OWAV:)...06/11/11...4am...43°...Sunny

Weather is warming a bit, a few nice days are forecast...Certainly improves my outlook.

Just Married

Might be fun to write about our wedding day in retrospect...It was an unusually warm Saturday, June 10, 1961 in McCall, Idaho...Wedding at 2pm with reception (cake and punch) following in the Community Church basement.. All my family came home for the wedding..
Steve and Loraine came from Utah, with eight children, George, Stephanie, Melvin, Vickie, Jody, Mona, Blanche and Joel... Bobbie and son Alan, from California... George and Marlene with Susan, Pode, Diane, and Rhonda, lived in McCall and Mona and Jerry with James, from the Boise Valley.

Our wedding had been several months in the planning...I looking at bridal magazines, visiting shops full of wedding gowns in Boise...all seemed out of reach price-wise...but I was getting ideas...Aunt Carrie, who had been making my dresses for years,

With our Parents

would be making my wedding dress...Mom, Daddy and I made a trip to Twin Falls, so Aunt Carrie could help choose material...While looking at different designs, we found a dress, that matched what I wanted and cost $50.00...decision made that even in those days the dress couldn't be made for much less than that and much less stress, since I lived in McCall and Aunt Carrie lived in Twin Falls...We picked out material and pattern for bridesmaid dresses, which the bridesmaids would make themselves... along with white heels, they now would all have matching outfits...No one worried much about hairdo's or manicures in those days, everyone took care of their own and looked their best on the big day...Lists were made and invitations mailed to family and out of town friends...Local friends were invited by putting an invitation in the local paper, "The Payette Lake Star"...Friends of our family's planned a wedding shower...Since most of Herb's family lived back east we received many gifts and checks via the mail...

Herb's friends Lee McDougal and Lynn Robinson (my cousin) were Groomsmen and George Ashton (my brother) was his Best Man...Herb wore his Dad's suit (that he was married in) and the guys wore, "probably" the only suit they owned.

Idella and Attendents

My sister Barbara was my matron of honor and sister's Loraine and Mona were in charge of the gifts and refreshments at the reception...I had toyed with the idea of having flower girls and a ring bearer, but decided with so many nephews and nieces, I couldn't pick just one or two so opted to have none...I remember them at the wedding... Girls hair curled, decorated with flowers all in dresses and boys hair slicked back, wearing starched white shirts and new levi's...

Friends of our families took over the planning of the reception, with the cake being made by friends and given as a wedding gift... Flowers were ordered,

Daddy and I

church decorated...I think the total budget was in the neighborhood of $200.00... Rehearsal the night before had its funny moments, when Daddy and I practiced our walk down the aisle... He couldn't quite get the hang of the "step-slide-step" and called it the "goose step", so after several tries we just settled on a simple slow walk down the aisle...Herbs parents hosted a birthday party for Herb's 24th birthday afterwards, for all that could attend.

A little lighter in those days.

Saturday June 10th dawned bright and clear...as I've said before, it was a bitter-sweet day...  family snapshots were taken,everyone with smiles, so we would have good memories of this special day...but all knowing that it would be our last family gathering...
Daddy walked me down the aisle and he and Mom gave me, their last daughter, Idella in marriage to Herb Allen...We honeymooned overnight in Boise, Idaho...Sunday night back in McCall, our first night in the apartment we had rented for the summer...I was up early the next morning fixing breakfast and packing a lunch for my new husband as he left for work, as he would, for the next 34 years...OWAV:)