Our Late August Wedding
The English language can be a little tricky sometimes. If the title of a story is "Our Late August Wedding", does that mean "our wedding was in late August" or "our August wedding was late"? In the case of our 1968 marriage ceremony, both interpretations are true. The event took place on August 23rd and it definitely did not start on time. At the appointed hour, the groom was nowhere to be found. . .
Maybe I should fill in the backstory a bit. Six weeks had passed since the big accident. The wedding was still on schedule and the arrangements were all in place. We had a church, a priest and an organist. The bridesmaids and groomsmen were ready to go. Sharon's friend, Pam Lapinski, would be maid of honor and my brother, Bill, had flown all the way in from Hawaii to be my best man. The ceremony was supposed to begin at 7:00 pm. What could possibly go wrong?
A summer heat wave had moved in, bringing 95-degree temperatures and high humidity. At 6:30, Bill and I were still at our parents' house, getting into our rented tuxedos. The church was in Garden City, only five miles away. When we left a few minutes later, I was sure we'd make it on time. No such luck. Bill was driving and, to this day, I still don't know what happened. Was the clock wrong? Did we take some crazy scenic route? Did we fall into a time warp?
All I know is we arrived about 20 minutes late and over a hundred unhappy, overheated people were there to greet us. I felt foolish and tried to apologize for our inexcusable delay. Luckily, the mob slowly lowered their torches and pitchforks. At this point, if you were to ask any of us if we just wanted to get this wedding over with, the answer would have been a unanimous, "I do.".
The newlyweds with Pam, Bill and the getaway car.
A toast at the reception from the best man.
So we made it official, got pelted with rice and our parents were thrilled. Afterward, everyone got together for dining and dancing at the nearby Bluebonnet Hall. Sharon and I left early to drop off our gifts at our new apartment in Ann Arbor. Our next stop was to check in to the classic Bell Tower Hotel on campus for a brief one-night honeymoon. It wasn't the first time we'd ever spent the night there. However, it was the first time we arrived with a big stack of envelopes full of money to fling around. We were off to a good start.
And that's the way the story goes.
