We felt honored that my husband’s brother, Frank, and his fiancée, Stacy, asked our family to be in their wedding in 1997. As Stacy and I shopped for wedding attire, we joked about how easy it was for the men.
They just needed to take a few measurements and a perfect tuxedo magically appeared. I was counting on this as we had our three sons, ages 5, 7 and 9, fitted for their tuxedos six weeks before the wedding.
The night before the wedding, on our way to the rehearsal dinner, we piled into Selix Tuxedo on Grant Street in San Francisco to pick up the four tuxedos. I had my camera ready to photograph the boys putting on their first tuxedos. As the various shirts, vests and pants began to take shape on our sons, I could see my husband was the only one whose measurements had stayed constant over the past six weeks. Even two out of three pairs of formal shoes were too small.
After the employees had re-measured the boys, we were told we could return the next day at 4 p.m. to pick up our clothes. They graciously accepted our request to get dressed at their store. We felt a sense of relief. Family pictures were to begin at 5 p.m. and the hotel was only a mile from Selix.
We reappeared at Selix the next day a bit early in case any additional surprises awaited. Four employees helped the boys dress, putting the buttons, cufflinks and cummerbunds in the right places, and preparing them for ice-skating through the store in the slippery shoes.
We happily left the store and entered the elevator of the parking garage around the corner. My husband and I smiled at each other. The boys looked handsome, all of the tuxedo parts were in the right place, and we were just half a mile from the wedding.
As the elevator stopped at the sixth floor where our car was, we noticed what seemed to be a traffic jam! After 10 minutes, we had only moved down to the fifth floor. We then heard the gate was broken and some people had been waiting for over an hour to get out of the garage.
Now we had only 20 minutes to get to the Hotel Monaco for family pictures and the ceremony. We quickly parked again, ran down the stairs and began our eight block walk-run to the ceremony. We arrived just in time for family pictures!
The boys’ faces were still red as we lined up for the ceremony. I noticed a look of excitement in their eyes as they waited their turn to walk to the chuppah. I thought about all the weddings they might be in and hoped someday they would walk down the aisle to marry women as loving as my new sister-in-law.
I am sure their growth rate will have slowed down by then.