but just as I feared, she said she couldn’t because she didn’t have a good enough dress.  I was ready, however, and I said, “Don’t worry, we will buy you a new dress just for the wedding.”

I wasn’t prepared for what she would say next.  She looked up at me and said, “I thought I taught my girls better than that.”  I didn’t know what she meant by that but now I didn’t care.  I picked up my books and went to school.  I decided that if that was the way she felt that I was certainly not going to let her ruin our wedding this time.

When I got to school the first thing I did was to get out my calendar and cross off one more day.  Now there were only three more days.

Don had bought us some new furniture and it was to be delivered that night, so that night Don came to get me and we watched as it was carried into our new house.

Friday I got up as usual and Mamma said that they had planned a birthday part for me so she wanted us to return to the house after the wedding because now they were going to make it a wedding reception instead.  I vaguely remembered that Mamma had told me this on Tuesday but I was glad she reminded me about it.  So many things had been said to me that week that I didn’t really know what to believe.  I think the remark that hurt the most was what Daddy said the night before.  We were in the kitchen and Daddy said, “I think that was a pretty dirty trick you played on your mother.”  I didn’t know what he meant but I was too stubborn and too hurt to ask so I said nothing at all.  I thought about the time when Don had suggested that we run away and get married without telling anyone but we decided we didn’t want to hurt them, so we didn’t do that. Well, it didn’t matter anymore.  I would soon be Don’s wife and we would be very happy we knew.

I left school early.  Don was waiting for me in his car.  We had some shopping to do before the wedding so we went to Sears and did that.  I bought my wedding dress.  It was a blue flowered street length dress – nothing very fancy but it was pretty to me.  Then we drove out to our new home to pick up Don’s mother.  I dressed in our new bedroom while Don and his mother dressed in their rooms.  Then we drove to the parsonage where my friend Irene and her family were waiting for us.

The ceremony was short.  I was glad for that.  After the papers were all signed we said goodbye and went directly to my parents home, where some of our guests had already arrived.  I don’t remember much about the reception except that there were lots of people there.  We got lots of presents and there was lots of food.  Everybody wished us well.  Then around 10 o’clock we gathered up our things and went home.  We were now Mr. and Mrs. Donald Dick.