CODY SOSSAMON PUBLISHER What a busy, hectic, wonderful week I just experienced!

Those of you who have been a ‘Father of the Bride’ can relate.

My firstborn, daughter Katie, became Mrs. Jonathan Kyle Howell on Saturday.

She’s been living in Columbia and he in Mt. Pleasant, so much of the groundwork was left to my wife and me.

All of my friends who had experience with this sort of thing kept telling me all I had to was get out the checkbook and pay for the whole thing.

Wrong!

Granted, there were some things we did ourselves to save money, but there was a LOT more to it than just signing checks.

Another thing was the time frame involved. Katie and Jon got engaged in late May and married on July 24 — about two months to make all of the arrangements. For 11 days of those two months the happy couple was with us in Italy, a trip that had been planned long before they got engaged.

The July 24 date was one my daughter was insistent upon because my parents were married on that date and Katie was very close to them.

With the very able assistance of wedding planner Tracy Parris, everything fell right into place and the wedding came off without a hitch.

There were a few bumps. First, our church was holding vacation Bible school last weekend and we had to schedule the wedding around the planned activities.

A friend of Katie’s who was going to sing had to cancel a couple of days before the wedding, but Rhonda Hamrick came to the rescue. She has a beautiful voice! Ask anyone who was there.

We didn’t get the music for one of the songs to our organist, Rita Harmon, until the night of the rehearsal, but she didn’t miss a note (or so I’m told. I wouldn’t know, but it sounded great to me!).

Wife Sherry, Katie’s bonus mom, was insistent on me taking care of a few minor details that would have been unnoticeable to all but her. With help from friends, those tasks were completed with minutes to spare.

The tablecloths arrived just in time, but were wrinkled and being a silky fabric, they were next to impossible for us to de-wrinkle (is that a word?) at home overnight. Gloria of Gloria’s Drycleaning, came to the rescue.

Diane at Allegra Printing saved us with a last-minute printing of the wedding programs.

A lot of things, though, went as smooth as Gloria made those silk tablecloths.

Marcia Melton, owner of J. Michael’s catering, was a delight to work with and as usual, her food was delicious. Danny Agapion of Cherokee National was most attentive to our every need for the reception as was my minister at Limestone Presbyterian, Chris Herrin, for the wedding service.

Billy Pennington and his staff at the CHAPS Museum, where we had the rehearsal dinner, made sure that event went off without a hitch. Shag and the gang at Daddy Joe’s catered the dinner and it was delicious.

Smitty Cook let us borrow his Gamecock golf cart and his wife Shelba decorated it so the bride and groom could ride in style from where the helicopter landed to the clubhouse. (Yeah, the new couple flew from the church to the reception in a helicopter.) Billy Transou went out of his way to provide music for the arrival — ‘2001.’

My sisters, Kit and Polly, my cousin Larry and his wife Ann, and friends the Lesters and Littlejohns — were all vital to pulling this thing off!

As one of them said, “It takes a village to get a daughter married.”

The folks at Bi-Lo and Carroll’s where we purchased beverages for the reception couldn’t have been nicer and more understanding.

Whew. I could go on and on listing people and businesses who helped us make this wedding one to remember.

I was glad my daughter decided to get married in Gaffney, but a bit surprised. She had indicated Columbia would be the site since she had lived there for so many years.

Now that it’s over, I cannot imagine trying to do it ANYWHERE but Gaffney.

Everyone and every business we dealt with could not have been more accommodating or helpful, which I think is one of the biggest benefits to living in a small town like Gaffney.

I will always remember this past weekend for all of the reasons listed above, but I’ve got to be honest here, when my daughter came out to join me for the walk down the aisle, time stood still for me.

It hit me. My little girl was no longer that. She was an amazingly beautiful young woman (inside and out) that I was about to “give to be married.”

Emotions I cannot describe flooded me and a few tears trickled down my cheeks. I composed myself and a few minutes later heard myself say, “Her family and I.”

I think all who were in the church will agree that Katie seemed to be the happiest bride they have ever seen. She was wearing not only a gorgeous dress, but a huge smile!

Seeing her so happy made me realize that ‘giving her away’ was the only way to keep her.

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.