Shannon here: Mary Davis shares her harrowing tale of trying to make it to her wedding on time. Comment or answer the question at the end of the post to enter the drawing for a PDF e-copy of her latest Historical Romance, The Widow’s Plight. Deadline: July 7th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Mary:
The Week That Almost Kept Me from Getting Married by Mary Davis
Wedding preparations had progressed smoothly. Only a few things left to get done before the big day. The two biggest were picking up my future in-laws at the airport and driving them more than two hours over the mountain pass to where our wedding would take place. The other was to finish the maid-of-honor and bridesmaids dresses. I made them and still had much to do to complete them, but I had plenty of time to get them done.
We picked up his parents and younger sister, drove over the pass, and got them settled into their hotel. I said good-bye, jumped into my car, and headed for the pass at sunset.
About fifteen minutes down the highway, my windshield became splattered with bugs. I could hardly see. I knew if I ran my wipers, bug goo would smear. Ew. Because of the age of my car, I didn’t have windshield fluid squirty things. However, I did have a jug of water in my trunk, so I pulled onto the shoulder. When I got out, I heard a loud hissing sound.
Not good!
I grabbed the water from the trunk, doused the windshield, jumped back in, and drove like mad to the next exit and turned around and sped back.
As I pulled onto the exit ramp, one of my tires went wub-wub, wub-wub.
Flat.
Town was still another two miles from the highway. I wub-wubbed my way to the restaurant at the end of the exit ramp. My husband-to-be wasn’t at his apartment and the pay phone only had yellow pages, so I called the hotel and talked to my soon-to-be father-in-law. With no rental car, I had him call my pastor who picked me up and dropped me off at the hotel. I called my hubby-to-be. It had been just under two hours since I started out, but the drive should take over two hours. When he answered, he was surprised to hear my voice and asked, “Are you home already?”
“No, I’m at the hotel with your parents.” I told him what happened. I stayed in his apartment overnight, while he bunked with his family.
The next day, we replaced the flat, but my hubby-to-be didn’t want me driving over the pass with two different sized tires, so I drove off in his car this time. I got a bit farther than I had the previous night before his car died.
I didn’t have time for this. I had dresses to finish.
I wasn’t sure how close the nearest town was, so I trekked out along the highway. After a couple of miles or so, a car pulled over. The man said if I’d walked the other direction, I probably would have almost been to the next town. I got in, and he drove. The whole time, I kept telling myself how stupid I was for getting into his car and prayed he wasn’t a serial killer. Obviously he wasn’t, or I wouldn’t be writing this. He was nice and dropped me off at a diner. I called my sweetie. Again it was under the two-hour mark.
“Are you home already?”
“No.” I told him what happened.
He collected me and took me back to town. The engine in his car had ceased!
“I have to get over the mountain pass. I have dresses to finish!”
We bought me a bus ticket and loaded my suitcase onto a bus. A second one pulled in. That driver spoke to someone and commented that the driver of the first bus (the one my suitcase was on) had a tendency to get lost.
WHAT!
I didn’t have time to get lost. My sweetie snatched my suitcase from bus one and put it on bus two.
Whew.
I made it over the pass, and my mom picked me up. When we got home, we heard a loud hissing noise coming from her car.
Seriously?
Her radiator had sprung a leak.
When my step-dad got home and heard the tales, he said in his joking way, “Mary, I don’t know if we’re going to let you ride with us. We want to make it to the wedding.”
“Dad, if I don’t make it, there won’t be a wedding. Being the bride, I’m kind of important to the ceremony.”
We made it to the wedding without any further car troubles, and I sewed buttons on the dresses in the back of the
camper as we headed over the pass.
However, the car tales aren’t over. As we pulled back into town after our honeymoon, a wheel-baring in my car went out. But we made it back!
That was all nearly 34 years ago.
About Mary: Mary Davis is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; “Holly & Ivy” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January, Courting Her Amish Heart in March, The Widow’s Plight in July, Courting Her Secret Heart September, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December. She’s a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Learn more & connect:
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About the book – The Widow’s Plight: A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series. Washington State, 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother. Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
The Widow’s Plight will release in ebook on July 1, and will be out in paperback by mid-June.
Can’t wait for the drawing? Get your copy now! : The Widow’s Plight – Amazon
Question for Readers: What wedding mishaps happened to you or someone you know on the way to the altar? If you were fortunate enough not to have any or haven’t gotten married, what was a highlight of the weddings you’ve attended?
Come back June 29th for Mary’s Character Interview & Romantic Excerpt!
oh my goodness, talk about memories from your wedding. My wedding was pretty uneventful. My mom took me to get my hair done early on that day. I had hair that went down to my behind then. And no one had any twisties of any kind. So the hairdresser found a lilac pipe cleaner. Heck, my hair was going to cover it anyway. LOL and the colors of my party where lavender. Peeerrrfffect. We have been married for 35 years now and i still have that pipe cleaner in my wedding memories book. Have showed my daughter and she got a good laugh.
Hi Lori,
I’m so glad you had an uneventful wedding–well, the wedding was the only event–the best kind. I love the lilac pipe cleaner story. How fun.
Blessings,
Mary
=0)
I had a outside wedding and it rained for 3 days before my ceremony so ground very soft and chair legs sank into ground and so did our shoes
Hi Shelia,
But it sounds like it didn’t rain on your wedding day. That was blessing. I can picture the chairs sinking. I’ve walked across soggy ground where my shoes sank, and the mud likes to hold onto them and take them off your feet.
Blessings,
Mary
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The silk flowers on our centerpiece caught on fire from the candles also on the centerpiece. We didn’t know it until we came home for our honeymoon though. Also, my husband’s step-grandparents came to surprise us at our wedding. But they got lost. They hadn’t told anyone they were coming and didn’t arrive until we were already gone. We hadn’t told anyone where we were going for our honeymoon and there were no cell phones back then. So they made an 11 hour trip and missed us, turned around and went back home.
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for having me on your blog.
Oh my. I’m glad nothing else caught fire.
I feel so bad for your husband’s grandparents.
Blessings,
Mary
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The room was decorated as as Christmas theme since it took place 6 days before Christmas. Was a friends wedding.
Hi Kim,
That must have been beautiful! I love Christmas. Add a wedding and it doesn’t get much better.
Blessings,
Mary
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The only mishap happened ‘after’ the wedding. My husband decided to trade cars with his brother so when we went on our honeymoon, 47 years ago, our ‘new’ car broke down that night so he had to call his parents to come and get us the next morning. Well, he got it running before they got there so we went to their house and he was doing more work in it, I went out to see how things were going and he was so upset that he threw a wrench that hit the edge of the car and it bounced up and hit me on the lip. He was really upset then, lol.
wfnren at aol dot com
Hi Wendy,
Cars can be so frustrating. What is it about cars and weddings?
I bet your new husband felt really bad about the wrench. I’m glad it was nothing more serious.
Blessings,
Mary
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Good grief! Reminds me of the old song they used to sing on Hee Haw! Gloom, despair, and agony on me–if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. I lost track. How many cars did y’all kill. LOL! I guess your next book will be the “The Bride-to-be’s Plight”.
I remember that song. =0)
Three cars and a potential lost bus.
The Bride-To-Be’s Plight. I like it. =0)
My husband would claim the only mishap was I had National Guard Annual Training comming up, and I wouldn’t schedule the wedding before AT! I was the communications officer and had way too much to do to plan a wedding. AT was 4 weeks away and lasted 2 weeks. We were married 3 weeks later. 9 weeks from when we met.
When I got married, my mom got sick prior to the wedding, so she couldn’t make it. We got to the church and the door was locked! So we moved the entire ceremony across the street from the other church. As we were getting ready, we realized we had no bobby pins for my veil. So my veil was held on my head by my step daughter’s best friend’s baby daughter’s berrets. Then the whole ceremony was rushed, and my wedding music was timed for the larger church, so I was walking down the aisle to one of the pre wedding songs. Whew!! It’s memorable. . .in more ways than one!