The Wedding Day

For a month or so before the wedding, Mom had been encouraging me to have a perm. I had thin, very straight hair that refused to hold a curl for more than a day without re-setting. I had never had a perm, not even a "home" one because I equated a perm with frizzy uncontrolled hair and I wanted not part of it. I wanted to look the best I could for my husband on our wedding day. I resisted all attempts to make me believe that it would be much easier to look good if I added a little "body" to my hair which a perm would provide, and I wouldn't have to set my hair every single day like I was used to doing. I should have listened, but instead I dutifully set my hair in pin curls on the eve of my wedding day and went to bed.

Although I thought I would be too excited or too nervous to fall asleep, I dozed right off to "Dreamland" without even the dreams and slept peacefully through the night. I jumped right out of bed when the alarm went off at seven. I knew I had two hours to get ready before we had to be at the temple. That would be plenty of time for me, and probably even time to spare. Then I looked in the mirror. And there staring back at me was this ugly person with straight, limp hair. It seems that sometime during the night I had taken all the bobbi pins which held the pin curls out of my hair. I just stared in unbelief for at least a minute, and then I began to cry. What was I going to do? There wasn't time to reset and dry my hair. Air drying took time and only beauty salons had blow dryers. My family rallied around me and came up with the idea to use the oven to help dry my hair. I quickly reset my hair and spent the next hour or so bent over with my head in the warm oven. Although it didn't completely dry by the time I had to comb it out, my hair was at least presentable (a hat really helped) and we made it to the temple on time.

What a beautiful sight it was to see my immediate family, Mom, Dad, my two sisters, and Grandma Knapp, Jim's family, Jesse, Jean, and brother Rudy, plus aunts, uncles and friends, all dressed in white, as we were led into the sealing room of the Salt Lake Temple. There at the head of the altar stood Elder Harold B. Lee who was to be our sealer. I remember how beautiful he looked...yes, beautiful. He just seemed to have an aura all about him. There was such a special spirit in the room that day that I will never forget. Elder Lee had us sit as he gave us counsel before performing the ceremony. Probably like most of you who have been married, I don't remember everything he said to us. But there was one thing that I will never forget, probably because it sounded so unbelievable to me at the time. But over the last fifty-four years I realize how prophetic it really was. This is what he said: "I know how much love you feel for each other this day. I see it in your eyes. But I promise that in the years to come, your love will grow so much that, by comparison, you will wonder if you were in love at all on the day you were married." He was SO right! There are no words in the English language to express the love I feel today for that wonderful eternal companion of mine.

We knelt at the altar, held hands and looked into each other's eyes as Elder Lee performed that simple but beautiful ordinance that bound us together for time and all eternity. Then that first kiss over the altar as husband and wife. That was the most beautiful moment of my life. The hugs and expressions of love and congratulations which followed were blurred by comparison. I hardly remember assembling for pictures on the temple steps after the ceremony, but I have the pictures to prove that we did. I wasn't in my wedding dress as we see brides today. No one wore their wedding dresses in the temple or on the grounds afterwards for pictures. That was saved for the reception. So I was dressed in my navy blue faille suit, which I wore to the temple and my little blue hat which gratefully helped cover up my now drooping hair.

Then it was back home (no wedding luncheon) to get ready for the reception which also meant resetting my hair. What a way to spend your wedding day...in curlers!