2002, year 3

I could again go with the obvious, and talk about our wedding.  This time though, I think I will!

When we had gotten engaged in March 2001, I immediately decided that I wanted to get married on June 22, 2002.  I honestly didn't even know if it was a Saturday or not, but lucky for us, it was.

I planned our wedding for us, and had a blast doing it.  But as every bride knows, the last few weeks before the wedding I was stressed.  K told me I lost weight, but I didn't realize how much until I look back at pictures.  I was (am) pretty small to begin with, and I lost somewhere around 10 or so pounds.  May not seem like much, but I was skin and bones.

The two weeks before the wedding, I lived on ice cream.  It was shaping up to be a hot summer, which I thought I wouldn't have to worry about by getting married in June.  Boy was I wrong.  The day of the wedding  it was in the 90's with a heat index over 100.  Awesome.

I made it through the morning with tears falling only twice, once when we passed the cemetary where my Grandma was buried (she was supposed to be there for this!), and once when a former boss, as well as longtime friend, came down to see me in the room where we got ready.  We had some laughs getting the dress on without messing up my hair, veil, or makeup.  In the pictures as I am getting ready to walk up the stairs to walk down the aisle, you can see the excitement in my eyes.

The moment that I walked down the aisle was magical.  Both of my parents gave me away, and the excitement between K and I was palpable. We memorized our vows, but when I stood in front of that church, looking into K's eyes, I almost completely forgot them.  Messed em up a little, but no one but us knew.  When we did the part where K had to say 'I take you as my wedded wife' he said 'wedded husband' and the whole church laughed.  When the Father (a catholic wedding) said 'you may kiss the bride' we kissed, then we kissed again.  Right before the Father pronounced us man and wife, he made a comment that he was surprised K wasn't taking me away on his motorcycle (a go fast bike) instead of the limo we hired. 

As we walked back down the aisle, new man and wife, I know that everyone could feel our happiness.  One of the greatest pictures I have, but unfortunately not in digital format, is of that moment, I have a HUGE grin on my face, and K is giving the camera a thumbs up.  Says it all.

Some pictures from the church, after the ceremony:

I cannot say the rest of the day went off without a hitch.  As I mentioned, it was unbearably hot.  When we left to drive around before pictures, we had to stop and get me some nuts and water because I felt faint.  Then, we went to get pictures at the botanical gardens, and after we were done I took my shoes off because my feet were swelling, then couldn't get them back on.  So, we went to the mall (the entire wedding party) instead of the art museum.  Cooled down, bought some slippers, and got some lemonade.

Then we headed to the reception hall, where we managed to beat most of our guests due to a train.  So we left and went back.  In the process, someone realized that we had forgotten all of our mixed CD's at the church, 20 mins away.  They included all of 'our' songs (my brother was acting DJ for us).  So, my mom, being a saint, gave money to some friends and sent them out for the most important songs.

The reception was a blast.  Lots of dancing, lots of talking, lots of pictures.  In fact, the photographers were great, which was good because I found out that the photographer I had hired was sending someone in his place - 2 days before the wedding.  I almost had a melt down about that one... very stressed.

At the end of the reception, my mom and I fought over the fact that she forgot my contact solutions and case.  Then, we left and realized that the keys to our truck were back at the church.  So we had to wait outside, in the muggy heat in my dress, while someone ran to get them out of another car and brought them back to us.

But you know what?  It's all good memories.  Nothing bad about it at all.  The whole day was magical, as was the night :-)  When we finally made it to our hotel room in downtown, we overlooked the river.  It was so picture perfect.  We made some coffee, then counted our money from the dollar dance - pathetic, I know.  We needed some wind down time before we enjoyed consumating the new marriage.  The day was long awaited, and of course, flew by so fast.  Everything fell into place, even when dealing with the difficulties mentioned, and those I chose to leave out. 

This day was the moment that I felt my life come together.  It was the culmination of bad and good choices that built me as a person, and that person was who K fell in love with.  I thank God everyday for his love and devotion.  Without him I would be a lost soul.  With him, I am whole.  I love you K.

The honeymoon was in Jamaica, and was full of it's own surprises.  I'll give you two of the one's that still make us laugh.  One day we were enjoying a shower together, and I heard something, so I pulled back the curtain to find the maid handing us some towels, letting us know that they had been short towels when they cleaned the room. 

The second was the 3:00am knock on the door by a hooker (yep, a hooker) trying to convince K that she needed a place to sleep, and no, his new wife wouldn't care.  Um, yeah, not so much.