Our Wedding Story

People often ask me, "How's married life?"

My usual answer, "It's wonderful! I highly recommend it. You should try it sometime!"

November 15, 2014

Seriously though, married life truly is wonderful. I can't begin to tell you what a blessing it is to be married to my best friend, to laugh and cry and explore life with, to love and be loved by an amazing man who so completely holds my heart and with whom I fall more in love every day.

As long as we're being mushy, how about a story? Because who doesn't enjoy reading a good wedding story - and besides, I want to make sure all the details are recorded and never forgotten!

The altar

Decorations

It all begin when I was told I was about to be deployed, and we decided to get married a lot earlier than we had planned. At first we decided to simply get married by a justice of the peace with a nice ceremony later down the road, but when we went to get our marriage license, we discovered that our county no longer performs courthouse weddings! This led to a serious discussion, and about an hour later I called one of my best friends and, right out of the blue, asked, "Will you be my maid of honor and help me plan our wedding in 3 weeks?" Kait didn't even hesitate! We began planning that afternoon, over the phone (since she lives 2.5 hours away), and I also called my parents to let them know of our change of plans.

Kait and her mom Linda were fantastic - not only did they agree to let us use their spacious basement as a venue, but they even decorated for us! It turned out beautifully, with sunflowers and fall colors as the theme and a silky runner for an aisle between rows of chairs. My mom came early, so she and I drove to Kait's house the night before the wedding. We rushed around to get last minute details taken care of, and then the big day was here.

Final details

I woke up in the morning to a very nice quiche made by Linda, and almost immediately began getting ready. Another dear friend, Cristin, was kind enough to not only bring her keyboard and perform the music for our wedding, but she also came early and did my hair.

Guests began arriving, as did my fiance. I wasn't in my dress yet, so I gave him a quick kiss, introduced him to my dad, and then I was back to preparing. With makeup and hair done, my mom cleared the living room area so I could slip downstairs unseen and sneak into the basement to finish getting ready in a small closeted area.

Both sets of parents

Remember "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"? It was one of the few traditions I intended to follow (along with not letting the groom see the dress!). Something old was a hanky belonging to my great-grandmother, which I carried in my hand to help with sweaty palms. Something new was the pearl necklace and earrings I made to wear with my dress. Something borrowed was my mother's garter, and something blue was nail polish on my toes!

About a week before the ceremony, I had been in a slight panic because I had everything scheduled except for the officiant. Thankfully we were blessed to find an officiant available for the day at New Chapter Weddings, and they were even willing to work with us on the wording and itinerary of the ceremony. In fact, Don and I picked out and modified all the wording, from the greeting and opening prayer to the vows to the blessing at the end - it was all just the way we wanted it. Clark was very professional and really helped make our ceremony exactly what we were hoping for.

Maid of honor and best man

Anyway, back to me hiding in the closet... I was finally completely ready, just waiting on everyone else, and pacing from nerves. I got to say hi to a few family members and have a few photos taken, then I stayed in the closet while all our guests came downstairs and filled in the seats and Cristin played music we had picked out. Most of the guests were family members, with a few good friends included. Don's best man, Joe, was a coworker and very good friend of both of us; we had gone shopping with him the week before and picked out a nice shirt, tie, and slacks for the occasion. When everyone was in place, Joe and Kait came to the head of the runner/aisle. Cristin played as they walked to the front of the room, then it was time for me and my dad.

Dad and I

Daddy, bless his heart, didn't know it was supposed to be a slow walk down the aisle! We were at the end of the aisle before Cristin even began playing, and we stayed there until she finished "All of Me" by John Legend (which has always been our song). Then Dad sat down, Don and I held hands at the front, and the ceremony began, with a coworker's wife doing our photography and my adopted grandfather running a video camera.

It wasn't a very long ceremony, but most of it is kind of blurry in my mind. I remember holding hands and gazing lovingly into Don's eyes...and communicating simply with eyebrow movements and tiny facial expressions - we knew what each other was thinking well enough to understand! My mom and Don's dad each read Bible passages - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. We pledged ourselves to each other, repeated the vows, and exchanged our rings (Don tried to put my ring on my middle finger, but I tried to put his ring on the wrong hand! We got it all sorted out).

Next we did a sand ceremony. The symbolism behind the sand ceremony is beautiful - two colors of sand mixing together, each staying itself but becoming part of the other, never again to be separated.

Then there was the blessing, the kiss (whoo-wee!!), and the pronouncement, and it was over! We walked back down the aisle to the closet, with Joe and Kait behind us, then went upstairs to form a receiving line and greet our guests. Needless to say, it was very emotional!

We finished having our official photos taken before the photographer left - and #3 managed to be in most of them - we didn't even tell her, she just sat perfectly in each shot. We then mingled with our guests, talking and snacking on meatballs, chicken nuggets, chips and salsa, etc. (again, thanks to Kait and Linda!). My dad had to leave pretty quickly, but it was nice to see both sets of parents and several other out-of-town and even out-of-state family members.


We had chocolate cupcakes with small autumn leaves set out for everyone, and a special triple-chocolate cake for us. The cake topper was a small wedding couple figurine from the ceramic Christmas Village line; our intention is to build a village, one piece per year, and every year the wedding couple will be part of our holiday traditions. How many people know where their cake topper is today? It will be a fun tradition to keep through the years. When the time came to cut the cake, we worked together to hold a bright orange knife and cut a slice of cake. As relatives told us to cut the slice in half, I cut it exactly in half lengthwise - my mom finds this extremely amusing. Anyway, Don very gently fed me a piece of cake, and I kindly fed him a piece back, though deliberately smearing chocolate on his cheek!

Two families become one

As guests left to travel home, I finally changed into more comfortable clothes and helped with cleaning everything up. We got our things loaded into our vehicles, leaving my truck with my mom (who would stay overnight and drive it to our house the next day), and piling into Don's truck. Phil and Cristin both forgot items at Kait's house and we had to meet them down the road, then Don and #3 and I were off to our honeymoon.

We had a night booked at a nice hotel about halfway between Kait's house and our home, the main attraction to the hotel room being the two-person whirlpool tub, perfect for relaxing after a few hectic weeks of planning. Though it was stressful at times, with the invaluable help of family and friends we managed to pull off our wedding in 3 weeks. We are very unique people, and our wedding reflected both the traditions of our past and our future goals. I'm so glad we did it, and thankful for all the memories!

I'd love to hear about your wedding memories - or future goals. And may you be as blessed in love as my wonderful sweetheart and me!