Wedding Bells

Dear Gentle Readers:

As you read this blog posting, I will be a married woman! Yes, Teddy and I decided to move up our wedding from June 26, 2010 to March 15, 2010. We were married March 15 at 12:30 p.m. in a double ring ceremony at Christ United Methodist Church in Fort Worth where we are both members, and where I serve at the Traditional Service as the pianist. My sister, Terry, her husband, and one of her children joined us in the quiet, but worshipful, ceremony that Pastor Vaughn performed. His lovely wife, Jacque, was also present for the occasion.

After the ceremony, we took our limo (!) to Reata where Teddy and I hosted members of "the wedding party" for a wedding luncheon.

There were several notable reasons we chose an earlier date, among them wanting to avoid the stress related to planning even a small wedding -- and I was beginning to really feel that stress. We decided Spring Break would be a great time to get married, giving me the week off from work for our honeymoon. We kept it "under the radar" except for a few close family members.

We know many of you had planned on attending The Great Event of 2010, i.e., our June wedding, and hope you will forgive us for forging ahead with our plans. Now you are free to do something else! Thank you for your love, support, and well wishes as we now are husband and wife.

By the way, I am retaining my last name of Scholl.

Blessings,
Teddy Ashcraft & Belinda Scholl & Domino Scholl

A Ring of Truth

Dear Gentle Readers:



I recently did some piano judging for a local music association. I judge for different events about 3-4 times a year, and as such, many of my piano friends do not know about my upcoming wedding plans.

With me so far? OK.

One of these judges is a woman -- let's call her Mary which is a good generic name, and it also happens to BE her name (let us not protect the guilty!) -- that I've known for years and years as a professional colleague in the Piano World. She had known Tim in the Piano World. At the time Tim knew her, she had been married, but was since divorced, and now remarried to an older, and obviously wealthy man (as you will learn from the story).

As some of the women judges were admiring my ring and asking about my upcoming wedding plans, Mary remarked to me, "Your ring is beautiful. I wish I'd gotten a smaller diamond like yours. Mine is such a burden to wear. I'm always worrying it will get stolen, or I'll lose it, or damage it. I should have gotten something more sensible like yours. My husband paid $27,000 for this set and it just worries me something awful. You know, the larger the center stone, the more valuable the set."

Oh, really?!? Well. What. could. I. say. to. that? ? ? ? ?

All I said was, "Well, mine is insured so if something happens, it would be sad, but at least we could replace it." Readers, my ring is not really all that "sensible". It's certainly not ostentatious, but it is a full two carats, with the center stone weighing in at 1.10. The diamonds are all F in color (nearly colorless), etc. It's a fine ring.

What I SHOULD have said was, "All that money wasted on a ring that you wear on those liver-spotted hands of yours! Ouch!!! Bet your husband's sorry to have paid all that money to adorn those claws of yours."

What do you think of THAT?!?

People.