Whether just “getting hitched,” or celebrating the holiest of matrimony, what goes on at a wedding and how, is quintessentially important to the success — or not — of a couple’s “Big Day.” Here’s a glimpse of wedding styles during time (with apologies to the ’80s — we couldn’t find anyone who got married that decade) and the nuptial stories that prove young love can transcend just about everything.

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May 1948

First dance: “You Made Me Love You,” Al Jolson

Celebrity crush: Cary Grant

President: Harry Truman

Jeanette Franchino couldn’t say how many boxes she unwrapped that night before discovering the “big” prize. “He gave me this big box and I started unwrapping. Oh, there must have been a lot of boxes inside, because there were so many wrappings on the floor before I finally got to the tiny box,” she says.

It was Christmas Eve, 1947, and Jeanette was about to find an engagement ring from Anthony Franchino, an ex-flyboy she’d met through friends on the baseball team just a few months earlier.

They could hardly wait to be married and set about making preparations right away.

“It was hard to find things, and money was tight because of the war,” Jeanette recounts. “I couldn’t afford to buy a wedding dress and material was scarce. That’s why my sister and I decided to go to a surplus store and buy a parachute. After all, it was soft, beautiful nylon material and there was plenty of it.”

There was enough fabric, in fact, for her sister, Lorraine, to design a beautiful gown with a bustle, a ruffled hem and trim made of braided parachute cord. Lorraine even made a pair of fingerless opera-length gloves to match.

“I’d babysit her child, while she was sewing. It was a lot of hard work,” says Jeanette. “It was amazing how my sister took that giant thing and turned it into a dress. She washed each piece before sewing them together. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was — so nice and white and soft.”

For Marco Islanders Tony and Jean, as they are now known, the biggest surprise came when they applied for a marriage license.

“He lost his parents quite young and was raised by relatives. He always thought his name was Francini,” explained Jean. “But when he got his birth certificate to get the license, we learned his name was really Franchino. And, his first name was really Antonio, but his teachers had all called him Anthony, so he kept that.”

Of course, the most important thing for the young couple was to be married in a church. Jean borrowed a veil from a neighbor and down the aisle of Martin Luther Church they went. Afterwards, they went back to her parents’ home, rolled up the living room rug and danced the night away to the sound of 78 rpm records on a state-of-the-art Victrola with some friends and family.

“The reception was mostly relatives. We didn’t have enormous weddings then like they do now,” observed Jean. The next day, the newlyweds journeyed to Lake Geneva, Wisc. for their honeymoon, then went back to work, living with an aunt and uncle in order to save money for their first home.

The union must have been a good match. The Franchinos, Marco Island residents for 32 years now, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary earlier this year.

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August 1950

First dance:

There was no dancing, but “Stardust” was popular at the time.

Celebrity crush: Frank Sinatra — a little skinny guy with a great, big voice

President:

Harry Truman

“My mother bribed me not to get married,” recalls Elsie Hawkins, of Enchanting Shores. “I remember she offered to buy me a new car not to get married. She claimed she wanted me to finish college first, but deep down, she didn’t think he was good enough for me. All moms think that.

“But, once she realized she couldn’t talk me out of it, she took charge. Mother was very active in the community and she knew a lot of people, so it was important to put on a really big show. And she really did make it a production,” Elsie said.

Elsie’s mom struck a deal with a new florist in town by promising a mention in the wedding program and plenty of high society talk, if the vendor would give her a substantial discount and lavish service. It worked. The altar was lit by an alarming number of candelabra and the church aisles festooned with more flowers than in Oz’s field of poppies.

“Who knew the wedding march from the opera ‘Lohengrin’ had words to it?” asked Elsie. Her mother did, and hired the chancel choir to sing every verse for her daughter’s grand entrance.

“I remember thinking the price of my wedding dress was inordinately high — it cost $56. And, the cake served 100 people. It had spun sugar orchids on it that shimmered and shone; they were simply gorgeous. That’s pretty much a lost art now, but it cost a fortune. It was a whole $35! But mother didn’t complain.”

Elsie’s seven attendants each wore a different homemade pastel color gown covered in white lace. They wore wide-brimmed, crownless picture hats, all the rage at the time, and dyed-to-match satin pumps.

As she waited for the cue to begin her wedding march wearing a veil adorned with artificial orange blossoms taken from her mother’s 1927 veil, Elsie says she was very nervous.

“I wanted to turn around and run,” she said. “But then, right before I started down the aisle, Daddy handed me a telegram that said, ‘Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins.’ That’s when it hit me: I was really getting married.”

Afterwards, she and her new husband had to take some pictures and then sign some official papers in the church basement. Meanwhile, Elsie says, “The best man had fallen in love with one of my bridesmaids and had eyes only for her. So he didn’t see anything else going on. Everybody jumped in the cars and went to the reception; they left us standing on the steps of the church and we had to hitch a ride.”

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January 1966

First dance: “Moon River” from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”

Celebrity crush: Robert Wagner

President: Lyndon Johnson

When Al and Barbara Englund went home for Christmas in 1965, they were in the midst of planning a big June wedding. But before the holiday was over, the couple agreed they couldn’t wait that long to be married. They decided they would tie the knot at the first opportune moment, which they figured would be the winter/spring semester break.

That was just three short weeks away!

What was supposed to have been an elaborate affair with a swanky country club reception metamorphosed into a sort of speed wedding for a small gathering of friends and family.

“We just scratched the plans for the big June wedding and went into wild ‘get ready for the wedding now!’ mode,” Barbara says. “I was able to get invitations right away and mail them. It was after the holidays, so my mother was able to find a lovely dress. I was a size 10 and so was my sister, who was my only attendant, so we were able to buy sample dresses. Al and I found an apartment to rent. My dad was commander of the VFW, so we got to use their hall. And then he found us the Adamski Brothers so we could have a live band. He was so pleased with himself. Everything just fell into place.”

Barbara’s father was thrilled she had “chosen” the VFW hall, which friends volunteered to decorate.

“Bless his heart,” she says. “We didn’t choose it; it was convenient! I couldn’t say whether the band was good, bad or otherwise but, we were all happier than we would have been at a big fancy restaurant even though Dad, being Polish, made sure we served kielbasa sausage along with everything else. Who ever heard of kielbasa at a wedding reception?”

Barbara says in her mind, the straight neckline of her gown and bouffant pageboy hairdo she wore gave her a Jackie Kennedy sort of a look. “There weren’t a lot of choices because we bought the dress off the rack,” she explained. “But Jackie’s look was haute couture in those days.”

Still, the biggest surprise was yet to come for the newlyweds and their guests.

New Jersey hadn’t seen one flake of snow that winter as the ceremony began, but by the time they said their “I dos,” the fluffy stuff was falling. Later, when people began leaving the reception they discovered, much to their chagrin, they would have to make their way through eight inches of snow to get home.

Undeterred, the college students plowed their way through the blizzard to a one-night honeymoon in the lower Catskills. Overnight, a foot of snow fell and the couple thought briefly they might be delayed getting back to class the next day, but such would not be the case. “The roads were cleared by noon,” said Barbara. “They know how to deal with snow up there.”

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June 1979

First dance: “Color My World,” Chicago

Celebrity crush:

Him — Stevie Nicks

Her — John Denver

President:

Jimmy Carter

“It was a whole string of goofball mistakes,” said Golden Gate’s Kaydee Tuff, whose wedding saga spans about three decades, starting with Russell’s proposal the summer of their freshman year in college.

“We were having a picnic and I pulled out the box and said, ‘I was kinda wondering if you’d want to marry me,’ and the first thing she says is, ‘You did it wrong!’ I hadn’t gotten on one knee, because I was already on the ground; I couldn’t get any lower,” recalled Russell, with a wink. “It’s amazing we’re still together. I just screwed everything up.”

The couple broke with tradition when, thanks to the number of weddings scheduled in the church that day, they had to have their wedding photos taken before the ceremony. Try as they might, they couldn’t remove Russell’s wedding band, even with the help of cooking oil and soap. “We tried everything, but there was nothing we could do, so we thought we’d just pretend to exchange rings. Of course, we forgot to tell the pastor. So when the time came, the pastor looks at the best man, the best man shrugs, the pastor scowls at us and we just passed right over the ring vows,” says Kaydee.

“It came in handy when we’d argue,” joked Russell. “I could always say ‘You’re not the boss of me, we’re not really married.’”

Twenty-five years later, those skipped vows nearly resulted in a real spat.

“Russell had inherited his father’s wedding ring. One day, I got the bright idea to surprise him with a ring vows ceremony and his dad’s ring. I arranged to meet Russell and the priest — now we were Episcopalian — in the sanctuary after church, but the priest forgot. Russell didn’t know why he was there and was already upset over missing the snacks, so it didn’t help when I dragged him to the church hall to look for the priest. I was thinking we’d just go off to one side and say our vows, but no. The priest had to find his stole and wanted us back in the church so it could be ‘official.’ By now Russell was really mad, because he was going to be late for choir practice, and I was near tears. But you should’ve seen the look on his face when he saw the ring box!”

That wasn’t the only event to carry over to the future. When it came to the part where the two pledged to share their lives together, Russell accidentally said the word “lice” instead. “It was a really giggly moment,” says Kaydee. “Later, when I was teaching elementary school, we had a lice epidemic. When I told Russell it was possible we might end up with lice, he flipped. ‘If that happens, I’m moving out!’ he shouted. ‘Oh, no, you’re not!’ I shot back. ‘Remember that vow you took?’ That was all it took. Fortunately, we never got the lice.”

Back at the wedding dance, Kaydee was literally up in the air, as her fellow Minnesotans did their version of the “Steal the Bride” tradition, little knowing the zipper on her borrowed wedding gown had broken from tip to stern. While a rogue relative allegedly suffering from dementia loudly criticized the singer and caused grandmother to have a conniption fit, Russell worried they wouldn’t make it to the honeymoon suite at the local Holiday Inn in time to get the complimentary bottle of champagne.

“We were underage at the time,” Kaydee explained. “He was going to make darned sure we got there in time.”

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September 1994

First dance: Theme to “Forrest Gump”

Celebrity crush: “I was too busy to know what was going on in the world.”

President:

Bill Clinton

“It was a fiasco!” recalls Debra Brown, a ballroom dance instructor formerly of Naples. “I had planned the event in about three months. We wanted a nicer wedding than we could afford, and I intended to get my beautiful wedding if it killed me. But, oh my…”

Debra, and her fiancé Alan, believed they could parlay their wedding dream into a marketing scheme that would give them what they wanted for very little cash — anything to get that $50,000 wedding for just a couple grand.

They “discovered” an historic residence on a lake outside Orlando and found a local TV station willing to tape the event to promote a new series called “Wedding of the Month.”

The couple used both to barter.

“We told vendors that in exchange for their services, we’d add their names to the vendor list at the house and put them in the credits of the TV program — never mind probably nobody would see the show on that low-power station. But, some vendors had to be paid. When the woman who gave us the chairs and decorations found out these others were getting paid, she took an old sales receipt of ours and charged us $400,” laments Alan.

Not surprisingly, a torrential downpour threatened to put a damper on the afternoon affair. “People were hinting — loudly — we should move the wedding indoors. I remember looking out over the lake, like in that famous photo of Kennedy looking out from the Oval Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis ... it was a decision I didn’t want to make,” remembers Alan. “Just as I finally said, ‘Ok, move it inside,’ the photographer came in and said to wait a few more minutes, the rain would pass. It did, but then nobody could find anything to wipe off the chairs. It was a tourist attraction, not a home where people actually lived!”

Finally, with the seats more or less dry, the soggy ceremony got under way just at sunset, some 90 minutes late.

Debra had persuaded a black gospel choir she sang with to provide the live music, gratis. The ceremony went on.

Debra picks up at the part where Alan, nerves fried from the strain of the day, lost his cool when a co-worker played a slow part of the music, instead of the robust part, for their exit from the altar.

“I remember that my husband ran away from me right after we said ‘I do,’ because the music wasn’t right. Here the guy was nice enough to play DJ for us and Alan had to leave me halfway up the aisle to go chastise him.”

Meanwhile, the caterer had helpfully suggested that since they couldn’t afford to feed the choir at their sit-down dinner reception, arrangements could be made for them to be served coffee and cake upstairs. Nobody imagined the separation could be considered offensive — which it was — and Debra’s involvement with the choir was summarily ended when the choir got up and walked out en masse.

“Later, I made my peace with them and I did pay them some,” said Debra. “But, oh my…”

After all was said and done, Debra and Alan admit they were just happy to be married. And the wedding production hadn’t really been a total fiasco, either. “As I made my entrance down the stairs to the garden, I looked up and I thought I would cry,” said Debra. “With no money and everything going crazy, God shows up with beautiful, double rainbows over the lake, just full of hope and love. It had to be a sign that meant ‘Good Luck!’”

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November 2007

First dance:

“The Luckiest,” Ben Folds 5

Celebrity crush: Darcy Tucker, Toronto Mapleleafs

President: George W. Bush

“We looked at castles and gorgeous inns in Toronto, but they were nothing compared to being on the beach at the Naples Grande,” remembers Daniela Neebler. “We wanted to move to Naples, so we figured, ‘What better place to make people come to us?’”

Naples’ beach even trumped Aruba as the site for Ryan and Daniela’s tropical nuptials. Following a two-year engagement, the couple relocated to their Bayfront condo in January 2007, and by their wedding day in November, the weather, the beach and the skies were storybook perfect.

“It was in the high 70s, the sky was crystal clear and everybody just loved it,” recalls Daniela.

Guests came from all over the world — her mother’s family hails from Germany; her fiancé’s family originates in England and her best friend is from Holland. That meant, for some, the tram trip from the hotel to the boardwalk, through mangroves and palm trees, was just as exciting as it was different.

“Some of my friends had never seen mangroves before. The trip over the bridge was beautiful. They loved it,” said Daniella.

With her dad Robert Welsman escorting her, the bride trekked across the hotel’s famous boardwalk in a self-described mermaid-style dress and train carrying a cascading bouquet of large, fresh phalaenopsis orchids.

By the time the ceremony ended and guests made their way to the hotel deck the sun was setting in the west. Soon a gigantic 1920s-style globe light would provide illumination for cocktail hour as Daniela changed out of her flats — kicking off the sand — and into heels for dancing.

The couple had been to a Greek wedding, where guests were asked to drink ouzo.

“We thought that was very cool and thought it’d make a nice gatekeeper idea. You know, people come in, greet the bride and groom, sign the guest book and then drink a shot before they could be seated,” explained Daniela. “Ryan wanted to do tequila, but I pointed out Auntie Nancy probably wouldn’t want to drink tequila, so we settled on amaretto. We had 99 amaretto shots set up at the door and it was a great surprise. It set the tone for the party. It was a wonderfully selfish excuse to have everyone I care about in the same room.” Even the young ones drank toasts of chocolate Coke.

From a “coral” bedecked cake (made by the hotel pastry chef from a photo) and sand dollar-topped party favors to place cards tied with white sugar starfish, the Neeblers kept the Florida theme going throughout the reception. After a night of dancing to a live band, the couple thought people might be hungry enough to eat again, so the “official” party ended with a midnight seafood buffet featuring calamari, crab cakes and shrimp.

“It was all very Florida-y for the people who flew in to share our special day,” she said.