Wedding Day

6 years ago, I woke up on a Friday morning in March full of excitment. I was marrying my sweet heart. The night before we rehearsed the wedding in our jeans and sweatshirts and ate with 50 of our friends and family at a dinner. Afterward, the girls went back to my place for a lingere shower. My closest girls friends were all there, from camp friends, college friends, life-long friends, cousins, my sister, and my new sister-in law. We had a rousing good time! I remember staying up until the wee hours of the morning talking with my old roommate, Amanda. She was already married and full of wisdom. When I thought about the wedding, I got nervous. That is a big party to plan. When I thought about my life with Jeff, I imagined that I would never be alone again. I would learn to cook his favorite foods. I would make him smile. I would be his best friend and he would be mine. We would travel the world and we would also work and hang out at home. I imagined an ideal life.

The wedding was at seven o'clock in the evening. I have our wedding invitation framed and sitting on my desk right now. It is a beautiful invitation and it reminds me always of the day I chose to spend the rest of my life with the guy whose full name is listed by mine. I wanted an elegant, candlelit wedding on a Friday night. We were married at my church in Dallas and you may remember it as the "dark" wedding. There was a little miscommunication with the coordinator and ALL the lights were turned off after the candle lighters did there thing. I had candles everywhere; on the piano, on the baptistry, on the stage, even hanging from the pillars in the church. I wanted it dark, but maybe not that dark.

Jeff and I watched our wedding video on Friday night and laughed about how dark it was. He remembers walking into the ceremony behind the groom's men and thinking, "Wow, it's really dark." I remember my dad coming to get me to walk me down the aisle with tear in his eyes. I took his arm and he looked so handsome in his Ralph Loren tux. We walked across the hall into the sanctuary and I thought, "Wow, it's really dark. Did anyone show up for the wedding?"
Indeed a few people showed up for the wedding. About 500 we guess. Besides hearing, "Wow, it was really dark," we heard a few people say, "That was the most romantic wedding I've ever been to." Oh, and it was a lovely wedding, from what I recall. I had recorded a song at a studio a few months before and it played while we lit our unity candle. It was "You Say It Best" by Allison Craus. Truth be told, it was the only love song I really knew how to sing and play at the time. It is a nice song and it was really great that no one knew about the song until it came on during the wedding. I saw a tear in Jeff's eye (at least I think that was a tear, it was hard to see).

The bride's maids were beautiful and the men were handsome. The girls grumbled about the color of their tops, thinking they made their skin look pale. But hey, they didn't have to pay for them! I found them at Old Navey for $8.88 each at an after Christmas sale. My new mother-in-law sewed all of the black skirts 1 and 2 days before the wedding (I had yet to understand the way Jeff's family works, so I was beyond panicked. Jeff's family never panicks. I know this now). The men looked great. Of course, I worked at Mr. Formal at the time, so the men had to look great. A few years ago I probably could have still remembered what brand, style, cut, color, and vest and tie option I chose, but my mind reflects on more important things these days, like all the URL's to all my friends' blogs below.

My maid of honor was my sister, Andrea, and my bride's maids were Janelle, Amanda, and Jessi and the girls on the end on the photo are the candle lighters, Jayne, Lisa, and Hillary. There weren't enough $8.88 shirts at Old Navy, so I had a lady at church make similar shirts for the cl's. They also complained about their shirts, saying they showed off too much cleavage.

Jeff's best man was his younger brother, John. The groom's men were Jeff's friend from Multnomah, Paul, and friends Richard and Scott. Scott sprained his ankle the day before our wedding and was on crutches. Thankfully, the wedding was too dark for anyone to notice. The guys also complained about their outfits, as dashing and free as they were. But, I have never met a man who did not complain about wearing a tux and I have met a lot of men in tuxedos.

The only ones not complaining were the beatiful flower girls, my new sister-in-law, Julianna, and my cousin, Kaitlyn. They were 8 years old at the wedding and looked perfect in their dresses (also sewn by my talented mother-in-law).

This is Amanda and I. As you can see, the bride's maids may have been right about the color of the tops. Maybe, just maybe, they looked little washed out. But how could I turn away from $8.88 shirts?

The beautiful flowers were done by Laura who worked at a flower shop and a CPA's office at the time of the wedding. I kinda asked her to do the flowers a few days before the wedding. For some reason, I didn't think she would need much time. Thankfully Laura is multi-talented and quick. The flowers were lovely!

I put on my dress this morning. Ahh, it was a beautiful dress. It was $600. Bahh! $600! What was I thinking? I would spend the money more wisely now and buy a dress on E-Bay, but I was 21 and getting married, and my mom and dad were paying for the dress (thank you mom and dad!). So, here I have a gown hanging in my closet that cost more than ALL the clothes combined that I wear every day. I put on the dress this morning to try to remember why I spent so much money on it, or rather why I convinced my mother to spend so much on it. I couldn't conjure up quite the same feelings and I actually had the fleeting thought that I could buy like 20 boxes of diapers for the same amount. The best part about putting the dress on now was that it fit, that I could zip it up, and that I have more cleavage than I used to have. These are the things that make my world go around these days.

Jeff and I didn't celebrate our anniversary with anything too exciting. We left the girls with my parents and we headed out to Independence for some Chinese food. The food was good and the prices were cheap. Since last time we were there, they had turned off the country music, so that was a nice touch, a little more Asian. It was good just to be together. We talked about our wedding. We talked about our short engagement, how our lives have changed, how much better our lives are now that we have eachother, how we love our daughters, how we still want to go on a Mediterranean cruise, and how we should probably head home to get the girls in bed since Bi-Mart was closed. Our life is simple and good.