Yeah, I'm a little bewildered that there is such a frenzy over the royal wedding -- didn't understand it when Charles and Diana got married either for that matter. 

But the hype has been inescapable [and I feel like that little girl on the left about it] and what with Gem getting married in just two weeks, matrimony is very much on my mind

To my horror, I found I couldn't remember the exact dates of my weddings....  oh yeah, I used the plural!  Did it three times.

I think the first marriage was August 12th -- that date sticks in my head anyway -- it was August 1972.  I do remember that Bonita and JK got married on the same date some years later, something we talked about a bit when she first chose it.  That wedding was very much one that a child of the 60's could appreciate and one of the most beautiful weddings...   Years later, folks still tell me that they remember that day and how lovely everything was.  We made our own dresses, well Sue made mine and hers actually, and all of us used the same pattern, a simple long-sleeved, low scoop neck, empire-waist dress.  It was a rainbow wedding and the colors were vibrant!  I wore white and carried a bouquet that was a riot of color.  Sue was the maid of honor and her dress was bright red.  Bonita's was ice blue.  Rose [Kit's younger sister] was a bright parrot green.  Margaret, Bob's sister-in-law, was dressed in purple.  Sharon, Bob's sister, was in gold and his littlest sister, Linda, was in pink.  The men wore matching ruffles and cumberbunds with the lady they were escorting.  We had the wedding outside, in the prayer/rose garden of a local monastary and it was a full nuptial mass.  The wedding cake was a gift from the baker I used to work at -- Gesina's.  The reception was at Bob's parent's in the basement.

Unfortunately the marriage only lasted 1 1/2 years, and was later annulled.  It seems the priest [who left the priesthood a month later] failed to get all the permissions needed to perform a sacrament outside ....  The dress?  cut up as I tried to make a blouse of it.

Chuck and I were married in a Methodist church one hot July afternoon in 1975 with just the family and a few close friends attending.  I wore an ivory polyester lacy dress I found at JC Penney's, Chuck bought a new summer suit of light blue.  Bonita whas my Maid of Honor and found a long green dress that she liked and we both carried white flowers.  The Brinkers had a "do" in their basement afterwards.  

Chuck and I stayed together for ten years.  The dress?  shortened and worn to church, then discarded when it got too small.

When Frank and I wed, it was before a Baltimore County Justice of the Peace at the Towson courthouse on July 8th -- the day before his mother's funeral.   My dress was an ivory brocade and lace off the rack "dressy dress" and I wore 5' heels.  Kit was the Maid of Honor and wore a wine colored dress, and Frank's son and daughter came as witnesses.  Afterwards we went to lunch at the Hampton Mansion.

Frank died seven years ago.  I finally donated the dress and heels to the GoodWill when I moved in 2007.

My daughter is making her own wedding traditions.  I kept nothing of mine to give her.