Five Dollar Flower Girl
This tiny piece of art depicting a literal flower girl was donated to a church rummage sale where I picked it up for $5. She was made by “H” in 1955 and the back states: ”All from nature; made exclusively from natural pressed plant materials”. The artwork is of a girl, with seed eyes and pink lips made from a flower sliver. The voluminous purple skirt is a flower petal, and in her violet hair she wears a charming headband of tiny flowers. She’s holding a bouquet of Queen Anne’s Lace, and she brings to mind my wedding in 1987.
I was not particular about many of the details of my wedding, other than wanting fresh roses. I never even went wedding dress shopping. My sister was married in 1980, and as we have similar body shapes (curves and boobs basically), my mother and she thought I might like to wear her dress. The dress had been “stored” professionally in a dry-cleaning box, and was at my parents’ home in Pittsburgh. I arrived in town, and for reasons I cannot recall, was home alone the day I tried on the dress. As I wiggled into it and pulled up the sleeves, I had to reach behind to do up the zipper. All the lace along the left shoulder and sleeve basically imploded. Oh. My. God. I crumbled into a pile on the floor overwrought that I had destroyed my sister’s wedding dress. As the dress was ruined, my mother, a talented seamstress, used parts of it to fashion a “new” dress in a style that suited me. My sister ended up having 3 sons so her lack of a dress to “pass on” did not cause distress. I have one daughter, who is significantly taller than I am, so my mother’s creation remains in my closet without a purpose. And not in a “professionally cleaned” package I should note.
With the newly created dress, I wore a simple headband in my hair instead of a veil. The florist embellish the headband with small roses, and my sisters styled my hair. Truthfully they also did my makeup, insisting I wear mascara. I carried a bouquet of lovely blush roses, and the boutonniere on the men’s ‘morning suits’ were roses as well. Another aside – I absolutely love the look of a man in a tuxedo (trashy novels, sorry). My mother, however, insisted the men should wear morning suits instead of tuxedos as the wedding was early in the day. Again, not being too particular, I didn’t stress the idea. Now, though, wondering why the heck that was important to Mom, I turned to the Oracle. Morning dress, or formal day dress, is the traditional attire worn by men at daytime events in the presence of His Majesty The King. The tradition originated from the practice of gentlemen in the 19th century riding a horse in the morning with a cutaway front, single-breasted, morning coat. I’ll let you google the image to see what it looks like.
Back to my wedding, sans King but with morning suits. I had also requested the cake be iced in a basket weave, with fresh roses placed on top. As we were getting ready to depart to the church, the cake arrived from the bakery absolutely covered in pink icing roses. I was in a bit of a panic – tacky pink icing flowers were not a crisis but certainly ratcheted up my distress. Mom took one look at it and told them to take it away, remove the icing flowers and return it cleaned up. I would love to write all went smoothly from that point forward, but that isn’t how things transpired.
My parent’s home was walking distance to the St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh where we – both raised Catholic – were marrying. My family arrived to a completely empty church. Mind you, as it was a small wedding, we were using the lovely side chapel as the vacuous cathedral was too imposing. That said, no guests were there. 10:00 came and went, and the priest was starting to panic as he didn’t want to delay too long as there were other ceremonies planned for later. But it would be a tad odd to hold a wedding with virtually no guests in attendance. This was pre-cellphone life, so no way to communicate with any of the missing guests. I remember waiting with my family, teeth chattering away with nerves, while various siblings went to speak with husband-to-be and his family in another area of the church. Eventually the guests began arriving, and we learned the roads to the area had been closed for hours that morning due to a city parade. All the guests, staying at a hotel a few miles away, had been stuck in taxis, unable to get to the church on time. Bride and groom got to the church on time but no one else did!
Now we are heading into our 38th year of marriage, and hubby humors my continued hunting for treasures. A recent treasure, this charming flower girl is nearly 70 years old! And as a good friend would say: “bless her heart”- she doesn’t look much older than when she was created. Colors may be faded a tad, and the wrinkles on her face may have become a bit more pronounced, but all in all she’s holding up darn well. She would fit right in with those fancy men wearing their morning suits while visiting with His Majesty The King.