by Yvonne Moore

Created on: June 25, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

As I was placing our two cups of steaming coffee on the kitchen table my visiting god daughter suddenly burst into tears. She rarely cried as a toddler and amazingly had a sunny disposition as an adolescent. Now a senior in college, there she stood with tears rolling down her face. "Callie," I asked, "what on earth is wrong?" With her lips still quivering she replied, "I thought by now I would be planning my magical wedding like you had when you were my age." As an attempt to console her, I pointed out that meeting the right mate was the most important aspect of marriage. She quickly agreed and added that was not the reason for her outburst. It was the actual planning of the grand event that she had been looking forward to.

It occurred to me that morning that unless she and her college friends discussed their wedding dreams she likely had not brought up the subject with her father who had raised her since grade school. He, probably like me, still thought of Callie as a young school girl hurrying off to baton lessons or softball practice after class. It was time for me to open my eyes and find out what this intelligent 21 year old was looking forward to in her personal life.

After promising that I would not laugh at her wedding dreams, she proceeded to share with me her idea of a perfect wedding. The 200 or more invitations should be engraved in gold script with each envelope personally addressed by her. The century old brownstone church must have wooden floors, stained glass windows plus visible and massive organ pipes. Freestanding gold plated candelabras adorned with pink roses, white lilies and baby's breath are to be placed at the ends of each aisle. As guests are ushered to their seats the organist will be playing etudes and symphony pieces by Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven. The church bells must resonate within minutes prior to the late afternoon wedding.

The dress is to be Victorian style with a fitted bodice, lace neck collar and full length sleeves closed with buttons from the wrist to the elbow. Silk covered buttons should trail the back of the dress from the neck past the waistline. The groom is to wear the ultra formal tuxedo with coat tails, striped gray pants and a top hat for photographs. The bride's cake, piped with pink icing, should be at least six tiers. Champagne should generously flow from the fountains to accommodate the 200 or more guests at the reception.

Callie, with the sparkle back in her eyes and tears long gone, looked at me and said, "Well, what do you think?" All these years I just assumed every time she visited she had grabbed my wedding photos as an excuse to sit next to her god mother; knowing that I would giver her my undivided attention. I had no idea until that morning that we together had been cultivating one of the most important events of her life. The description of her fairy tale, traditional wedding was pictorially recorded 27 years ago. The bride was me. That afternoon we placed my Victorian wedding dress in an acid-free storage box and wrote on the top "Callie's Plans."

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