Laura Lipari Interview Part XII The Wedding

The Wedding Plan

So the wedding plan was moving forward. My mother was going to help me get dressed. I went to put on my dress and it slid right down to the ground. When Felice had arrived from Sicily, with the dress, I did try the dress on and it fit to perfection! But since then I had lost so much weight that the wedding dress did not fit anymore. The dress had a long train behind it and it was all Italian handmade lace. The veil was as long as the dress. He also bought a white lily to place on top of the veil instead of a crown. So when I put the dress on for the wedding my mother said, “What are we going to do?” So she took the belt and she wrapped it around me and fixed the dress up so it would stay put and not fall down. I remember though, when I walked down the aisle I almost tripped on the dress, and I even stopped walking half-way and pulled my dress up. My husband asked my father to get us an apartment at Niagara Falls for our honeymoon. I remember we arrived and we had a kitchen, a parlor, a dining area, and the bedroom. It was so big for the honeymoon that I asked him, “Why such a big place?” And he said, “I don’t want you to feel you are closed up in one room with me. I want you to feel comfortable.” My husband thought even of that, he wanted to make sure I had space and not feel uncomfortable. One night when we came back from the restaurant, I didn’t eat because I wasn’t feeling well, there was champagne and horderves sitting on the table. I just had a little bit of the champagne and then I fell asleep and slept all the way through till morning. I was so exhausted and my husband said he kept looking at me all night to make sure I was okay. He fixed the lamp and put it in such a way that there was a little bit of light during the night. Felice treated me like we were just friends to make sure I was as comfortable with him as possible. Then my parents came and visited us and we all went back home to Cleveland. We were only there for about two weeks before we left to live in Europe. I would not change my courtship with him at all. It was so unusual. I mean to say, he really proved that he loved me. I did love him and I could have been sweeter to him, even after I married him. But I loved him very much.   To Be Continued.