Weddng Bell News

The kiddo's wedding is less than a month away – in fact, a month from today, they'll be at sea on the honeymoon – and I'm really starting to get excited. There are showers to go to, gifts to buy, shoes to find. (No problems with purses, though. Though I rarely dress up, I love evening bags and have a nice little collection of them – something to go with everything.)

Next on the list is ordering the cake topper. It took me a while, but I tracked down exactly what DIL2B wants: bride in her lovely gown and groom in his dress blue uniform. We've got a picture of the kiddo in his dress blues with all the ribbons and insignia; as soon as we ask DIL2B a few questions, we'll get it ordered.

I was surprised to see some of the stuff you can get as cake toppers these days. Back when Robert and I were married, you had the traditional bride-groom combination or flowers, and that was pretty much it. Today you can get teddy bears, frogs, dogs – and that's the fairly normal stuff. You can also get Harleys, John Deeres, monkeys, Homer and Marge Simpson, ATVs, pickups, trucks . . . sheesh.

I was also surprised to find out that cake toppers with grooms in dress uniforms go back to the 40's and post-WWII. I would have loved to found one of them in good condition, but the ones I came across were pretty worn. Porcelain and bisque don't hold up too well over the decades.

We still have our cake topper somewhere in the attic. It's probably faded and yellowed now. I haven't looked at it in more years than I can remember, but I could never throw it out. It'll stay up there with one of our invitations, our guest book, a few dried blooms from my bouquet and whatever other mementoes we kept.

Then someday, when Robert and I are both dead and gone, the kiddo can throw it out.

In fact, I'm leaving a LOT of stuff for him to throw out. Rachel2:58 PM