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The Maple Bar Mystery
Marg-Ins
Marg Jackson

If the worst thing that happens at an event is a maple bar missing in action, I’d say that it was a pretty successful event.

In this case, the ‘event’ was my daughter’s wedding and, indeed, the maple bar went missing.

However, once word spread of its unknown whereabouts and possible scenarios where it was A) accidentally thrown out or B) accidentally eaten by someone who didn’t know its true purpose, we ended up with more than enough.

So, yes, after a lengthy engagement and a seemingly endless list of items to arrange for the big day, The Wedding finally arrived. There was a fair amount of set up to do the day before and I was able to slide in toward the end – helping out with some of the tasks and doing what I was asked. A virtual army of family, extended family and friends were there to help get everything situated.

The venue proved to be the perfect setting and Saturday, Oct. 26 was ‘the’ day. My daughter and her bridal party were up and into hair and make-up mode by 6 a.m. – she got up for that WAY easier than she used to get out of bed for those 6 a.m. starts to a travel soccer weekend.

In fact, her maid of honor was best friend Katelyn, whose family we used to travel with for the bulk of our tournaments back when they were in high school. Kate’s mom mentioned that it was unbelievable to think it was a “wedding weekend” when it should have been a “soccer weekend.” Yup, last weekend in October, we should have been in Fresno for the Halloween Tournament. But, we were in Livingston for Ally and her fiancé Judd to say “I do.”

They wrote their own vows, got through them without crying, and I managed to walk her down the aisle in my heels without tripping once.

The wedding came at the end of a week where we had above average temperatures for late October. Friday night, during set up, it got cold very quickly after the sun went down. Saturday, it turned out to not be too hot and no one froze once the sun set so we lucked out on both counts.

But back to that maple bar.

It wasn’t what you could call a traditional wedding; the dinner menu was tacos and there was no feeding each other wedding cake. There was a donut wall, built by Judd (with some help from Ally) where donuts were displayed and then consumed for dessert.

The maple bar was to be their ‘cake’ and they had decided to eat it Lady and the Tramp style, one on each end of the maple bar. There was also to be icing that declared they were now ‘Mr. & Mrs.’ with the Mr. in blue, the Mrs. in pink and the ‘&’ in a mix of both colors. But when the nine dozen cake style donuts were being put up on the 50-peg donut wall, the maple bar (in its own bag amidst the sea of boxes) was nowhere to be found.

Regardless of the reason, it was gone. I sought out my nephew and sent him on a mission to find another; there was a very large supermarket close to the venue and I was hoping there might be a donut section.

Turns out there was. He arrived back within minutes and I then enlisted the help of my brother, who does Old English lettering, to ‘fancify’ their Mr. & Mrs. on top of the maple bar.

Sometime in between getting the donuts set up, having my brother do calligraphy and prepare for the ‘cake eating’ photo shoot, two more maple bars – both written on with the blue and pink icing – magically showed up, one in a bag and the other in the last box of donuts we opened. From zero to three in record time. One to photograph, one to eat and one extra. It’s a mystery where the other two came from … or by whom, when and where they were procured. Was one the original? Guess we’ll never know. And honestly, who cares? Judd and Ally pledged their love in front of family and friends, got their Lady and the Tramp donut moment, I didn’t break an ankle … can’t ask for much more than that.

 

Marg Jackson is editor of The Escalon Times, The Oakdale Leader and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 847-3021.