Friday, January 7, 2011

32 Years Ago Today

On January 7th 1979, 32 years ago today at 4pm, I, at the tender age of 18, married my high school sweetheart, "J". My first love. My first wedding.

It was a beautiful cold winter's day in the mountains just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Our ceremony and reception was held at 7700 ft above sea level at the beautiful and rustic Mt. Charleston Lodge. I just found their website, and much to my surprise, it looks the same as it did way back then! Now I want to go visit and check it out for myself. Have a drink, take in the view. Reminisce on my youth.

It was a casual wedding and reception held in their big open A-frame restaurant/bar room. Such a grand view of Kyle Canyon! Snow on the deck where the ceremony was held outside. Beautiful blue and white flowers adorned the wedding arch where we gathered and said our vows. Our family and friends huddled around us, shivering in the January cold.

My Mom cried and was joyful at the same time. My Dad was busy buying everyone drinks. My best friend "B" was my maid of honor. J's brother, "C" was our best man. That was the whole wedding party. Just the four of us. No drama. No trauma. Just 4 friends helping each other through life.

I wore a light blue gown (my favorite color at the time) that I made myself on an ancient long-bobbin sewing machine that I bought just for that purpose. My groom wore a white turtle-neck sweater and a spiffy blue sport coat and light blue trousers. He was so young and handsome! We were so in love!

I'd post photos of the wedding. I do have them, somewhere. But I can't find the album right now. It's here somewhere in my clutter.

It was the seventies! We were both in college. On winter break. In love with each other and in love with love itself.

Our wedding reflected ourselves, our tastes and our view of the world. Small and casual.

My maid of honor's father was a professional photographer, so his family's gift to us was his photography services, proofs and prints of our wedding. So nice.

A friend of my in-laws made wedding cakes. So her gift to us was our yummy chocolate wedding cake with white frosting decorated with bright blue flowers to match our wedding clothes and flowers. Best wedding cake I've ever tasted. So special to have a friend make it.

Our flowers were simple, inexpensive daisies. Daisies, some dyed blue, some natural white. I remember that the florist had to deliver them on Saturday, because they were not open on Sunday, our wedding day. We kept them in the cold garage overnight to keep them fresh.

Instead of a formal sit-down dinner we opted for a lovely (and delicious!) buffet line of hors d' oeuvres and sandwiches. It was great! Everyone loved it. Everyone could sit wherever they wanted. There was no seating chart. People mingled and gravitated to whomever they pleased.

The lodge had a band playing on the weekends, and this was a Sunday afternoon. So the band played for us and our guests. We took pictures. We danced. We ate, drank and laughed.

It started to snow. So many guests were concerned about getting back down the mountain safely. The party ended pretty early. Just our immediate families remained. Then we gathered our things and ventured out to a friend's cabin on the mountain for our wedding night. They let us have it for the night. A cozy, very small, rustic cabin. Perfect for us! We built a roaring fire in the fireplace, cuddled and celebrated the night away. We were young, in love and just married!

Our honeymoon was our drive back to Austin, Texas to go back to school. This time we took our time and visited all of the tourist places along the way. The Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, Carlsbad Caverns, Sandia Peak Tram. We had a wonderful trip and a wonderful time. Good memories for me.

Such memories. So young. So long ago. So much has changed since then. Seems like at least two lifetimes ago. A lot can happen in 32 years.

No regrets ♥.


© Copyright 2011 Mountain Harvest Basket

6 comments:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

What a sweet story of your wedding day...oh so long ago. Through your words it sounds like it was the perfect wedding day for you two. We'll be celebrating our 48th anniversary this year!

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Janice,
It was a nice wedding and a nice memory. A short marriage, however. Congratulations on your long and successful marriage! That is a really big accomplishment. You two picked each other well.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow. I had no idea a place like that existed so close to the gaudy Las Vegas strip. Your wedding sounded lovely and very personal.

My hubby and I will be celebrating our 21st anniversary in May. We're planning on visiting a horse ranch for a week and just ride every single day. Bliss!

~Lisa

Danni said...

What a happy memory! I love that, despite the fact that this marriage didn't last, it's still something that makes you smile to think back on.
If you ever find those photos, I'd love to see the dress you made.

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Lisa,
Yes, there are still some natural desert and mountain places in the Las Vegas area. The mountains to the west of LV are very pretty. Congrats on your 20+ years together! Very nice!

Hi Danni,
That marriage didn't last, but we are still friends, if a bit distant. The wedding and the time was lovely and will always be a good memory for me. No regrets. Sure, if I find the photos sometime soon, I will post a couple of them.

Blue Eyes said...

So lovely to look back and enjoy those wonderful memories we have made on life's journey. I love the no regrets....no matter what we do in life it is the path we chose and the lessons we needed to learn, so when we can embrace that it is all a blessing in one way or another. Have a wonderful day!