Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

This is a confession of a Circus Bride. Yes, I got married in a three ring ceremony. I entered an essay contest on Why I Wanted my Wedding to be the Greatest Show on Earth and to my amazement, I won! In 1991, my former husband and I got married right before a performance at the Mid South Coliseum. He and his best man rode in on elephants and I had a horse drawn carriage. We had 15 clowns and 15 showgirls as our attendants. We had 50 free circus tickets so all of our family and friends could attend. In all there were 3000 people who stood up when the bride (that’s me) rode by. My dad kept telling me to wave and live it up. I felt like true royalty. Little did I know the marriage would be more of a circus than the ceremony was. Oh, and for the record, we were the second non-circus couple to be married under the Big Top. I wish I could show you the video… or the news footage. Yes, we made all three major networks (local newscasts of course).

My parents had married 29 years before to the day. I wore my mom’s dress just as she did… 1963 coture (sp?) flannel lined silk on a 100 degree day. Even if I was hot, I still felt like a princess. And it fit like a glove! After the ceremony was over we got to perform our first act as a married couple – blowing the official circus whistles that started the show, a duty usually left to the Ringmaster. We were seated in the front row and doted on by circus performers for the next three hours. Clowns sat on my lap, showgirls came up and hugged us and a snowcone guy gave us two large red snowcones free of charge (red snowcones are not good for white wedding dresses).

The clowns were my favorite part. They hammed it up just like they are supposed to. When I was walking to the carriage I had to walk past Clown Alley and one of the clowns had his head poking out of the curtain. He saw me coming and yelled “here she comes!” and all the clowns jumped out to great me as one of them strummed Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman on the guitar. To this day that is still my most vivid memory. The clowns, the showgirls, the elephants…. that’s one way to get your 15 minutes of fame.