In the Archives: I Thee Wed

One of my duties as The Herald-Palladium's features editor is to put couples announcements in the weekend paper. That includes engagements, weddings and anniversaries. They are important milestones in people's lives, and the announcements are something people cut out and save for future generations. Sadly, for whatever reason, people aren't submitting them like they used to. There used to be pages every week of couples announcements. Now I can go weeks between putting anything in the paper. So I guess this is my pitch: Engagements. Weddings. Anniversaries. These are events your ancestors will want to look back on someday. Put them in print while you still have the chance. Cause, let's face it, you can't cut out a Facebook post. With that sad, let's take a step back in time.

Here's two good looking, not at all scared, people. This was back during my first time around with The Herald-Palladium. The summer we got married, I was a reporter intern at the paper.

It was only about 1500 degrees in the church that day. Who thought a July wedding in a church with no air conditioning was a good idea. I envied her sleeveless attire. It had to be cooler than my three-piece tux.

Taking a step back a generation, you can see how wedding announcements were done in '80s. (You can also see why you want to save the actual newspaper clipping and not rely on a microfilm scan like I have here.) At the time, using a picture of the bride was pretty standard.

But dad was totally there, too, in the same church where we got married, though with a slightly different backdrop.

Going back another Steinke generation, you have grandma and grandpa. I found several different announcements. Here is one of them, sans picture.

Here's another one with a picture of both of them. You'll notice that these are really more engagement announcement than wedding announcement. I couldn't find a wedding announcement. It's possible the papers preferred to do engagement announcements at that time. I'm not sure.

But hey, as long as there's cake, who cares what they put in the paper. Right? (And yes, they were married in Sodus.)

And lastly, great-grandpa August, whose father-in-law, ironically, was also named August. You'll notice Hulda's name is spelled wrong, which is why I always double check names on these things. If it's wrong, people will surely let you know, because these are things they save. You'll notice that the news of their wedding hit the paper between the wedding and the reception, which is kind of funny.

I'm sure it wasn't nearly as hot at their wedding. We should've shot for that early October wedding. Then Gretchen could have worn flowers on her head, too.