Something Blue
The former Robin Craig was so caught up with graduating from college, taking her pharmacy board exams and starting a new job, she almost forgot an important tradition at her Sept. 4 wedding to David Portman.
“I had the borrowed, the old and the new covered, but I didn't have anything blue,” said newlywed Robin of Cranberry Township.
“So my bridesmaids actually helped me out.”
Equipped with blue dresses that laced up the back, Robin's attendants snipped off some excess lacing, then tied it into a bow.
“They safety-pinned that to the garter, which thereby saved me from breaking the tradition,” she said.
“I'm not really a superstitious person, but you don't want to mess with those things.”
“I wanted to make sure I hit the four things, only because it's tradition,” agreed the former Angela Davidson of West Sunbury.“I guess I wanted the good luck if possible”To implement part of the “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue” tradition at her Sept. 4 wedding to R. Scott Smith, Angela wore a new gown and shoes and a ring that contained blue sapphires.“I borrowed a necklace that my dad had bought for my mom — and earrings, so I considered that the (old and borrowed),” she said.“My dad passed away when I was a kid. ... That was my way of including him in the ceremony.”Although Becky Yount married eight years after her grandmother's death, the late Helen Walker also played an important role in her granddaughter's special day. Her pewter wedding band was the former Becky Walker's “something old,” worn her right pinkie.“She had tiny, tiny fingers,” Becky said.The ring previously had been worn at the weddings of a long line of sisters and cousins as well as by women marrying into the family. But as the last to marry at 44, Becky thought she might never wear the ring.
“She told me (before she died), ‘I want you to keep my wedding band in your possession, and if you marry, I'd like you to wear it,' ” she said.“(My grandparents) died within about 14 months of each other. They were so close — so in love,” she added.Becky's husband Matthew had no sisters, but a grandmother also was honored at the couple's August wedding.“She did great embroidery work and crocheting. She made lace doilies and handkerchiefs. His mom had kept two white handkerchiefs, both white, for both of her sons' wives,” Becky said.“I thought that was thoughtful too — that she had saved one back.”Becky's new items included her dress and veil, and she borrowed a pearl bracelet from a longtime friend and bridesmaid.“My something blue was just a garter, but I took great pains to make sure I got something new, borrowed and blue,” she said.Becky was not the only bride to honor grandmothers at her wedding.Grandmothers played a role at the wedding of the former Kelli Hall of West Sunbury, who married Ryan Michael in September; and for former Lisa Berta of Butler, who married Daniel Wible on Aug. 27.
“For my something old and something blue I carried a handkerchief that was my great-grandmother's,” Kelli Michael said of the late of the late Maude Riever, who passed away in her 90s.“For something borrowed, I used a pearl necklace that was my other grandmother's,” she said of a necklace loaned and later gifted by Jean Vibic of West Sunbury.Lisa Wible wore a blue garter and borrowed a penny for her shoe, but her something old was a photograph of her late grandmother Nellie Sheakley, who died in 1995.“I actually copied it onto a piece of paper and folded it up and stuck it in my dress with me. I actually stuck it close to my heart,” Lisa said.I always wanted her at my wedding. That was a special way to keep her with me.”<B>Heirlooms to remember</B>Jewelry made a memory for the former Ashley Anglum of Butler, when she received a “something old” gift from her mother-in-law Brenda Cammisa of Butler Township.The gift was a bracelet originally given to Brenda from her husband, Thomas.When Ashley received the bracelet, it contained a bride and bridegroom charm as well as a wedding ring charm engraved with Ashley and Cory Cammisa's Oct. 15 wedding date.“Then that Christmas, she gave me two additional charms,” Ashley said, explaining one was engraved with her inlaws' wedding date and the other engraved with her parents' date.“It's very dear to my heart,” she said.
For the former Michelle Moran of Chicora, old and blue were combined into one heirloom, presented by her mother Cheryl moments before her September marriage to Evan Hoelzer.“My mother told me those two were taken care of,” said Michelle, not knowing she was about to receive the first ring her father had given her mother.“She's a daddy's little girl, and it popped right out at me,” said Cheryl Moran, who had the ring hidden away in her jewelry box. “It was old and blue. It's a very blue star sapphire,” Cheryl said.“I had also given her her grandfather's handkerchief to carry. He's deceased now,” she said.Weddings are sentimental times, Cheryl added.“You always need a handkerchief when you cry.”
