Our Wedding, November 16, 1979



Pat Kemp (Kritlow), my maid
 of honor and me.

My friend, Pat Kritlow, reminded me today about my crazy wedding. Gordon and I were married 34 years ago today, November 16, 1979.

We were both letter carriers in Corona del Mar, CA and I loved the little church on my route. Although neither of us is religious, we thought it would be a nice place since I delivered their mail.

Keep in mind he was 41 and I was 29 and both of us had been married before. I already had a daughter, Jennifer, 10, from a previous marriage. We had no plans for other children.



Herbert Wilson, best man and Gordon's step father, his mother, Eileen Wilson
on the left. My mother, Alice Hansen and my step father, Ed Hansen on the right.

The pastor started off with telling us about marriage, the sanctity, commitment, etc. and then he started in on children. We had to take classes and understand what marriage and raising children were all about. Wait, didn’t he remember what we had said?

Jennifer Lippincott and Mary Kemp.

When the "interview" was over, and we were out of earshot we both started laughing. We were NOT getting married there!

We didn’t want to get married at "city hall" so after checking around I found a minister with a Chapel we could get married in. I thought it was a good sign his name was the Reverend Wright. I had Wright’s in my family. It was a nice office building with a courtyard and the "Chapel" was a separate room with a wallpaper arbor and an arched trellis and lots of chairs in rows. With close family invited there were about 15 people there.

Upon arriving we checked in with the secretary. The Rev. Wright was finishing up with another wedding and they went out the backdoor. He led us into a small room next to the "Chapel" to sign the papers and pay him. It was $50 cash only. Twenty-five dollars went into one pocket and $25 into the other. It seems $25 got reported as income and the rest . . .  And for only $5 more we could get a picture and for another $5 we could get a recording. We declined.


Gordon's brother, John Wilson and Gordon. Definitely the long
and the short of it, hair wise. One of myfavorite pictures.

So we all filed into the "Chapel" and proceeded with the ceremony. It started off as the usual wedding ceremony but pretty soon the phone started ringing in the office and kept ringing. He pounded on the wall and told her to answer it. Still ringing. So the Rev. Wright put down his book, went into the office and answered the phone! It seems he and his secretary were having a disagreement and she was refusing to answer the phone! A few minutes later he came back in to finish the ceremony. He had forgotten his place, the fact that it was not a double ring ceremony and our names.



My mother, Alice and my niece,
Jorli Baker.

It was quite hilarious, at least to Gordon and me. It also kept my mother from crying and Gordon’s mother wasn’t sure we were actually really married.

Oh, and a few weeks later, while delivering the PennySaver, I found an ad for the Reverend Wright in it. He advertised in the PennySaver!

It couldn’t have been a better start for our marriage and on reflection, I sure wish I had paid the $5 for a recording!