Weddings at #Weekend Coffee Share-June 23, 2018

Weddings

Good Morning, Everyone. If we were having coffee together, I would tell you, WHEW, what a whirlwind these last two weeks had been. The quick news includes loving Tuesday nights crewing on the all-girl  Nellie Bly, school ending, and that our Herreshoff catboat is almost ready for launch. I had a little accident involving a nail and my foot, but I’m on the mend, looking forward to summertime swimming in the ocean, sailing, and writing.

The big event was that my youngest sister, Barbara,  married her best friend, John, last Saturday in my parents’ backyard. The yard overlooks the Great South Bay–an idyllic place to grow up, play, and gather with family and friends.

Thirty-nine years ago to the day, my husband and I were the first ones celebrating our marriage under the Truglio Dome; a fantastic web of support ropes my father fashioned from the house rooftop to the dock (100 feet long). A huge blue boat tarp covered the ropes to create the “dome”. We cooked most of the fare. I wore my mother’s wedding dress that was sewn by her mother. My sister bridesmaids wore dresses my Aunt Lil- Grandma’s sister, sewed. Matt’s father was a band director of Massapequa High school and had his former students’ brass band play. Because the house sat so close to the bay, the cesspool overflowing plagued my father. He set up a ladies and men divide in the shed complete with boat toilets.

My wedding was a very festive day. A perfect beginning for a young couple to start their own story together. Two of my sisters also married under the Truglio Dome, but Barbara had eloped the first time, thereby forfeiting a backyard wedding.

A generation later, my niece and cousin had beautiful Truglio backyard weddings complete with a rented tent, caterers, and a very fancy port-a-potty trailer complete with stalls, air conditioning and piped music. The weather was always the uncontrollable variable. Winds could whip fiercely, and rain could dampen the day. Somehow, though, God and all the powers that be always granted fair weather wedding days.

For Barbara and John’s wedding, we started the celebration on Thursday night, My sisters, cousins, and friends began with a Ladies Pre-Game Party. Twenty of us took a ferry to Cherry Grove, Fire Island, for a special dinner, a late night drag show, and a lovely evening ferry ride back to the mainland. Friday was spent prepping and primping. Mom put the finishing touches on her table flower arrangements. Saturday, the wedding day, brought gorgeous weather.  Family and friends came to celebrate the couple as they begin their happily ever after together. My cousin and I planned a toast that evolved into a flash mob scene. So much fun from this loving tribe. Blessings abound.

If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that the best part of the Wedding Long Weekend was having all of my daughters and grandkids together, staying in my home. A very full house confirms my bountiful blessings. 

Before I sign off, I want to send a big a big shout-out to Eclectic Allie, the drive behind Weekend Coffee Share. These weekly catch-ups prove to be a wonderful way to keep the writing flowing. Thank you, Allie.

Have a good week, Everyone. Make it GREAT!

Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.

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