Classy Red Corset Dresses and the Year of The Wedding

My good friend received the following (long) email from her Aunt, which kept me laughing in about 6 directions. It is women like these who I have been essentially surrounded with in this, the Year of The Wedding (YOTW). (to clarify: not my wedding, just everybody else's)

Its worth reading all the way to the end where we wrote a few possible questions for her aunt. (she did leave the door open for questions!)

Dear Relatives,

We have thought about you so much all weekend as we attended the wedding of Marc and Becky Johnson's daughter, Holly, and Andrew, at First Lutheran Church in Algona, Iowa. I know that many of you were not invited, but thought you might be interested in hearing about your relative's wedding. Weddings are always so much fun!

I know you might get lots of "takes" on the wedding, and everyone you hear from will have a different perspective and things that stood out in their mind. So, here goes "my" version of the wedding.

We got to Algona, Iowa, on Friday afternoon late, delivered the wedding gifts from us, Cindy and Blake, and Kirk and family, to Marc and Becky's home, and then checked into the motel, ate supper, and then visited a short while with Grace, Norbert, Linda and Gary.

Saturday morning we had breakfast with Grace, Norbert, Linda, Gary. Linda and Grace went to West Bend to see "The Grotto." Paul and I stayed and talked a long time with Gary and looked at pictures he had taken on his recent trip to China. We had a delightful time. Lois arrived, and Cindy and Blake and Ruth and Red arrived just in time to go to the wedding.

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. Holly was beautiful. She is such a pretty woman. Her dress was white, strapless, and the back had a small train. The dress was satin. The front was perfectly plain, but the back was kind of "laced up" like a corset would be laced, and it was out of this world! The gals had all had their hair done, naturally, and they looked absolutely gorgeous as well.

The five women attendants (two were Holly's sisters, Amy and Jill) and were all dressed in bright, cherry red, satin dresses, strapless like Holly's, only they were short, right below the knee. Their shoes were high-heeled flip flops. The flowers were red and white. The color scheme was indeed striking.

The guys were all in black tuxedos with red vests and bow ties.

Holly and Andy had a "Sand Ceremony" instead of a unity candle. Holly and Andy each poured a different colored sand into a vase. It was very unique, different, and memorable. We loved it! The pastor did a superb job on the sermon and the whole service, with input for Scriptures and music by Holly and Andy. The music was outstanding. The soloist was the church's choir director. The organist was one of the best I've ever heard. She was the wife of the pastor.

Becky Johnson (MOTHER OF THE BRIDE) had on a beautiful beige lacy pant suit. Grace had a gorgeous pink suit which looked so nice with the red of the attendants.

Unfortunately, I can't find our wedding bulletin, so can't tell you the Scriptures or the songs that were sung. Hopefully someone else can fill you in on that. But, they were marvelous!

The bridge and groom had a receiving line of just them as people left the church. We were all given little bottles of bubbles to blow at the bride and groom when they left the church. After the ceremony, the bridal party rode around town in a wagon pulled by two Belgium horses. They all had a great time. Of course, we all blew bubbles galore! It was fun! There were over 200 people at the wedding ceremony.

The whole reception area at the KC Hall a few blocks away, was decorated with candles, red flowers, netting, etc. It was absolutely elegant. There was punch, and an open bar before the dinner. Before we ate, they had all kinds of crackers, cheese, etc. They had candy cups for everyone at the tables. The tables were all round, covered with white tablecloths, and the bright red napkins were folded like fans and placed in the water goblets. Very, very elegant. At our table was Cindy, Blake, Paul, myself, Lois, Ruth and Red. We had a very good visit. Cindy and Blake left early to go back to the motel as Blake wanted to swim. Ruth and Red left early as well.

The reception was so much fun. The DJ, at the request of the bride and groom, did all kinds of fun things with the couple and with all the kids in attendance. It was truly a family affair. The bride and groom threw out candy for the kids, and of course there was the traditional throwing of the garter and the bouquet.

The DJ had Holly and Andy take off their shoes and then each of them had two shoes in their hands...one of Holly and one of Andy's shoes in each of their hands. They stood back to back and answered questions by holding up the shoe that they thought was the correct answer. It was a hoot. There were questions like, "Who is the best cook?" Some answers were the same, and some were not. It was lots of fun. There were probably 25 questions....Who has the most clothes? Who is the best kisser? Etc. Etc.

To get the garter off of Holly....this will maybe sound "not so good" but it was really cute. The people at the reception had to "vote" as to whether or not Andy took the garter off of Holly with his hands, his feet, or his teeth. Of course, it was all pumped up. The people voted he had to get the garter off with his teeth. Andy had to do a "sexy" dance to some music and then he slid on his stomach to Holly, who was sitting on the back of the best man who was on all fours. Andy got it off with his teeth, and the garter was right below her knee. All of the young people had so much fun.

Of course, there were the traditional dances of bride/groom; bride/father, etc. They did the "Hokey Pokey", the "Chicken Dance" and lots of other ones to get the people involved.

They had all "older couples" dance, and then had them sit down as the DJ called off "everyone sit down who has been married less than 10 years, 20, 25, etc., until there were only two couples on the floor, and the oldest married couple (except for Grace and Norbert) was someone married 52 years, and they had to give advice to the bride and groom for living a long and wonderful married life. The guy said, "Always say 'Yes' to what your wife wants."

There was a slide show of Holly growing up, Andy growing up, and then their life together the last few years. Also, for the bride/father dance, there was a slide show of lots of slides of just Holly and Marc.

Of course, one of the hits during the dancing was when the DJ played, "Sweet Caroline." Of course, little Caroline, (daughter of Amy (Holly's sister) and Hunter's daughter was the flower girl. She was really wound up and had so much fun. By the way, she did an excellent job as the flower girl. She threw the petals just perfect. As we were ushered out of the church, our Blake picked all the petals up that she had dropped. He thought they should be picked up so the floor wasn't a mess.

We saw and visited with lots of the Johnson clan. Paul especially enjoyed seeing and visiting with Merrill and Muriel and Dean. They left early so we didn't get to visit a real long time with them.

We got back to the motel about 10 PM, went to bed, and were up bright and early "breakfasting" with the relatives. We went to church at the church where the wedding was held. Went back to the motel, watched Blake swim, and visited with more people around the pool area. Then the family served an early lunch in the motel's hospitality room and we visited until 1:30 PM before finally heading for home. Andy and Holly came and went around and visited with everyone making them feel so welcome. The immediate family was going to Marc and Becky's home around 2:00 P.M. to unwrap wedding gifts. Andy and Holly leave for their honeymoon on Tuesday and will be gone for a week.

I'm sure I left out lots of "stuff" that you might want to know....but ask away! I'll respond the best I can! It will be interesting, I'm sure, for you to get the perspective of the others who were there.

That's it for tonight. Hope you have had a great weekend.

Sandra


Hi Sandy! How fun! The wedding sounds so romantic and classy. You said we could write with any questions about the details. I would love to know if you could clarify whether the bridesmaids' dresses also had corsetlike backs, and whether they wore fishnet tights as well? I'm just trying to get the whole picture.

Or....

I do have a question about the inappropriate garter/teeth incident. Do you think it was really appropriate with all the children there? Although I know weddings are a time of playfulness for all, they're also about Jesus and colored sands, so....