My 1970 Wedding in Kingston, NJ

Margaret B. “Peggy” Wesp’s Wedding Plan – June 20, 1970

As I was going through stuff from the attic in my house, I have encountered many treasures: professionally framed oil paintings by my maternal grandmother that she created after she retired to Mesa, AZ and perfected her craft; photographs of long-gone relatives of Connie’s throughout the decades; and, a scrapbook that Connie began to build on or shortly after the day we first met.  More about that last later in another installment.

First, I want to share the prize that I found today in the form of a yellow pad, a number of envelopes, and, within those envelopes, receipts for nearly everything associated with our wedding reception! That’s right, my mother-in-law (or my wife) never tossed out the minutiae that chronicled that precious day in our lives!

So, I’m going to share with you what I found (and never knew before today, 47 years after the event!)

The Kingston Volunteer Fire Company provided their hall. I did not find a bill so I would have suspected that, since Connie’s mother, Peggy Wesp and her maternal grandmother, Catherine Brabson, were members of the Ladies Auxiliary, there would not have been a charge for the use of the hall.  However, the budget lists $40.00 for the Firehouse and $15 for the use of the kitchen.

Joseph Scasserra of 1096 Ottawa St., North Brunswick, NJ 08902 provided the following:

128 Dinners @ $4.60 per person	$588.80
Rental of tablecloths & napkins	$20.00
Paper Cups for punch	$3.00
Rental of punch bowls	$5.00
ICE (via Mr. Teague of Princeton)	$10.00
TOTAL	$626.80

Cake Specialties of 161 Throop Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ provided the all-white wedding cake. Their part was $106.25 – the cake cost $65.00 with an added charge of $5.25 for the vanilla custard filling. They also delivered $36.00 worth of cookies (no amount specified). The hand-written budget mentions “Santisi’s Cake Shop.”

Ken Smith Studio was our photographer. He hailed from Hendrickson Drive in Princeton Junction, NJ 08850 and his fee included the price of the service plus:

Wedding Album	$215.00
One 8X10 in a folder	$10.00
Four 4X5 prints in Folders	$14.00
One Parents Album	$29.50
Subtotal	$268.50
Sales Tax	$13.43
Gross Amount	$281.93
Less deposits paid	$150.00
Amount due	$131.93

There are receipts for two $75.00 deposits paid before and after the wedding itself. A hand-written note on the itemized list above reads, “Paid. Ken Smith. Thank You”

No wedding would be complete without a florist and this one was no exception. Flowers by Evelyn, at 117 West Ward Street, Hightstown, N.J., lists the following items (without dollar signs):

Bride’s Bouquet	15.00
3 attendants 12.00 @	36.00
Bride’s mother carn. & roses	3.50
Groom’s mother carn	2.50
2 Grandmothers carn. & soc	5.00
6 carn. Bouts.	3.00
Altar flowers	20.00
White carpet	15.00
13 centerpieces 2.50 @	32.50
4 white candles	1.00
	133.50
Tax	6.68
	140.18

The most impressive document is the “Contract Blank” from the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada. My father-in-law, Phil Wesp, was a union carpenter all his adult life, so one would expect him to honor the union tradition and hire only union musicians!  This “Band or Group” called the “Johnny Ray Orchestra” belonged to Local Number 204. The location and the date are listed, as well as the following notation: “Music to start at 6 PM to 10 PM.”  The “WAGE AGREED UPON $” (yes, it’s all in upper case letters on an otherwise mixed case document) is $135.00.

Another piece of yellow pad lists the amount for the Music by Johnny Ray as $175.00. Apparently, the Wesp’s final budget did not allow for an extra hour, which would have cost an additional $40!

Did I mention that the envelope with the contract bears a common error?  It’s addressed to Mr. Phillip West, rather than Wesp!  The smiling left profile of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, embossed on a 6 cent United States postage stamp helped the misprinted envelope find its way from 3142 Highway 27, Kendall Park, New Jersey 08824 down the road a couple of miles to Laurel Avenue in Kingston.

Other items on the budget sheet, in Peggy’s perfect Palmer Method script list $35.00 to St. Paul’s Church (which I suspect was the honorarium for the priest), Wine @ $17.00, Liquor @ $130.00, Anne Tocco (for playing organ) $25.00, and a brief memo to “ask Armand for glasses.” The bartender budget was $20 for the 4 hours of the reception.

Additionally, there are reminders to get “Pretzels, Pot. Chips, Drips (sic), Crackers.” All this was to be delivered to the firehouse by 12:30 PM on Saturday, June 20, 1970. 

Peggy and her daughter were inveterate list-makers.  Their list also included the invitations, stamps and place cards, although no amounts are evident. I found about 30 place cards but kept only a few as “souvenirs” since I don’t remember ever seeing them before!

The menu was quite nice, on paper, although my recollection of the actual meal is pretty sketchy. If it didn’t show up in the wedding album, I’m probably not likely to recall much about the details of the day!  I can’t remember whether I had anything to drink which might lead to memory loss, or if I just don’t remember because it was a long time ago.

Whatever. Here’s what’s on the yellow pad:

• ·         Fresh Fruit w/Sherbert (sic)
• ·         Tossed salad w/French Dressing
• ·         Roast Beef
• ·         Baked Potato Mashed Pot (yes, the original starch was scratched out and replaced)
• ·         French style Green Beans w/almonds
• ·         Vanilla Ice Cream
• ·         Wedding Cake
• ·         Coffee
• ·         Rolls & Butter
• ·         Celery, Olives & Radishes

Apparently, they changed the guest list and knocked off 5 people because the menu caps out at “123 Dinners” vs. the 128 above. Or perhaps 5 more were added after this list was written.  We’ll never know!

Recapping, the total cost of our shindig (not including any incidentals that are not detailed here) works out to be about $1,572.16. For 128 guests, that works out to a seemingly frugal $12.28 per person!

Just for kicks, I looked up the US Inflation Calculator website to see what $12.28 corresponds to in 2017 dollars.  (http://www.usinflationcalculator.com) is the site.  That same dozen dollars would require an expenditure of a reasonable $77.39 – because, according to their algorithm, the cumulative rate of inflation since then works out to be about 530.2%!