25 Years Ago Today

Pete and I were married at my brother Tim's home in North Branford, Connecticut.  It was a totally homemade -- and handmade -- wedding.  Pete and I washed all the windows on the house, and planted a garden.  We did all the grocery shopping and ordered tables and chairs, glasses and plates.  We made a dance tape -- lots of Michael Jackson (Thriller had just come out), Pointer Sisters and the Beatles.  My sisters (Patty, Nancy and Barby) made their bridesmaid dresses out of upholstery chintz from the Lower East Side (we were living in Brooklyn back then).  Barb was my bride's maid and I later remade her dress into a party dress for Clara.  I wore a 1920s lace dress from France I found at an antique store on the West Side and carried gardenias -- my mother's favorite flowers -- and a lace and linen handkerchief made by my great grandmother.  Pete wore a navy blue suit.  We served hors d'oeuvres, as it was afternoon: crudite, little corn muffins stuffed with ham, cold shrimp, zucchini latkes,  little tart shells filled with oriental chicken salad.  Patty made a fabulous wedding cake: three tiers of pound cake with a truffle filling, all covered with fondant and decorated like dotted swiss. People came back for seconds and thirds.  When the guests had gone home, we cleaned up the yard and opened presents.  We received not one, not two, but three picnic baskets!  One with champagne and a gift certificate to a fancy food store, another with plates, cutlery and cloth napkins, another with wine and wine glasses. 

So tonight, instead of going out to Greenport's fanciest restaurant, as we had originally planned, we're picnicking in the back yard.  Today's weather is just like it was that day a quarter century ago -- bright sunshine, blue skies, cool breezes.  Our hair is grayer, our knees creak a bit and we won't be driving off in our beloved but long gone 1960 Buick La Sabre, but we'll be remembering a wonderful day completely wrought by hand and heart.