Today’s topic from the Marketing for Romance Writers blog challenge: What would be your dream wedding?

You’d think I’d have more thoughts on this, being a romance writer and all. But I never was a girly girl, dressing her Barbies in tissue-paper wedding dresses and marching them up a toilet-paper aisle to smooch Ken.

I do recall huddling with girlfriends in our elementary school restroom while we adorned that day’s chosen “bride” with pilfered lipstick and a toilet-paper veil (I see a theme here). Then we’d move onto the playground in a mob, singing the bridal march like a funeral dirge, closing on the bride’s chosen victim. His buddies would poke him, grinning. “They’re coming for ya.” Wide-eyed with terror, he’d flee, but we always caught him and pinioned his arms until the bride left her mark–a lipstick smooch on his cheek. We found this hilarious. Today, we’d probably be lectured about sexual harassment.

Weddings can be great parties, wonderful gatherings of friends and family. In my (probably unpopular) opinion, they work best if the people involved treat it as just that: a shared celebration of love followed by a great party, not “The Best Day of My Life.”

That said, I can’t recall a wedding I didn’t enjoy immensely, from my step-son’s in Palm Springs, a grand affair, to my daughter’s delightfully nerdy wedding in a historical church in San Francisco, to my own wedding five years ago in a lovely garden in Half Moon Bay, California. My favorite memory from the ceremony: D’s two youngest brothers and their wives played guitars and sang Bob Schneider’s “40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet.) Even though the chorus is about cigarettes and beer, it’s a great song for a seasoned couple like us, giving love another go despite all the heartaches of the past. Here’s the wonderful music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWocd40OhXg

I’ve only written one wedding so far, and the process was great fun. The groom’s Greek heritage featured in the blue and white decor, the garlicky menu, and the Kalamatiano, a traditional winding line dance in which everyone joins in. This wedding contained all my favorite elements: outdoors, simple, just a bunch of friends and family dressed in pretty, mismatched clothing, enjoying fellowship and music, good food and good wine, dancing and singing and wrapping the newlyweds in a warm, cushioning blanket of love and good wishes. Simple and real. That’s my favorite kind of wedding.

What’s yours? Have you written weddings into your stories? Planned a real wedding recently? Any wedding horror stories?

P.S. The story in which the Greek-American wedding appears releases Monday, June 24th, and is available on NetGalley until June 30. Here’s the link https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/168129 . I’d be oh-so-grateful if you have time to leave a review.

“Stone’s use of every day situations like putting a loved one in a nursing home brings a deep humanity to this novel that is usually lacking in romance, especially one this hot! It certainly elevates the book above the usual romance. Laurel and Doug face a rough road with lots of potholes and emotional baggage as they try to find a compromise that will let their relationship blossom. I read it in one sitting.” –Suanne Schafer, author of A Different Kind of Fire