Jane Sullivan has been collecting funny wedding stories long before wedding videos were being shown on television to amuse us.
Her collection spans some 35 years and she gets them not only locally but from friends and family who are aware of her unusual collection. Sullivan keeps then in a large folder and the faded newspaper clippings span everywhere from small towns to the stories come from the society pages of small community newspapers from towns across Georgia and Alabama or from larger cities like Dallas or Palm Springs.
Whether the stories feature couples that decide to get married in the aisles of Wal-Mart or in a drive-in theater or have decided to take their vows before a field of cows, Sullivan finds them amusing and loves the fact that no fiction writer could possibly make up some of the stories she has seen. Some are especially strange.
Such as the couple who insisted on getting married at a Citgo station on Halloween with the bride dressed as a witch and with the groom crawling out from a coffin. Or another story that brings a smile to Jane’s face is a couple in Hancock County who were married in a deer stand on St. Valentine’s Day. Both the bride and groom wore camoflage and they climed a ladder to the alter that was placed in a tree.
Sulilvan was started on her collection of clippings by her sister, Bitsy. It was Bitsy who back in the early 1980s, sent Jane a detailed write-up of a wedding in Brewton, Alabama. The bride probably wrote the account herself and sent it to her hometown paper. “I loved the wording of it,” Jane said. “It took up an entire page. She didn’t leave out anything. After that, I starting looking for other humorous wedding stories. People knew I liked them and sent them to me.”
Her collected stories are something she enjoys sharing with others – including other brdes. One of Jane Sullivan’s personal favourites is an engagement announcement of two dogs. The bride-to-be was named “Gracie,” who graduated magna cum laude from obedience school. Her future plans were to be a stay-at-home mom.
Her fiancé, “Barney,” got his degree in home protection and worked in security, specializing in “possum, squirrel and cat control.”
In spite of her recently having lost her husband of nearly 60 years, the articles never fail to make her smile.
Telling the tale of your wedding should be something that makes you smile, too. At Atlanta Wedding Décor, we specialize in creative weddings, staging and tent decor, drapery and uplighting that can bring life to your wedding.
Contact us at the number on your screen and make an appointment with Gerri Sims to go over your wedding plans.