The tenth and final book in Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy~Tacy series - thank goodness for the three related Deep Valley books, as I don't think I'm ready for my reading experience to be over! - Betsy's Wedding picks up just where the previous installment, n  Betsy and the Great Worldn, left off. When Betsy's ship docks in New York, her estranged sweetheart, Joe Willard, is waiting for her, and the two are soon engaged. Settling near the Rays in Minneapolis (of course!), once they are married, Betsy and Joe begin their life as newlyweds.

Delightful, charming, heartwarming: Betsy's Wedding was an almost completely unalloyed pleasure to read! Joe was an admirable husband, and Betsy a devoted wife. Even their trials and tribulations - Betsy's struggle to master the art of cooking (oh, that meat-pie!), and Joe's determination to earn a decent living (what a schedule!) - proved entertaining. I appreciated that, good-hearted as she may have been, Betsy was no paragon, and really had to struggle to accept the fact that Joe's Aunt Ruth would be coming to live with them. I could have lived without her belief that Joe should have the final word in all decisions ("One person in a family has to have the final word. I want it to be Joe, always."), but that was one of the only irritants in an otherwise engaging narrative.

I also liked the way that Lovelace handled the issue of World War I, and the patriotic feelings of German-Americans like Tib. So many children's books from or about that period tend towards jingoism, that it was a pleasure to read an account in which the common bonds of American citizenship are paramount. As Tib explains to Betsy, at one point: "Of course I love the German people. But you must remember that Grosspapa Hornik was a Forty-eighter," highlighting the fact that those qualities which led many immigrants to leave Germany and Austria in the first place, would make them loyal Americans as well.

From Tacy's babies to Margaret's beaus, company dinners at home to dancing out, this book was just so much fun to read! I even know what the Violent Study Club is, now! Truly, a fitting end to a lovely series!

A terrific ending to the series. I couldn't help but applaud Betsy for her growth in compassion for others. The chapter in which she and Joe have to make a difficult decision about caring for his aunt was stellar, showing that after the honeymoon phase is over, the hard work of self-giving love begins. They both "pass the test!" I loved the glimpses of their new life together that included reading aloud together and critiquing each other's writing. A very sweet book.

I do love this story of newlyweds. I know it's idealized, but I find it comforting. I love the descriptions of what Betsy and Tib wear, as well.

If only I could remove the line "If there's one thing I hate, it's a bossy woman!"

What a good last book! Wholesome and heartwarming, and contains a very good description of love. I wouldn’t have gone for Joe myself, but he is the perfect man for Betsy. Betsy is all grown up. She went from a little girl to an adult woman making a name for herself. I’m so glad I got to enjoy this journey with her throughout the books. It’s hard to write a good ending, but the author did, even if it implies that the author had to end it here because what comes after is horrible. But I still loved this book.

This book is a triumphant finale to Miss Lovelace's series on Betsy (and Tacy and Tib). From the beginning when Betsy and Joe meet at the dock to the very end with its sweet valedictory to Hill Street, the book is a perfect whole. Betsy at last finds a reality that grounds her affectionate and enthusiastic nature. Miss Lovelace describes very well Betsy's observant intelligence as she both learns to cook, for example, and closely examines the "first apartment's" elm tree through the seasons. In this book, Betsy does not write; instead, she uses her time in simply living and, as I recollect, at least begins to turn to writing what she knows best --- her own life. I also appreciated the realistic portrayal of Betsy's reluctance to take in Aunt Ruth whom she at first regards as an intruder into the closed world of a new marriage. Betsy works this out well by self examination in the tradition of Carney on the hill at Vassar.

I feel that this book closes an entire volume on Betsy's life. Yet, I do not feel that I need to read another volume: The portrayal of Betsy is so strong in this last book that the reader can extrapolate her future with satisfaction on his/her own.

I do not have the feeling that the book closes a volume on Joe's life. Joe remains essentially the same achieving, productive, intelligent, determined, etc., person that he seems to have been throughout his life. Nonetheless, the book reveals previously undisclosed sides to his person. One is the certain humorous, teasing quality that Betsy evokes. Here, the freedom to tease reveals his complete confidence in his feelings for her and in her. Another is his affection and sense of loyalty and gratitude to his past which is revealed in just the few pages regarding Aunt Ruth's migration to Minneapolis. His desire to invite Aunt Ruth into his and Betsy's home, of course, sets off the first faint discord in the new marriage. Here, his sadness and conflict are well depicted, albeit briefly, until the coherence of his and Betsy's values open up the future.

This book presents Miss Lovelace's writing at its best. She can depict adult love as grounded and growing. She is able to portray happiness without the baggage of melodrama. Sometimes, she can bring tears as in her many descriptions of Betsy and Joe's courteous tenderness. The environment --- apartment and house, for example --- are well described and become characters that motivate and complement action. This is a very fine book.

P.s. Ms. Lovelace also wrote adult fiction. Has anyone read any of it? For example, "The Black Angels" or "Early Candlelight" as referenced in the list in my copy of "Betsy's Wedding"?

A very moving finale to the Betsy-Tacy series, filled with love, fun, new experiences, old traditions, and the shadow of war.

A sweet series. Sad to see it over. Actually some interesting historical people , events and treads were mentioned. Glad I had Google to look them up

Wonderful from beginning to end.

I read this in a fit of pure nostalgia, wanting a burst of closure to those Betsy-Tacy books I loved so much as a child (I only had up through Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown). At first, I thought I had made a horrible mistake, as Joe and Betsy have a whirlwind engagement, Betsy's family makes protests about Joe not being able to support her, and Betsy starts trying to mold herself into the perfect homemaker to support him.

Oh, no, I thought, I have marred my childhood memories. Now I will remember outdated stereotypes instead of wonderful friendships.

But I wasn't giving Maud Hart Lovelace enough credit.

I won't claim this is a perfect book, but given the rough beginning, I was more than impressed with the depths it managed. While Betsy does want to be a good wife to Joe, it's also perfectly clear that they have a marriage of equals--and that Joe is perfect happy for Betsy to work outside the home and hire someone to clean and cook if that what she wants. (His cooking skills are also better than hers in some departments). Betsy's reluctance to accept Joe's aunt into their home, and the way she and Joe worked through the issue as a couple was very well done. I loved the exploration of how the beginnings of WWI affected Tib as a German American, and the "find Tib a man" subplot, which could have been obnoxious, was instead funny, interesting, and surprisingly deep. Overall, even with marriage and relationships taking center stage, I loved how the enduring love between such very different friends remained the heart of the book, and I was glad I chose to round out my childhood reading about these unforgettable girls with this little look at them as women.

Betsy’s Wedding opens with Betsy as a whirlwind newlywed, Tacy’s newfound motherhood, and Tib’s tenacious singleness. But “Things couldn’t be perfect, for herself or Tacy either, unless Tib was happy too.” The “problem” is that Tib is too progressive! “She goes out all the time but she doesn’t give a snap for the men…Every man has a secret notion that he’s going to marry a blonde.” However, according to Tib, “I am not the blonde you’ve been looking for…I like to paddle my own canoe! I like adventure. I want to see the world…Maybe I am prudish, but that’s the way I intend to stay.”

Tib admires her friend’s marriage and upholds it as her golden standard: “He respects you. He confides in you, listens to your opinions, asks your advice. He thinks your work is important. He thinks you are important–as a human being, not just as a girl.” “Together…That’s a beautiful word. So much nicer than ‘apart.’ But “Marriage isn’t all love and kisses…If her will was of iron…there must be some undiscovered metal, even stronger, to describe Joe’s will.”

Betsy’s Wedding describes the domestic duties of married life that follows the fairy tale happily ever after. “You have to live in a house before it’s home. Not just be happy in it, but work in it, suffer in it, build up memories…Good things come, but they’re never perfect; are they? You have to twist them into something perfect…You have to wrestle with them…Like Jacob with the angel…we won’t let this job go until it blesses you!” It made me wonder, what will I not let go until God blesses me? “It certainly pays to wrestle with an angel.”

The series chronicles the evolution of Betsy’s faith. In Betsy, Tacy and Tib, “They were very religious. Betsy was a Baptist, and Tacy was a Catholic, and Tib was an Episcopalian. They loved to sit on Tacy’s back fence and talk about God.” In Heaven to Betsy, she experiences a crisis of faith. “My mother was a Baptist, and that’s why I’m a Baptist…Is that a good reason for being a Baptist?...come to think of it, I don’t think that it is…the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say…The most important part of religion isn’t in any church. It’s down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you treat other people. It’s honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.” And in Betsy’s Wedding, she returns to her faith, “It’s shabby the way I just go to church when I’m worried. I ought to go when I’m thankful and happy, too. I’m going to start going every Sunday.’ ‘I’ve been thinking the same thing,’ said Joe.”

Likewise, the series follows the trio’s friendship. From Betsy, Tacy and Tib’s The Christian Kindness Club (T.C.K.C.)--a Being Good Club–at the inception of their friendship to their Okta Delta sorority in Betsy Was a Junior, their affinity for community comes full circle in Betsy’s Wedding. “In Minneapolis there was a sedate and ladylike group called the Violet Study Club…If I find a husband for Tib, Betsy thought, it will be at the Violent Study Club.” True to form, Tib is swept off the ice by her own prince in shining ice skates, and the story ends when “Everything is beautifully, wonderfully, magically all right!”

Another Yuletide re-read! This is the last book in the Betsy-Tacy series and, despite the title, is far more about the marriage than the wedding. Which I love! I'm such a sucker for what happens after the "happy ending." And it seems to me to depict marriage in a very realistic way. They have problems, but work through them. And it's really awesome to see Betsy pursue her writing ambition at a time when women were mostly housewives.

And it's set right before the US's entrance into World War I, so that adds a nice layer of tension to the book.

Re-read November 2014