A Royal-Sized Wedding Party

Okay, I'm on a little kick now.  All I had to do was watch the replay of the royal wedding of Britain's Prince William and his lovely bride Kate Middleton on TLC two days ago, and suddenly I can't stop thinking about my own wedding.  It's not like it's even my anniversary or anything.  That's not 'til two days after Christmas, and here it is only the first of May.

Our wedding party: even with just the family members included, it would have been big!

Anyway, yesterday I told you all about my bargain wedding gown that was made out of a silky, synthetic, 70's era fabric called Qiana.  Today, I give you our entire wedding party (an enormous party, as you can see; what did we think we were--royals?), so that you can check out the rest of the wedding fashions from our 1980 nuptials.  I've told you enough about my dress; now let's look at the dress I chose for my bridesmaids.

I had a LOT of bridesmaids: my two sisters, my husband's four sisters, two high school friends, and two college friends.  The girls' dresses were also made of Qiana, so I suppose they are as dated as my gown.  Although I think I told my bridesmaids, as all brides do, that they could shorten them afterward and probably get lots of use out of them, those floor-length dresses were extremely "bridesmaidy," and I doubt they ever got much wear once our reception ended.  I did like them, though.  I chose a cranberry red color, since it was a Christmas wedding, and then my maid of honor (the older of my two younger sisters) stood out with the same dress in a shade called "dusty rose."  Even though my bridesmaids were different heights and body types, I think the dress looked beautiful on all of them.  The silky fabric draped and moved so gracefully.  It was a very sweet and modest style, very feminine; the bodice of the dress had a deep V, but it was filled in with a lace insert that ended in a high neck.  Since my husband's two youngest sisters were only 12 and 13, they were technically "junior bridesmaids."  My resourceful mother-in-law contacted the dress manufacturer to order a bolt of dusty rose Qiana and two lace inserts, and then she proceeded to make them gowns that would go with the ones the older girls were wearing.

Now for the guys.  My husband had a lot of groomsmen: two of his younger brothers (the older of the two played best man), my two brothers, and four high school friends; and then his youngest brother--the little guy wearing the gray suit, who was 10 at the time and bummed that he didn't have a tux like everyone else--was the ring bearer.  All the older guys wore black tails, which was a very classy and timeless choice--and almost a miracle, considering the pastel Easter egg hues that were in vogue for tuxedos during that era of fashion fiascoes.  My husband wanted to wear a black top hat and white gloves and carry a cane, and he wanted the rest of the guys to have those things, too; but the local tux shop couldn't arrange to round up as many as we needed.  I thought as the groom it was okay for him to stand out a little, but it was all or nothing with him.

We have some sons who have a kind of wacky fashion sense (they fancy tweed newsboy caps, wear striped shirts with plaid shorts, and sport t-shirts with sayings like "Meat is murder--tasty, tasty murder" and "PANTS" emblazoned across the front).  I have long suspected that they get their dare-to-be-different courage from their cowboy hat-wearing father, who was disappointed that he couldn't outfit his groomsmen with top hats and canes for his wedding day.

Nowadays, you could probably go on-line and find a way to procure nine top hats for a wedding; but remember: we got married back in the Stone Age.

Okay, that's it.  I promise you that there will be no more reminiscing about my wedding.  At least not until our anniversary in December.