BY-WAYS - 3/30/44 - Austin TX. Judith Moffatt's Wedding - March 25, 1944.

Greetings from the Lone Star State!

That's about all I can send you today - greetings. For this is a wedding day. Quite the loveliest imaginable. A bride who is beautiful, even in a house dress or dungarees; a groom who is gallant as he is handsome - as tender as he is daring. This is the kind of romance you read about in the better magazines and novels - and wonder if it could be true. Every good love story has beauty, romance, color, excitement, obstacles, and a villain. The only obstacle this time is the army air corps. The colonel is the villain. I never did wring a chicken's neck, but I would like to give his a hefty twist. This beautiful love story needs a more facile pen than mine - and more time to tell it. I am sitting in my sister's car - under the blazing sun - while the maid of honor, my niece Ellen Mary - better known as "Muggins" - does some last minute shopping. We have been in a social whirl for a week. Judith, the lovely bridge-elect, met First Lieutenant Dandridge Wesley Marston at San Antonio, where she is an instructor and supervisor in army map drawing. Lieut. Marston - better known as "Wes" - is an instructor in navigation at Hondo Field 35 miles west of San Antonio. He and his younger brother, Bob, medical student under Uncle Sam at Richmond, Va., are two of the nicest boys I ever met. Natives of Virginia, they both have that delightful soft Virginia drawl. In fact, Bob is so "suthe'n" that we couldn't understand his dialect at first. Evidently, Wes, articulate or no, got the idea across to Judith on St. Valentine's Day. Now I find myself inarticulate when it comes to describing the accessories to the wedding. My sister - mother of the bride - made the wedding cake. It is truly a masterpiece. Mary, noted for her culinary art (and a score of other talents that the Fates lavished upon her - not knowing I was coming two years later - and would need a few) - to repeat: Mary turned her baking skill to good account during the family's "depression years," and turned professional. She took a course in flower-making - cake-decorating in toto. All her neighbors and friends are proud of her skill - and proud of her.

The cake, made in the shape of a ring, is twenty inches in diameter, is covered lavishly with white frosting in graceful swirls. A spray of calla lilies, "tied" with white mullein, make a picture indeed. The cake had to be baked in four sections. Two extra sections, baked and frosted, will replace the inroads into the original cake - to make it feed 75 people. That, and lemon sherbet. Mary stayed up until 3 a.m. one night, making calla lilies. (You see, I am taking you behind the scenes.) White roses, white sweet peas, stephanotis, and tall white tapers carry out the bridal motif. Now here is where the villain comes into the picture. The wedding is set for 7:30 this evening - in the Presbyterian Seminary Chapel. The rehearsal, which should have been last night, was set for 3 p.m. today - to accommodate army rules. Now, at the last minute, the colonel calls a meeting of officers at noon today - with utter disregard for a young groom's wedding day. It is now 4 p.m. - and no groom as yet! According to serial stories, this is the place to stop - to be continued in our next. Regardless of dramatic effect, this is where I must stop - if you are to have this letter for the March 30 issue.

Yours in a state of suspense.
Florence B. Taylor

Next - 4/6/44 - More about the Wedding

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