Prelude to a Wedding
After the proposal, I returned to West Point and would graduate May 25th, 1983. Eileen and her parents would join my family in celebrating the moment. Eileen accelerated her studies at Georgia and she graduated in December 1983. We spent all of our time together in December making wedding decisions before I headed out to Lawton, Oklahoma for an Army Field Communications course.
I settled into class during the day, five man full field soccer after class, and a monk like existence in Lawton. While the people were nice and the steaks were amazing, it is not like there is a lot more to do. Meanwhile, Eileen was dealing with both sets of parents. Eileen’s parents had been married in the middle of World War II in a quick wedding. Her mom and dad wanted a big formal wedding inviting all of their family and extensive friends celebrating the marriage of their youngest child. My parents were also eager for a large wedding celebrating the marriage of their first child and their rising social status in Savannah. The invite list exploded and the only possible venue would be Saint John’s Basilica Cathedral. The reception after the wedding would be the The Sheraton Savannah Resort and Country Club.
Eileen handled most everything and I looked forward to returning. The plan was as follows. I would finish my Army course on March 8th and drive 1,200 miles straight to get into Savannah the day before the wedding. There would be a rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and bachelor’s party that night and the wedding the next day. What could go wrong?
Driving 16 hours straight was not a good idea. I did make it but at some point between Atlanta and Savannah, my mind went on autopilot, I took an exit and ended up at someone’s farm at 4 AM. It took me an hour to get back out onto I-16 and get to Savannah. I went straight to Eileen’s house and collapsed into bed. I got couple of hours of sleep before going to a rehearsal at the basilica, rehearsal dinner, and a bachelor’s party.
The rehearsal was straightforward and candidly we spent more time on how to handle the ten priests who were going to be on the altar than anything else. By the way, what do you call ten priests? A decade pod, a decennary clergy, or a ten-spot presbyterate? We are going to go with a presbyterate from the Greek for elder. Relatedly, why did the ten priests form a rock band? Because they wanted to spread the good hymns!
It became apparent at the rehearsal dinner that we were going to have hundreds of attendees at the wedding. Eileen’s parents were covering the massive cost of the wedding but could not afford an open bar for that many people. They had bought 12 cases of champagne for the event already. At the rehearsal dinner, my dad quietly offered to cover the cost of the open bar and the Schrecks accepted.
The bachelor’s party featured far too many Long Island Ice Teas. I did see the cream pie headed for my face but was too tired and too intoxicated to dodge it. I went home after the bachelor party and slept. I did not wait up until the following afternoon. It was time for a royal Savannah wedding that would be legendary.
Pomp, Circumstance, and a Ten-Spot Presbyterate
The Setting
The wedding had the all the trappings of a royal wedding between the oblivious Curt and Eileen. It is March 10th – the 69th day of the year. It is Saturday night. The temperature is a comfortable 55o F and mostly cloudy. The setting is Saint John’s Basilica Cathedral. The crowd is estimated to be in excess of 600. There are military officers and sabers. There are sorority sisters dressed in a rainbow of pastel color dresses. There are ten priests on the altar.
Father Patrick O’Brien, our pastor and a family friend, quibs that 15 priests will be needed for a divorce. Eileen’s cousins, Father Chris and Gerry, are on the altar. There is a complex dance so that all ten priests have some speaking part in the wedding.
Corey Carver is my best man and Julie Rhame is Eileen’s maid of honor. My classmates have travelled from all over the country to form a traditional military sabre arch. Eileen’s sorority sisters should be preparing for finals at Georgia but are in Savannah for the wedding.
The wedding proceeds with pomp and ceremony. There is some laugher from the priests as the first reader emphasizes “leaping gazelles” in the reading. The sermon is short. We have a visit to the Virgin Mary Chapel, count to 20, and return. We are married with some pomp and circumstance and a joyful celebration of commitment. Now the fun begins.
Military Saber Arch
Eileen and I had a traditional saber arch with seven officers in their Army blues and one officer (Joey Pollak) in their Navy whites. Everything proceeded as normal until after we passed Joey and he swatted Eileen on her posterior with his saber and said, “Welcome to the Navy!” For me, it was quintessential Joey. Eileen took a much less favorable view.
A Slight Detour to MacDonalds
After all the pictures and best wishes, it became apparent that our reception would consist of the following pattern:
- Participate in a receiving line that would last a very long time followed by
- Take three steps forward.
- Have someone stop us and reminisce about their favorite memory of one of us when we were very, very young for five minutes.
- Repeat
Despite all the catered food at the reception, we were 100% certain we were not going to be able to eat any of it. Thus, we made an audible and stopped by the drive-through at MacDonalds at Victory Drive and Skidaway. Eileen is in her wedding dress and I am in my formal blues, and we are in an extended limousine. The drive through attendant is shocked and laughs at us as Corey explains the predicament.
We were right by the way. Other than wedding cake, we never ate at the reception as we were too busy with all the guests and friends. My friend Joey Wise realized the situation and would bring us drinks as we worked the room.
When the Army met the Sorority
My Army friends collided with Eileen’s sorority, they decided they really liked each others’ style. They settled down into a corner of the massive reception and decided that drinking games were the appropriate response using bottles of champagne. The conversation focused on what they could jointly do to determine which hotel Eileen and I were going to in town and how could they determine which room were were in at the hotel. In their alcohol-induced fantasy world, one of them would be under the bed when the marriage was consummated. They were determined to track our car to the hotel. They jointly discovered we were staying at a Marriott hotel or so they thought because we planned that tidbit.
While it was a good plan, we had anticipated their shenanigans. We had planned to switch cars quickly and had a decoy driver. We were not staying at a Marriott but instead the new Mulberry Inn on Bay Street.
Reports serviced of terrorized Marriot hotels the next morning but we slept well and headed down to Amelia Island Plantation for a brief honeymoon. No one was arrested.
A Beach, a Honeymoon, and Jumping out of Airplanes
While Eileen and I would have loved to have taken an exotic honeymoon to a foreign land, practical considerations precluded such an adventure. I was a new Army officer and had limited leave. Eileen (and I) had 600 thank you notes to write. And perhaps most importantly, I had to be at airborne school in seven days at Fort Benning Moore, Georgia. We had been to Amelia Island Plantation while we were dating and enjoyed the quiet, relaxing atmosphere and easy access to the beach.
As it drew close to our reporting date, our plan was to report at the last possible moment as close to midnight so that the bachelor officer’s quarters were full and we could get a room at the post guest house. We succeeded.
The three weeks of airborne school were eventful. Two quick stories:
- Physical training (PT) was at 0430 and during the first week, I woke up at 0423 all the way across post. I raced to PT and made it. I then got to run four miles in desperate need to go to the restroom. It was the most miserable run of my life.
- Eileen went back home during the second week of airborne school to focus on hundreds of thank you notes. When she came back, the Army had moved me out of the guest house to dilapidated World War II barracks to save some money and Eileen moved right in. The rooms did have maid service all of whom assumed Eileen was a fancy prostitute thus highlighting the judgments others make to make themselves feel better about themselves.
It is time to bring the story of our royal Savannah wedding to an end. I was recently in Savannah and took my mom to lunch. An elderly Sister of Mercy walked up who was about to retire after teaching fifty years at Saint Peter the Apostle School. She reminisced that as a brand new Sister in Savannah, she attended our wedding. She had fond memories of the wedding and the community that came together to celebrate Eileen and I. Our success as a couple was built upon the support of our family, friends, and community. It is something that we deeply treasured as we set out as a couple to explore married life and the world. Our adventure continues in Broke but Happy.