The Sweetest Day

Art and I officially became a couple on October 20, 2001. It was his fraternity’s annual formal, the 3 to 3, he came to my dorm with a dozen red roses and the rest is history. Fast forward 5.5 years to April 2007 and we were looking to set our wedding date. I wanted August 2, 2008 and he wanted October because he hates hot weather. I have a strange obsession with even numbers which I won’t get into now, but I basically refuse to do anything important on an odd numbered day, month, year, etc. I tell you this because a sane person would say, “well she wants August and he wants October so why not meet in the middle and have it in September?” No, not an option for me - September is the 9th month of the year and therefore an odd number and off limits!

So there we are in the office of the event planner at Glen Sanders and we’re trying to decide on a date. Because I’m weird, our options are August 2, October 4, or October 18. I least liked October 18 because 1+8=9, but that’s getting a little too psychotic even for me. As we sit there debating, the event planner says, “well if you pick the 18th you can be married on Sweetest Day!” What’s Sweetest Day you ask? Out event planner had no idea, but it sounded good - October 18th it is.

When I got home I did a little digging and ended up at Wikipedia, as usual. People often warn me that Wiki is usually biased and sometimes totally wrong, but I love it all the same. It says that Sweetest Day is:

“Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October. It is described by Retail Confectioners International, as ‘much more important for candymakers in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities)’ and an ‘occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.’ Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a ‘concocted promotion’ created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.”

Did you catch that? The 3rd Saturday of October is Sweetest Day! Well Art and I started dating on the 3rd Saturday of October! It’s meant to be! Now that I know what they mean by Sweetest day I’m thinking candy - lots of candy!!