My Vintage Wedding Scrap book starts out with few photos.
Twenty-one years ago on this day, French Husband and I were married under a massive downpour. I wore my Grandmother (Ava) Amaro's moth-eaten, paper thin, silk wedding dress. My mother was worried it would fall off when I walked down the aisle.
I didn't care I liked my Grandmother's wedding dress, even if it were shabby and not chic .
French Husband wore the same wedding tuxedo that his Father wore for his marriage. Which was very chic. It was midnight blue. His mother came to California, from France, for our wedding. But his father could not because he was seriously ill.
We told each other we would write our own marriage vows. The eve before our wedding day French Husband hadn't penned his. I was not pleased. My bride-to-be-nerves kicked in. He told me he was going to say them in French. I cried saying he could be saying anything to me and I wouldn't understand. He told me to look into his eyes that they would speak clearly to me. Horrible as it might sound, I smirked at him. I still feel bad about that.
I did look in his eyes they spoke thankfully since I did not understand one word of what he was saying.
We did not have bridesmaids nor groomsmen... we told everyone gathered that they were our witnesses.
My cousin Julie picked Calli lilies from a garden for my wedding bouquet. I tied an old lace ribbon around them and called it good.
My father was horrified that his only daughter was "doing" her wedding like this... Threadbare dress, handmade wedding invitations, no professional photographer, flowers from a garden, no maid of honor.... no wedding register. What would people think of him! I told him it didn't matter because the wedding was exactly as I wanted it to be.
He nearly died when an Aunt called offering to buy me a wedding dress.
French Husband and I were married at ten in the morning in the Catholic church.
We had brunch.
Our family and friends read the readings, played the music, sang, danced, celebrated with us.
To say that the last twenty seven years have been blissful would not be the truth. To say that it has been easy would be a lie as well. To say we have held on to the good moments and stuck it out in through the rough patches would be honest.
We returned to France shortly after our wedding day.
We lived in an attic studio, on the seventh floor, next to Les Halles in Paris.
What were the details of your marriage?
