Shannon here: Historical romance author, Caryl McAdoo shares her comedy of errors wedding and a chance to win her latest release, Vow Unbroken. Comment on any post dated March 17 – 21 to enter the drawing. Deadline: March 29th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Caryl:
Our Wedding Day
A slight morning drizzle steamed on the Texas pavement June 22, 1968. I searched all over town with Ron’s aunt who’d had the great idea to record the ceremony that evening, so we hunted a good price on a tape recorder. That’s how the day began. After, I needed to stop by the hospital to visit my California paternal grandmother who came for my wedding then was involved in a car accident and broke a bunch of bones. Determined to see her favorite Texas granddaughter married, she decided to come anyway, so we hired an ambulance and she came on a stretcher. Got her picture in the paper for it! Gritty Grandmother Attends Wedding 🙂
We’d been engaged a year to the day—all through being seniors at the two town-rival high schools, graduated in May and married in June. We thought we knew what we were doing. I was only a month into my eighteenth year, Ron would turn nineteen in November. Such babies when we look back now, but we’d been together two years and wanted nothing more than to be joined together as one in God’s eyes.
I remember standing in the vestibule on Daddy’s arm waiting for the organist to play “Here Comes the Bride”. They opened the big double doors and I beheld the fruits of a year’s worth of planning. My six bridesmaids and matron of honor stair stepped on the left, and my handsome hero with his six groomsmen on the right. The lovely flowers and flickering candles completed my beautiful wedding scene. The long carpeted aisle stretched in front of me and what did I think? Ah, just like I planned!
Thank the Lord my uncle Jim had brought his fancy movie camera as unbeknownst to me at the time, my hired photographer hadn’t arrived. He did make it to the reception. As weddings go, ours went. Lovely, sweet, lifelong commitments pledged, and the introduction of Mister and Mis’ess McAdoo! Off to the reception at the ballroom of a nearby hotel. We made it fine and it was time to get the party started, but my parents hadn’t arrived.
The trip form church to reception wasn’t that long. We waited until someone brought word that my paternal grandfather had been rushed to the hospital hemorrhaging, and Mama may not make it. But Daddy saw his mother safely back to her hospital room and checked on granddaddy and got to the reception too late for the welcome line but in time for pictures by the profusely apologizing photographer whose car had broke down on the way to the church.
Since both my parents were needed at the hospital, Ron and I decided to cancel our honeymoon plans in order to stay in town and be sure both grandparents were okay as well as care for my younger siblings, eight-year-old sister and five-year-old brother, to free my parents to spend their time at the hospital.
The day was a comedy of errors. After the reception, Ron and I drove around town in his mother’s painted up car pulling cans through all our favorite frequented date places before heading to OUR apartment where we toasted with champagne (yuckadoo – ended up pouring that down the sink—OUR sink 🙂 ) had pot pies since we were both starving and watched Death Valley Days on TV.
The next morning, at my parents’ house babysitting, we dealt with my little brother who climbed up onto the lavatory and broke it off the wall, water gushed from the pipe. But he didn’t tell us, so the house flooded, and we had to call the fire department. We did get to go on our honeymoon five years later. Our wedding was definitely a day to remember! It will be forty-six years ago this coming June. And it still is the truth when we tell each other, “I love you more today than yesterday, but less than tomorrow.”
About Caryl: With nine titles released by four publishers, Caryl McAdoo now enjoys a thirty-year, overnight success with her historical Christian romance VOW UNBROKEN set in 1832 Texas from Simon and Schuster’s Howard Books. The novelist also edits, paints, and writes new songs. In 2008, she and her high school sweetheart-husband Ron moved from the Dallas / Ft. Worth Metroplex to the woods of Red River County. For more than ten years, four grandsons have lived with Grami—as Caryl is also known—and O’Pa. The couple counts four children and fourteen grandchildren life’s biggest blessings believing all good things come from God. She hopes that her books will minister His love, mercy, and grace to all their readers. Caryl and Ron live in Clarksville, the county seat, in the far northeast corner of the Lone Star State. Learn more: http://www.CarylMcAdoo.com, http://www.facebook.com/CarylMcAdoo/author, http://www.CarylMcAdoo.blogspot.com, https://plus.google.com/u/0/116386927782468472563/posts, http://www.twitter.com/CarylMcAdoo, http://www.pinterest.com/gramilady, http://www.linkedIn.com/CarylMcAdoo,https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/181587.Caryl_McAdoo, http://angiesdiary.com/texas-tender/point-view-whos-head/, http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Caryl-McAdoo/411169289, http://www.amazon.com/Caryl-McAdoo/e/B00E963CFG. Contact Caryl: caryl.mcadoo@yahoo.com, ComeVisit@CarylMcadoo.com, carylmcadoo@gmail.com
About the book – Vow Unbroken: A spunky young widow hires a veteran with a bad reputation to help her get her cotton to market in Jefferson, and sparks fly—but can she marry a man without the blessing of her estranged father?
Susannah Baylor believes her cotton crop is sold to a local business mand and waves goodbye to her neighbors’ wagon train. Four days later, the charlatan buyer tries to bilk her offering only half what he originally agreed to pay. Left with few choices, she reluctantly hires Henry Buckmeyer to help get both her wagons along the Jefferson Trace, the hard trail between her Northeast Texas farm and the cotton buyers at the port. It won’t matter that it’s her best crop ever if she doesn’t get a good price; she’ll be forced to sell off the land her husband and his brother left to her and the children.
Henry’s reputation as a drunken lay-about is well known, and she’s prepared for insolence, but not for his irresistible good looks or gentle manner. Romance soon entwines her heart with his, but she’s made a vow to marry only with her father’s blessing, and learning Henry doesn’t really know God further complicates everything. Plenty of dangers arise on the trace—but none so difficult as the desires of her heart.
Purchase Links
AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Vow-Unbroken-Novel-Caryl-McAdoo/dp/1476735514
BARNES & NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vow-unbroken-caryl-mcadoo/1115884744?ean=9781476735511
MARDEL: http://www.mardel.com/Vow-Unbroken-3053634.aspx
DEEPER SHOPPING: http://www.deepershopping.com/item/mcadoo-caryl/vow-unbroken/5982209.html
Come back March 19th for part two of Caryl’s real life romance!
What a great story! Yesterday was my 40th anniversary! I would love to read this book!
This is a neat story, the book looks good!
Caryl, I love your wedding story. It is certainly an unforgettable one. Good luck with your book!
Thanks Connie, Michelle, and Melanie! It definitely was a day to remember with all those things that went wrong. You know when you’re married 46 years, it doesn’t mean all those days were fun, some were terrible with many trials and troubles, but when you #1 always make God a part of the solution #2 work through them because you are committed to make it work then #3 you come out stronger every time! Thanks for y’all’s comments! Blessings from Texas!
That was quite the wedding day! Certainly unforgettable=)
Loved your story and would love to win your book too! We will be celebrating our 43rd wedding anniversary in May and we have faced many bumps in the road, after all you have to fight for what you want to keep right. If only people now days would realize that when you hit a bump, you work hard to straighten it out and keep moving ahead, you don’t give up and go back to the way things were. I have always said never go to bed mad at each other and marriage is 90% give and 10% take for both the husband and the wife. Life is not easy or perfect, that would be pretty boring, lol, nice but boring.
wfnren(at)aol(dot)com
Would love to read this story! Your wedding sounded similar to my daughter’s in 2000! Huge ice storm, towns closed down, no electric, cake locked in the house and decorated in another state, if police stopped you-you told them you were going to the Durant wedding, had to beg the police to allow this event. Even the little groom deco on the cake…we had to duct tape his arm back on. Candles for light, cake lady told us how to break into her house….
I’m loving all these wedding stories. I guess all weddings have their little glitches. Our centerpiece was silk flowers surrounded by candles. Yep, you guessed it, the flowers caught on fire. It didn’t get big or out of hand. We didn’t even know it until we got back from our honeymoon.
I love your story, thank you for sharing. I would love to read Vow Unbroken.
Hello Shannon and Caryl. Great sounding story. One I’d love to read. Another Texas gal. I love living inTexas. I would love to win this book. Thanks for giving me a chance.
Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com
Loved the story.
Your book sounds really good and I have added it to my TBR list.
I have a winner! Congratulations Melanie Backus! I appreciate Caryl for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.