Monthly Archives: July 2018

Shotgun Wedding in Six or Eight scenes

Photographs, ,

These photos were in a little yellow photo booklet. There is no date but the developer was “Rockford Photo Service”. It looks like it was a play. Based on the woman with the bobby socks and oxfords in the last photo, these were probably taken in the 1950s.

At first I suspected it was the Moose since my grandparents we active members there, but I zoomed in on the top center of the last photo and it looks like it is a 5-pointed star. I am pretty sure they were not Wiccans.

Wikipedia suggests that the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic group open to both women and men, uses a pentagram as a symbol.

I’ll never know what was going on here, but it is fun looking at the photos.

Older couple standing in front of a table containing a silver pine tree and a box. A woman in a fancy hat looks on.
Perhaps this is the bride’s family. Or perhaps they have nothing to do with the wedding. However the woman in the back is wearing a fancy hat, so it might be part of the wedding. I love the old-fashioned phone in the back.
Two women set up a chafing dish at a banquet table on which sits silver candlesticks, silver coffee pots and a flower arrangement. Behind them is a group of people watching a band consisting of at least a saxophonist, a drummer and and pianist.
Again, this might not be part of the shotgun wedding. It looks very fancy.
A woman sprinkles petals (?) on the floor while another stands holding a tray draped with a cloth. Several people watch from around the room.
This is definitely part of the wedding. The room seems like it might even be a reception hall in a church. The woman spreading petals is probably playing the part of the flower girl and the other woman, perhaps is the ring-bearer.
The wedding couple at the altar with their witnesses. Behind them is a man holding a shotgun to the back of the groom (played by a woman with black curly hair).
Here’s where the shotgun comes into the wedding. Apparently the man with the gun and corncob pipe is the father of the bride. He seems to be dressed as a “hillbilly”.
The wedding party from the front. It includes the ring bearer, best man, groom, bride (who is facing her maid of honor) and the flower girl. The pastor, in black, stands at the altar, reading from a piece of paper. Behind the groom is the father of the bride with is pipe.
The bride and groom exchange vows.
Same group from the previous photo, this time the bride is looking at the best man.
The vows continue.
Close up of the bride and groom, best man, father of the bride, and maid of honor. The ring bearer seems to be eating a hot dog or something. Possibly blowing a whistle. The bride and groom are tied at the wrists with a white ribbon.
This might be the symbolic marriage knot. The maid of honor is very smiley.
The entire wedding party posing for a photo with the pastor in front.
The wedding party’s official photo. I’m wondering if the woman on the left — the ring bearer — is my grandmother Green. I don’t remember her wearing glasses, although it does look like her face.
 
Now that I think about it, my grandmother would have been in her mid-forties at the time women were wearing bobby socks and black and white oxfords as the woman in the audience behind the wedding party is wearing.