My older brother Paul has been married for 53 years. Look at this black and white formal wedding photo. In 1954 it was not common to have photos taken at the church alter so you went to the nearest photography studio for the formal portrait. In this photo I am the junior bridesmaid standing by the groom and my sister Mary is the bridesmaid standing by the bride. Look at the bride's dress. It was designed by a Catholic priest who wanted to create gowns that were dignified. The early fifties was the era of tulle and cancans so our attendants gowns had tulle and built in cancans. The color of the gowns was a soft shade of aqua and we wore matching aqua linen pumps.
Mine hurt because I had outgrown the pumps before the wedding date by going barefoot all summer on the farm. I also remember that my dress was too tight too. I must have been in a growing spurt. I was ten and my sister Mary was sweet sixteen. My two other brothers were not able to attend this wedding. Carl was in the air force and stationed at Roswell, NM. Harold was in the army and stationed outside Tokyo, Japan. I don't remember too much else about this wedding because I was only ten but I do remember that I loved the flowers. We carried red roses in a circle design while the bride had a white orchid for her bouquet. I also remember that this was the first occasion where I got to see my parents dressed up in semi-formal black. My mother looked really pretty and my dad looked handsome. This wedding took place on a Wednesday because back in those days many of the Germans in Ohio chose Wednesday as the day for weddings. Something similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch I think. At any rate because the wedding was on a Wednesday Mary and I got out of school for the day. This was another all day wedding. The mass was at 8:00 in Egypt, Ohio (Yes, there is an Egypt, Ohio too.). Then came breakfast, followed by lunch, supper and evening wedding dance followed by a midnight lunch. In those days between lunch and supper the wedding party would travel in a car caravan thru the small towns and villages blowing horns and waving to anyone alongside the street or road. That's why it was very important to decorate the cars for this wedding caravan. Something else the bride and groom would do in the afternoon would be opening the presents at the reception hall. The morning after the wedding my father found two broken large crocks by the well. We had used them for transporting food (German cabbage) and had forgotten to take them back inside when we got home and a very early frost Thursday morning cracked the crocks! My father always liked to say that the only two that got crocked at Paul's wedding were the two crocks.
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