Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Christmas Weddings--One, Two, Three!

You are cordially invited to the wedding ceremony
which will join
Celia Ann Davis
and James D. Yeary
in Holy Matrimony
December 21, 1958
Harmony Baptist Church
Levelland, Texas
2:00 pm

    One....My Davis grandparents were married on Christmas day…way back in the 1800s. I never knew why, but I suspect it was one time of the year the entire family could visit the North Texas farm which was owned by my grandmother’s parents. We don’t have a photo, but I would love to have one.
    Two.....Then my older sister—named after our grandmother—was married on Christmas Day around 1952. Her fiancĂ© was a military man, and he asked for a leave to come to Texas to marry her. They had a simple wedding in our family living room, and Mother made the cake. A small group gathered there and wished them well.
   
    Three....In 1958, I married on December 21 in the same town as my sister married. But I wanted a church wedding, and Mother and Daddy granted me that wish. I know it was not easy for them, because we were not rolling in wealth. My older sister made her Matron of Honor dress and the two bridesmaid dresses.

    Mother and I drove to Lubbock one Saturday to Dunlap’s Department Store, where I tried on wedding dresses until I found the perfect one. To this day, I wonder how much my parents saved and scrimped together enough money to pay for all this.
    My older sister helped make the dresses--in fact, I think she did most of the sewing. 
   
     Our wedding had a Christmas theme. The bridesmaids’ dresses were red velveteen. The flowers on the altar were poinsettias. I adored my wedding…and my new very handsome husband. The small church was full because he had many brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews, and my family knew many in town.

    You might ask why Jim and I married on the twenty-first of December. Because it was Christmas break at Texas Technological College—now called Texas Tech University.
    Over the years, I’ve learned I was not alone in getting married between semesters.
I offer a story about a Christmas Wedding—but the wedding is not between the hero and heroine. It is 99cents on the Kindle and 95 pages long.
You’ll have to read it and learn what happens.
A CHRISTMAS WEDDING
BLURB:
Kailey Lovelace, maid of honor in her brother's Christmas wedding in Austin, Texas, hopes the best man Alex Dunn won't bolt when he sees she is six feet tall and has frizzy hair. At the airport, she almost loses her breath when she learns he's even taller and looks like a dream. If only he likes her enough for the week of the wedding to go smoothly.
Alex Dunn, recently discharged from the Army, can't believe his good luck when he meets his partner for the wedding. Kailey is just the right height and gorgeous, as well. He looks forward to a pleasant week in Texas.
What could possibly go wrong?


EXCERPT:
     Shelley had poured out her heart in-between bowls of popcorn, wine, and chocolate. Both she and Kailey had overdosed on such rich indulgences. 
     The doorbell rang…and rang and rang. Kailey stumbled to the door and peeked through the security peephole. Alex. And Sam.
     With a little adrenalin perking her up, she opened the door, standing there in her lacy black bra and a pair of too short sweat pants that came to mid-calf. She pointed a finger at both men and said, “If you laugh, you can just turn around and go home.”
     Sam groaned and covered his eyes. “Sheesh, sis, put on some clothes.”
     She glanced at Alex. He stood with his hands in his coat pockets, grinning, looking from her eyes to her breasts, and back to her eyes. Funny, she wasn’t embarrassed. I’d have on less if I were in my swim suit. And she liked the little thrill that ran through her.
     Leaving the door open, she turned away, waving her hand at them. She looked around the room, under the table, behind the sofa, when finally she found the sweatshirt—one of Sam’s, too—behind a door. Pulling it over her head, she walked as straight as she could to the sofa, shoved Shelley’s feet to the side, and sat down.
     “Sit up, Shelley. The guys want to talk.” She glared at both of them. “Well, sit, both of you. I’ll get a crick in my neck looking up. Hey, Shell, wake up. Look who’s here.”
     Shelley slowly moved to a sitting position and barely glanced at Sam and Alex. They’d taken the chairs facing the sofa. Alex still had that stupid little grin—it used to be intriguing, now it was stu… no it wasn’t. Who was she trying to fool? He still displayed that dimple, the one she couldn’t take her eyes off when he did that little mysterious smile thing.
     Sam leaned forward, propped his arms on his thighs, and linked his fingers. “Shelley, what the hell are you doing? You’ve got to tell me. I’m going crazy, here.”
~~*~~
Amazon Link:

99cents
Celia Yeary...
Romance, and a little bit of Texas
Sweethearts of the West-Blog

8 comments:

  1. I can see why your book, A Christmas Wedding, has special meaning for you, Celia. By the way, I really enjoyed reading A Christmas Wedding, and bonded immediately with the characters. I wonder if Christmas weddings are allowed in churches or even other places anymore, since that day is so busy.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind words about A Christmas Wedding. You know I don't write many contemporaries--they don't sell as well as Western Romances--but I would love to write more. I'm not sure that weddings are allowed on any Sunday.

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  2. Lovely wedding and story, Celia. I too am a Christmas bride, but our church wedding was very small. I was a senior in college and on break, Larry was in the Army and had a short furlough. My mother had put a diamond watch in layaway for me for graduation and we traded it in for Larry's wedding ring. I sold my flute to buy my wedding suit, and Larry sold his TI stock to buy my rings. Boy, if we had that stock today!!!
    I'm about to order your book.

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    Replies
    1. I do love your path to the altar. Yours is a case of "doing it your way."
      I worked in the afternoons of my senior year at a bank. I saved my money and bought Jim a Bulova watch as a wedding gift. It's 58 years old, a wind-up watch, and it still runs if you wind it every day--which he does. He bought me a gold bracelet with my name engraved on it. We bought matching gold bands. I "lost" mine twice but found it. He lost his three times, found it twice, but now it's gone forever, unless we run across it some place! We could not afford diamonds. Thanks for your comment.

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  3. I love how your family came together to help you have the wedding you really wanted and I like how you and your family now have a tradition of marrying in December around Christmas. Your wedding was beautiful. What a wonderful memory.
    I bought A CHRISTMAS WEDDING the first time I learned of it, a couple weeks ago. Even though I haven't had a chance to read it yet, I know it's going to be a good story because a delightful author named Celia Yeary wrote it.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, thanks, Sarah! I'd like to write more contemporaries...if I have an epiphany!

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  4. What a beautiful wedding photo, Celia. How fun to have the December wedding memories. Mine wedding date was December 8th, but that was because my hubby came home from Vietnam and we wanted to have the wedding so we could drive across country to see his parents. December is definitely a busy month. Glad you had the wedding of your dreams.

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  5. Great Blog!! That was amazing. Your thought processing is wonderful. The way you tell the thing is awesome.

    Buy Gold Coins In San Francisco

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