My Daughter Gets Married

My Daughter Gets Married

My daughter was getting married to a very nice young man.  The General was in full planning mode.

I dutifully went along visiting various sites for the wedding and as all Fathers of The Bride, was expected to keep my mouth shut and pay.

I didn’t mind paying, we had prepared for this and had a Wedding Fund put aside for this event.  It was the keeping my mouth shut that bothered me.

Why couldn’t I have an opinion?  It seemed I couldn’t, at least when it came to the catering hall.

The wedding dress was a different story.

My daughter liked going shopping with me because I would let her pick out clothes her mother wouldn’t because of cost, styling, etc.  I felt if it looked great, buy it.  All of her prom dresses were bought as a result of a shopping trip with me.

In addition, I believed in “sticking to the task”.  If we were going for a prom dress, we were not looking at jeans, blouses, etc.  These distractions were why shopping went on forever and nothing got done.

The General, my daughter, and I went to Las Olas Blvd.  Las Olas was the fanciest shopping street in Fort Lauderdale at the time and had 4 Bridal Salons.

We went into the first one, and my daughter tried on this beautiful wedding dress.  She looked like a fairy princess.

“Do you like it?” I said.

“I love it”, my daughter replied.  My wife agreed.  I prepared to pay for it.

“What are you doing?” the General asked. 

“What do you mean, I thought we were done”, I naively said.

“We can’t buy the first one”, my wife stated. 

We then proceeded to try on many more dresses in that and all the stores on Las Olas.

We eventually went back and bought the first dress.

Everything else was going according to plan when we visited the invitation store.

As was my role, I was just sitting there when I spied an interesting top for a wedding cake.

It was a pregnant bride yanking on the long coattails of a groom trying to escape.  I was intrigued by it. 

“What do you think of that for the wedding cake?  Wouldn’t you like to do something different”, I asked.

“Are you crazy?” retorted the General.  End of discussion.

Over the next couple of weeks, I kept thinking about it.  They had already purchased a more traditional top of the cake, but I still had some hope in persuading my daughter to use the “non-traditional” one. 

I bought it, and hid it away.

The day was coming fast.  The invitations were sent, acceptances given, and out of town people were making arrangements to come.

One of my daughter’s bridesmaids was her “little sister” from her sorority.   Her name was Caroline and she lived several hours away and planned on staying over in a local hotel.

My daughter was very happy Caroline was coming and could be a bridesmaid in the wedding.  My daughter felt bad about the amount of money Caroline would be paying to come, as she didn’t have a lot of money to spare.

An amusing idea (at least to me) began forming in my mind.

I went to the hotel where Caroline and her date were booked.  I approached the desk and asked for the manager.  I explained that I wanted to pay for Caroline’s room, but did not want them to know I was paying.  I got the manager to agree to tell Caroline when she arrived that she was the  “Millionth Guest” and as such, her stay was free.

The manager put in that information into the computer so when Caroline checked in, she would get that story.

The Big Day Came.

I had to bring over some things to the Catering Hall and included my Cake Top with it.  The catering manager was skeptical, but agreed to speak with my daughter about it.  I felt it best not to include the General in this decision.

My daughter and her wedding bridesmaids started early with a trip to the beauty parlor for hair and makeup. During this process, Caroline told everyone about her good fortune at the hotel.

“I won a contest”, she said.  “I don’t have to pay for my hotel room”.

My daughter immediately sensed some skullduggery and questioned Caroline about her good fortune.

“It’s my father” she exclaimed, “I’m sure of it”.

When Caroline later came over to thank me, I of course denied any knowledge of what she was talking about.  I hope she remained innocent of the true facts.

The wedding went off as planned, except for one minor item.  Sitting on the cake table, although not on top of the cake, was my small contribution to the wedding plan. 

The General even thought it was funny.