The bride wore orange

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON. Image ID: 139-6680

 

She was only three when the Steve Martin version of the film 'Father of the Bride' was released. But after the movie was over, she asked her father if he - like the Steve Martin character in the script - would play basketball with her the night before he walked her down the aisle.

Instantly, the father said yes. He never forgot his promise.

A few months later, the little girl - four years old by this time - refused to let her father throw out a pair of her orange socks. They were her all-time favourite socks, she declared. The father pointed to the fact that the socks had a couple of holes in them. "That doesn't matter," said the little girl, "they're so comfortable."

Several times, the father threatened to throw out those orange socks. They sprouted (as socks do, especially favourite socks) more holes, to the point where the father, mathematical by nature, actually pointed out to the little girl that there was a greater percentage of holes than there was orange fabric. But his daughter would not let him throw out the socks.

They were her "all-time favourite" socks, remember?

Before they knew it, the little girl was 22 years old. She was about to be married. Relatives and friends flew in from far and wide. The house was even more full of laughter and joy than it was normally, because so many loved ones had travelled nigh-biblical distances to be present at her wedding.

The evening before the wedding, they didn't have the time to play basketball. They had to be at the beautiful Gothic church with the sweeping bluestone steeple for the rehearsal. Afterwards, when evening had given way to a humid night, torrential rain lashed the city. It meant they were unable to play the game of basketball they had promised each other, just a few short years earlier.

The next day, the bride's makeup was complete. The hairdresser had finished. The flower girls were ready. The bridesmaids, her closest friends in the world, were waiting for the official photographer. The house radiated happiness.

The bride was about to step into her jewellery and her wedding dress.

The proud father, his heart bursting with joy and pride and oh so much love, put something into his beloved daughter's hands. It was a brand-new pair of orange socks. "Just perfect for a basketball game," he suggested with a big grin on his face.

The bride paused. She donned her Adidas shoes. And they played the game of basketball each had promised the other.

And the bride's mother? She dropped everything to videotape the special moment on the little girl's most special day.