Wedding Story

Do you guys remember that show on TLC called "The Wedding Story"?  It was on back in the Nineties when I was in college.  Man, I used to love that show.  Every episode highlighted an engaged couple who told the story of how they met, their courtship, and their proposal.  The last ten minutes was nothing but footage from their wedding and it always left me feeling like I had big old hearts dancing in my eyes.

Ah, memories.

Wait!  Do you remember the theme song?

And when the spark of youth someday surrenders 

I will have your hand to see me through

The years may come and go....

But there's one thing I know. 

Love is all there is when I'm with you.  

Corny as hell and I LOVED it with all my twenty something little heart.  I scheduled my classes around that show.

I was dumb.

Anyway.  Ten years ago today I was getting married.  My wedding was nothing like the couples' weddings on The Wedding Story.  Those weddings usually had a ton of pomp and circumstance. We, Matt and I,  were very untraditional.

For instance, we saw each other the morning of the wedding.  And look how itty bitty 9 was!  I could have put him in my pocket.

 

No fancy hair and makeup professionals came to doll me up.  My mother in law did my hair and I did my own makeup. 

I had trouble zipping up my dress. (A little math with a gestation calendar and my wedding date, and voila, the mystery of the stuck zipper is solved.)

 I had a fight with the florist.  The Wedding Story would have edited that out for sure, but maybe it would have been good fodder for Bridezillas.  I'll spare you the details, but you can rest assured that I've learned to live with the fact that somewhere in the Sierra Nevadas there is a random wedding florist who thinks I'm the world's biggest bitch.

C'est la vie.

Once at the Nevada Beach parking lot, waiting for the minister to show, I spotted my beloved all dressed up and ready to exchange vows with me.  He was standing next to his truck and I walked up to him, ready to receive any compliments that I, in all my wedding finery, may have inspired in his heart or soul.

Instead, he said "Hey babe!  Can you pass me that camera bag?"

And I will never let him live that down.  It's a permanent part of our wedding story.  Matt swears that he did compliment me, and he did- after I asked him to.  And that is how I usually have to get compliments from Matt.  When I really need them, I ask for them.  That's okay.  He does the dishes and helps bathe the kids, so I decided that it's something I can live with.

For now.

"Oh. Hey.  Pass me the camera bag."

So then it was time to start the ceremony.  We all stood under the shade of a big Juniper Pine tree and the minister began.

And do you know, it wasn't until recently when I was looking through pictures that I realized that Matt married me with his sunglasses on his head? 

You can see them if you look real close. 

I always thought that in this picture I was looking at him adoringly while we exchanged vows, but now I wonder if maybe I wasn't just looking at his sunglasses? 

That's okay.  The whole time we were exchanging vows, my nose was running.  I sniffled my way through the whole thing and tried to keep my head tilted back because I didn't have a Kleenex. 

Oh well.  

We sealed the deal anyway.

Later, at the restaurant we thanked our guests for coming.  I always laugh at this picture because it seems like for this shot only, every ounce of Hungarian Gypsy DNA in Matt's blood showed up.  

My tall, dark and handsome gypsy.  All he needs is a hoop earring.

And then the faux pas of all wedding faux pas happened.  

We cut the cake and the knife handle broke off with the blade inside the cake! 

There we are, knife handle in hand wondering what to do now.  Oops. 

(But doesn't my cleavage look fabulous? Hi girls! Miss you.)

Anyway, I figured that was some seriously bad wedding juju.  I knew we were headed for trouble.  Especially when the next day, the piece of cake we were supposed to take home to freeze for the next year got knocked over and spilled onto parking lot asphalt.  Double juju.  

You know what though?  Ten years, and I'm still waiting for that bad juju to catch up.  So far, we've been doing okay.  Life hasn't given us anything that's felt too unbearable. And when that day comes, when life does hand over a pile of crap for us to wade though, it's going to take more than some silly superstitious wedding juju to break down what we've built over the last ten years.  

But I'm going to keep my fingers crossed just in case.