I spent the weekend in San Diego at a Brides Against Breast Cancer wedding gown sale surrounded by two thousand wedding gowns, so as I flew home last night and starting thinking about today’s blog, my mind naturally went to weddings. Weddings have long played a big part in my fictional world.
And that’s just some of them. <g>
I’ve written a lot of weddings, and as I’m writing this blog I’m trying to decide just which of my fictional weddings I enjoyed the most. I guess it’s a tie between Trace and Jenny McBride’s wedding in THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS and the wedding I wrote in my upcoming THE LONER.
I know that ending with a wedding isn’t necessarily the popular trend in romance novels today, but I guess I’m more traditional. I love weddings in the books I read. I love the promise of Happily Ever After. I know that real life doesn’t work that way, but romance novels aren’t real life, they’re fantasy, and my fantasy is traditional–so call me old fashioned.
Probably my all time favorite great-weddings-in-her-books author is Julie Garwood. It’s hard to beat a Julie Garwood wedding. What about you, P&P readers? What fictional weddings have you most enjoyed? I need to make a book store run, and I’m in the mood to read some wonderful weddings…
Fun blog, Geralyn. You should get some great responses. Gotta say it, my favorite wedding ever wasn’t fictional. It was my daughter’s. She’s an artist living near Santa Cruz CA and was 32 at the time. Such a crazy day. She’s always loved Halloween so that was the date she chose. After the planned wedding site got rained out we wound up having the ceremony two hours late, on the beach. Her wedding dress was this beautiful dark red silk brocade she designed herself. Most of the guests wore black, including me. Her self-appointed “bridesmaids” were a couple of gay friends in drag. A ceremony was performed by an Indian medicine man (wearing a Ren and Stimpy jacket). I read a poem by her sister (who died years earlier but was there in spirit) that had everyone in tears. Then a traditional ceremony with vows she and her groom had written, performed by the groom’s 80-year-old grandfather. All in all, it was wonderful. Such a happy day. I ask you, how could you beat that in a book?
I am re-reading Julie Garwood’s The Secret right now. The wedding in that book is about the funniest, craziest bit of chaos I’ve ever read. And the other one that’s my favorite is in a sequel to The Secret–rats, I’m blanking on the title (The Bride, maybe). In The Bride, Brodick marries his woman without her realizing it (yes, insane, it helped that she didn’t understand his language LOL) then nightfall comes and he has to give her the ‘good news’ that they’re sleeping together.
Just madness. Hilareous.
This one yesterday I read was just laugh out loud funny. Ten people, all talking at once. One overwhelmed little bride, a spirited bride, despite the whirlwind around her. the wedding is over before she finally agrees to it, but the chaos is such she can’t tell it’s going on. The priest in the background saying the words, ignoring everyone else talking while Judith argues with all the highlanders who are pushing pushing pushing her to say I Do at the right moment.
Iain finally convinces her to marry him by saying(paraphrased), “We’re sleeping in the same bed tonight. I thought you’d like to be married first.”
These are Scottish Laird and English Maiden historicals. Among my favorite books on the planet.
I often hold the oddball opinion on a subject, so consider the source when I say weddings have never been a big deal to me. I never dreamed about dresses or weddings when I was a girl, in fact I got married in a pair of white bell-bottoms!
My favorite wedding dress scene is in one of LaVyrle Spencer’s books where the heroine doesn’t marry the intended groom and the hero photographs her. Can’t remember which one that is.
Jude Devereaux did fun weddings and wedding nights in her velvet series.
Great post! You know, I’d have to say that my favorite wedding has to be my eldest daughter’s wedding — my younger daughter is yet to tie the knot. As far as my own books are concerned, I’m afraid their wedding are usually done in the very clothes they are wearing. Hopefully the love between the couple makes up for the lack of the more formal wedding clothes.
At least I hope so.
Geralyn, I love reading books with weddings in them and I love putting them in my stories. I think I’ve put one in three of my four books so I guess you can say I’m heavy on tradition also. There’s just something about a bride and groom that gets me misty-eyed.
Linda Lael Miller writes some great wedding scenes. Her McKettrick series has some really good weddings. But, I can’t think of any that beats your books. I LOVED “The Wedding Raffle.” I think of all your books that one stands out a little more than the rest. It was so funny, but tender.
A wonderful topic today! Can’t wait to read “The Loner.” I know it’ll be full of humor and sexy banter and emotional depth. The cover is terrific too! Wishing you lots of good luck with it.
I love weddings in books…and agree that Garwood has some of the best. The weddings in Saving Grace, Ransom, and The Wedding are three of my faves…and I re-read those books all the time.
I love the scene where the heroine meets her new stepson at the wedding in Saving Grace. I don’t remember the exact wording, but she tells him that she is giving horses to his father as a wedding gift. He asks if his father gave her anything…before his father says, “No,” she says yes, a son. He then asks if a son is better than horses…and she says yes, much better. Or it goes something like that…I can’t remember the exact wording.
Ransom’s wedding makes me smile because it occurs on horseback and the heroine has no idea. Later when she realizes that she is married not betrothed (as she thought was happening) she can’t seem to get over the fact that she was married on a horse and wonders what they’ll tell their grandchildren.
The wedding in The Wedding is one of my faves because the heroine does her best to stall and wants her vows to be “just right.” She starts rambling and circling the priest as she says them and no one is quite sure if she has finished…but the groom is able to recite the basics of the entire rambling in one of my fave lines, “She will honor me, protect me, obey me only when she believes I’m being reasonable–but I shouldn’t hold out hope that that day will ever come–try to love me before she’s an old woman, and I’d better get it straight in my mind that she will respect me until or unless I do something to prove I’m not worthy and God save me then (p. 68 of The Wedding…it is sitting next to me).”
Oh, and I forgot another Garwood wedding that stood out to me…the one in the opening of The Gift where the hero and heroine are married as children.
Jennifer, Ransom, that’s the one with Brodick.
the priest doesn’t want to perform the ceremony because Brodick and his Buchanan clan are so uncivilized that he refused to believe the woman is marrying him willingly. Then in the course of the nonsense, She snaps at Brodick, something about, “Don’t talk to the priest that way. God doesn’t like it.”
The priest says, “You think to his soul?”
She says, “Well, somebody has to, he’s not going to get to heaven without help.”
I loved that, and yes, the woman walking in circles. And remember she notices the Highlanders are wearing war paint and starts yelling at them. “You’re wearing WAR PAINT to my wedding?”
This is perfect timing for me. My oldest daughter just set her date for getting married in July. I should start reading all these suggested books although I have read some of Julie Garwoods and enjoyed them.
I’ve got a fairly tempestuous wedding in Petticoat Ranch. Clay is excited. Sophie is dreading another man. They do a lot of snipping and snarling before she agrees to it. And in Calico Canyon–coming in August, Grace is horrified that she’s been ‘ruined’ by being trapped overnight with Daniel…and his five sons. Nothing sinful happened.
But the parson won’t be swayed and Grace really doesn’t know what she’ll do if she’s ‘ruined’ –especially because she’s not sure what ‘ruined’ means.
Daniel is just plain trapped and if he could gnaw his foot off to escape he’d do it gladly.
Mary, I can’t wait to read Calico Canyon!!
Cheryl, that seductive photographer/outlaw/railraid baron would be Jesse DuFrayne in HUMMINGBIRD
*sigh* A favorite wedding dress scene of mine too!
Geralyn, I LOVE your wedding scenes! I love shot gun weddings, elaborate weddings, the whole love plus marraige and the baby in the baby carriage routine
Really looking forward to reading The Loner!!