I Do

If I find any photos on the web anywhere I'll add them.

I won't go in to all the planning details, but I'll just say I wanted all the big dress/pomp and circumstance stuff. I love weddings and this day was all me.

I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7. Showered, dried the hair per hairdresser instructions. Drove across town to pick up my SIL Anna. We met the other girls (Alyson, Ashley & Jamie) at my mom's and then went to get our hair done.

Came back to the house, drank mimosas, got dressed... and waited. We didn't get married until 4PM, so there was a lot of waiting. I started hyperventilating at one point.

Finally the photographer was there, then the limo came, then over to the church for more waiting. I wanted to go to the bathroom before the big event, and Anna said she would help me. We pulled my dress over my head, I backed into the stall, went, got put back together... then Anna noticed that I had TP trailing out from under my dress!! She hitched up the dress again, grabbed that TP and swore never to tell anyone. So far as I know, she never did (which of course you're free to do now, Anna, since it's on the internet). I loved her before that day, but from that moment on I've thought of her as a sister. Who the heck else would pull TP out of your stockings?!

So that broke the tension, and everything got going. I waited on the stairs with my dad, and our song started. And I couldn't move. The florist was waiving to us, and finally we started walking. I got about 2 steps down the aisle before I broke out sobbing. I laughed and sobbed down the aisle (my dad was the strong one, who would have guessed?). I got all the way down the aisle to where my mom was, and locked eyes with her, and she was so happy and it actually calmed me because she knows me so well and if any of this was wrong she would have dragged me right back up the aisle!

Of course, DeuceDad is there watching all this crying and he looked a little nervous. My dad handed me off and we went onto the alter. Rev. Vertigan - who made us both feel so comfortable - did such a great job, and our friend Rachel cried her way through Walt Whitman's Song of the Open Road.

Part of that reading is "I give you myself before preaching or law" and Rev. Vertigan said "that's a wonderful sentiment and I'm glad you chose to read that. But you're not married until I say so!"

So we're saying our vows and Bob's sort of looking at me like "are you going to faint?". I said everything, it's just that I meant it so much it was hard to verbalize. We exchanged the rings. Then the kiss. Our kiss was botched. I gave him a peck, but he wanted a real kiss, so he kept holding me, so I pecked again... Poor DeuceDad. I just didn't want to give church tongue like in the Wedding Singer!

So back up the aisle and lots of hugs, and then a great party!

There's so much more to tell, but that's the ceremony. The ceremony meant a lot to me. Obviously our marriage itself, the day to day, is the most important part, but those 25 minutes were momentous for me.

Thanks for reading!