's brother gave him a wedgie and pushed him out of the pergola at the beginning of the service so he went through the entire wedding with a wedgie.  Of course I didn't know this and his tearful eyes made me tearful and more emotional.  

 His dad married us as he had all four of his children.

Of course he could have just been emotional from the events too...

(on a side note, he is SOOOOO excited that he gets his hair cut next week!)

(It's almost as long as it in this pic.)

On the horse drawn carriage ride from the park to the college campus, where the reception was, we saw Robb's car parked in a parking lot in full view.  One of his brothers or friends was supposed to hide it so that it wouldn't get decorated and have cans tied to the back of it.  sigh.  and there it was...  for everyone following us to see...  Oh well.  No one realized that Robb's car was hidden in plain sight.  Who would've thought of that?!

The wedding expenses had drained me, everything was done as inexpensively as possible.  Mom and Dad were awesome and paid for the reception, but I didn't have the remaining $15 to pay the horse drawn carriage guy so someone did.  It was either my brother-in-law or Dad.  I don't remember.  

I told Robb later and he was hurt that I hadn't asked him to help out.  I hadn't realized that I should have.  I actually should have involved him a LOT more in the preparations.

"Here - sew this hem!"  "Hey - can you finish up these silk boutonnieres?"

Of course, I had sewn my dress and finished the hem the night before.  I normally made shirts and had only made a maxi dress several years before to wear at my sister's wedding.  It had never occurred to me to measure or fit a pattern before.  They just had ALWAYS fit.  Well, I guess I was taller than average by the time we were married...  The hem was three inches too short.  shoot...  

and of course I didn't hold the pattern piece up to me to see before I cut it out...

I did however cut one of the panels out upside down and in the right light, you could tell...

BUT NO MATTER!  Carry on!!!  No one will notice.

and they didn't.

After a lot of false started decisions about the hem, I finally found some 3 inch thick lace and glued it to the hem.  

done.

I made 3 of the 4 bridesmaid dresses too.  My aunt made her daughter's dress.

One of the dresses is still hanging in my closet...

Robb wanted the music of "Paradise by the dashboard lights" to be played super slowly for the processional so no one else would recognize it but us, but I didn't think my (same) aunt would have played it on the portable organ.  It would have been the "and now I'm praying for the end of time" part. lol!

As it stands, my aunt played Canon in D for the processional and my sister later sang, "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring", accompanied by said aunt.

Since the wedding, I had my dress cleaned and packed away in a sealed box with a little window in it.  Maddy attended an ASG meeting with me where everyone showed off their wedding dresses that they'd made.  

We broke the seal just before the meeting and I was dismayed to find that a couple of the shoulder seams didn't make it.  At the time I'd made it, I didn't know anything about finishing seams.

Maddy tried it on that night and it fits her!  Except for the shoulders.

And it is SO 1980s!

I've learned a lot in the last 32 years... About sewing AND being a wife.

And there's still room for improvement in both.