Fashion / Weddings

A Hot Sorority Sisters Set-Up: Meeting Leads to a Stunning Candlelight Wedding — and 10 Grandkids

BY Jenny Antill Clifton. Edited by Catherine D. Anspon. // 02.18.16

PaperCity is celebrating all things matrimonial this month, and as part of our February Wedding issue, we’re taking a look back at some special weddings that happened over the years. Here’s to all the loving couples out there!

OKLAHOMA!

The Happy Couple: Mary Ann and David McKeithan

Trip Down the Aisle: August 18, 1962

MIZ McKEITHAN RECALLS
Sorority Sisters Set-Up: David and I met at a sorority and fraternity mixer at Oklahoma State University. Two of my sorority sisters insisted that I meet David, “the most handsome” Sigma Chi that was not dating anyone steadily. I was totally unimpressed when I met him and thought that I would probably never hear from him; however, a couple of weeks later, he called and invited me to the Sigma Chi Christmas formal. I really had a great time and decided that he was a pretty good guy.

Several weeks later he came to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where I grew up, and had dinner with my family. He was from Bartlesville. We dated for a year, then became engaged after he graduated and was working in Tulsa.

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Dazzling Details: Mother and I drove from Shawnee to Oklahoma City on many occasions to pick out the right wedding gown from Kerr’s/Balliet’s. My gown was a custom made Priscilla of Boston — a regal white gown with a full cathedral train and veil.

The Big Day: We were married on a Saturday evening. The beautiful candlelight ceremony in Shawnee’s First Baptist Church was attended by more than 500 people from Shawnee, Bartlesville, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The chancel of the church was festooned with garlands of Southern smilax, and the Oklahoma Baptist University Orchestra played traditional wedding, classical and sacred music during the service, with opera singer Joe Long as wedding soloist. The reception followed in the church parlor and large reception room, the Liza Smith-Stith Parlor, that was named for my paternal grandmother. The room was transformed into an English garden, and the Oklahoma Chamber Orchestra played.

Happily Ever After: We left immediately following the wedding on our honeymoon to Ruidoso and Santa Fe, New Mexico … We now have three married daughters, three sons-in-law and 10 grandchildren. Mary Lynn McKeithan Khater, our oldest daughter, wore my wedding dress in her wedding to Ferdy Khater. She had November nuptials, so she added long lace sleeves to the gown. It looked magnificent on her. The other two daughters choose to have different designer gowns. All three had beautiful traditional weddings.

High Notes: David was very particular about our wedding music. We had a professional orchestra, and he drove them crazy with suggestions. They definitely didn’t like his interference; however, we survived, and the music was beautiful.

DAVID SAYS
The Proposal: I was never nervous. I decided Mary Ann was the one after we stayed with my parents in Bartlesville, following a Sigma Chi formal in Tulsa. I could tell my parents were impressed with her, and that truly swayed me in the decision to pop the question. I proposed at a friend’s wedding in Tulsa just a few months after that.

The Bachelor Party: It was held at my parents’ lake house on Lake Eufaula near Tulsa. It was large and wild with way too many guys. My parents were worried that it might get out of hand and someone might drown in the lake. Fortunately, no accidents!

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