How Mom Meddled In My Wedding Plans

Hi, Mom, look at my new engagement ring! Marie, twenty years old, was full of life, attractive in a cute sort of way with layered medium length dark brown hair, expressive green eyes and a girlish figure. When she came home with the one caret engagement ring at Christmastime, her Mother was singing along to a Christmas Musical on television.

Marie showed off her shapely figure by wearing tight jeans and frilly peasant-style tops. She wore a fashionable look. As she leaned down to pick up her Mom's dishes, she felt especially attractive with her new diamond ring.

I'll have to start wearing a good bra and a little touch of makeup now that I'm more grown up, she thought.

Mom glanced at the ring. I think you should see other boyfriends.

There were no more chances for Marie. She used them all up. Mom told her so. She thought about how her Mother always told her to try her best at tasks and that would get her through life and all its trials. Now her Mother treated her differently.

By summertime of senior year, Kevin had kept Marie out all hours of the night a few times and they had even had relations in the car. Her Mom had scolded her harshly for the first and only time that summer because she had worn short-shorts and kissed a guy at the front gate before she met Kevin. She wanted to settle down and forget about what happened the first summer without her Dad to watch out for her. She felt that marriage protected a woman from harm. Her siblings went to college and were busy with their own lives. They had very few parties like the sacramental parties they had when her Dad was alive. He was pretty religious. She missed the stability she had when he was alive. He had given her a curfew and been a strict disciplinarian.

She was the youngest of five siblings. Her Mother had gone to work fulltime at a bank when she was a high school freshman. Her Father had died during Thanksgiving weekend of her sophomore year.

Marie and Kevin had decided to become intimate together last week

When are we going to get married, Kevin? she had asked him that same night.

Let's wait until you go to Katherine Gibbs School this year because you could change when you go there.

. I love Kevin, Mom. He's the man I really want to marry. She had already met his parents, and they loved her.

Don't ask me what to do because you do what you want to do anyway.

Can I have a trousseau during my engagement?

No. Mom kept watching the show like it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. She hadn't bonded as well with Marie and had returned to work part-time when she was four years old.

You don't love me like you do the others.

Every parent has favorites even if they don't admit it. I love all of you though.

Mom would cry when Marie made her homemade cards and crafts. She was very touched by her sweetness.

I only wanted the first two children, but the Catholic Church did not allow birth control.

Kevin said when we marry he wants two children. I want to have three. I believe in birth control. I want my children to feel loved.

Marie went upstairs and began to undress and get ready for bed. She knew she had already given her greatest gift to Kevin, the gift of herself. She worried that her Mom wanted her to see other boyfriends. She felt she really loved Kevin and that she needed to marry him because he promised her a future. Her Mom and brothers did not really have much to do with her. Kevin went cycling and played paddle ball with her and taught her to drive a standard transmission Volkswagen Beetle. They got the car windows all steamed up while kissing in the car. It always started out innocently as they sang to songs like I Can't Live Without You while driving to Shore Road so Marie could practice driving where there was little traffic. Once Kevin pulled over to an area called Lover's Lane, and they had accidentally stayed out a little late. One time a lone driver parked and caught Marie's eyes as he made indecent motions at his driver's side window. She was so scared because she had never seen anything like this before.

I want to go right home. Kevin complied, and they were both uneasy the rest of the drive home. They didn't discuss her worries very well. No one did help her with that. Her older sister, Nadine, went to therapy because she had a breakdown at nineteen, and Marie had confided in Kevin. He said he had an aunt who had mental health problems and wasn't worried about it. We're both fine, Marie.

Aren't you worried there might be something wrong with our kids?

Not at all. I love you and am sure they'll be fine. He parked the car and pulled her close to him. His moist, warm lips parted as he gazed into her eyes. He pulled her head toward him as he gave her a passionate kiss. She didn't want the night to end.

I hate to leave you, but you need to go to school tomorrow so we can get through this time and marry next October. If your schooling is going well, I think that would be a good time to plan to get married.

Oh, Can we?! That would be great!

Months passed by during which Kevin encouraged Marie to study hard so that they could get married soon. There was a whirlwind of dinners at the nearby Chinese restaurant or pizza out after a movie on an occasional Friday night. She fell back into the habit of going to Sunday church by herself or with her friends. She told herself that she was not committing any serious sins because she was engaged and soon would be married.

That Spring She went to Dr. Cavanaugh, a gynecologist, and asked for birth control. He told her she seemed like a mature young lady, and discussed birth control options with her. She chose the diaphragm to use when she married. She knew that Kevin said, If you get pregnant, we'll marry earlier, but she wanted the wedding that her Mom now was planning with her. There would be a Nuptial mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, followed by a reception of one hundred relatives with a band and a bar cart. They would honeymoon at Cove Haven in the Pocono's, Pennsylvania, for one week.

One Saturday in April, her sister, Nadine and friend, Judy, told her they wanted her to go with them to see a movie. When they returned home, there was a wonderful bridal shower just for her. Her relatives brought gifts of towels and other lovely things, and her Mom gave her a romantic and lacey, white lingerie set! She began to look forward to the wedding as she had for her to go to her high school prom. She shopped with her for a wedding dress the next day and treated her to a lunch at Abraham & Straus.

I look forward to a lovely wedding and reception, Marie. I know you worked hard to graduate early this May so you could work and pay for your wedding and furniture, so I'll help pay for these two things. You and Kevin can work on paying for your honeymoon.

There were one hundred people at the reception, many of whom had made it to at least part of the wedding. Marie sang We've Only Just Begun, and danced the Polka with her Uncle Vinny after dancing the first dance with Kevin. The couple jokingly tried to shove great big bites of cake in one another's mouths. They left with the wedding party to take pictures briefly.

I want one pose on Kevin's lap, she told the photographer.

That's a good one. I'll have to add that to my usual poses.

As they drove away to their honeymoon in the limousine waving goodbye, they kissed again passionately for the photographer. He dropped them off at her Mother's house, and they quickly changed and took their suitcases and headed to Cove Haven.

There they had lots of food, music, breakfast in bed with a fireplace in their honeymoon suite, and dining and dancing to a band at night.

The next morning they were ecstatic to find that it was snowing outside so they lit the fireplace and enjoyed breakfast in our room. When they enjoyed solitude until their heart's content. They went for swims in the indoor pool with the trees and glass surrounding it.

Later they sat around and looked at all the pictures of them as teenagers that they took during their whirlwind romance that last high school year and summer. Life was so much fun when there was mystery in photographs and fullness in her life and not explicit sex!

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