Wedding Memories

My current husband and I have both been in a previous marriage. My first wedding was the dream kind of wedding and the marriage lasted about 18 months. His marriage had resulted in the birth of two children, but due to irreconcilable differences, his marriage didn't last either.

When we met, we instantly hit it off (and you can read about that in a previous post But neither one of us was in a hurry. We lived together for 4 years before we finally tied the knot. During those four years, we obtained custody of DH's children, moved and went through job transitions. Toward the end of our fourth year together, we came unexpectedly into a few thousand dollars. We both wanted to travel, so we booked a two week trip out west (Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico). We decided to make it a honeymoon, but we only had about 4 weeks to get our plans together before we were leaving on our trip. The pastor of the church I was attending wouldn't marry us that quickly because he insisted on a 6 week counselling program.

So a friend of ours introduced us to a minister of a small church on the side of the Peaks of Otter in Bedford County. We talked with him and he said he would be delighted to perform the ceremony. The church was a one room church with no air conditioning. Did I mention we got married on August 20th in Virginia in the middle of the afternoon! YIKES!

We invited all of our neighbors (we live in a small subdivision), a few friends, family members, and co-workers to join us. We recorded the music we wanted to play on a casette tape. I had a friend who was selling Beauty Control and she volunteered to get me made up for the day (this was a mistake, I don't normally wear makeup and in the heat, it melted off of my face...). I purchased a navy blue dress from Goody's and Daniel had a suit to wear. We each had a friend to stand up for us and we were good to go.

Well, the day arrived nice and hot and humid (in the 90s with 100% humidity). Daniel was supposed to arrive at the church at least 30 minutes early so that he could start our recorded music, but he arrived 15 minutes late. So the wedding was supposed to start at 3:00 pm, but due to technical difficulties, it didn't start until 15 minutes after because we had to wait for the songs to play so we could get to the recorded wedding march.

Do you have any idea how long the wedding march is? This aisle was maybe 20 feet...so we stood at the front of the church staring into one another's eyes, trying to ignore the sweat dripping down our faces and wishing we had fans liks the guests while the wedding march winded down.

The ceremony was brief. I don't know if it was the heat or the pastor had an abridged wedding ceremony he was reading, but we didn't repeat the wording of the vows, we simply said I do's, I wills and we were married. After we kissed, Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis was cued on our tape and Daniel did an exuberant dance down the aisle before coming back and fetching me. It definitely wasn't a conventional wedding.

A friend of Daniel's took photos and they were great (too good actually) as they clearly showed we were all wilting in the heat and humidity.

After the photos were taken, we invited all to join us at a local Chinese restaurant (on their own dime). We did provide a cake, but we had spent all of our money on the trip. They joined us, we had a great time and the Chinese hosts were marvelous!

So was our wedding a dream? Not from any conventional standpoint, but our unconventional wedding has stood up to the test of time way better than my dream marriage did, and in all isn't it the end results that matter?

And we certainly won't forget anything about the day! Another sign that it was a memorable event! The honeymoon was fantastic! We loved our trip so much, we repeated it a few years later with children in tow.

I would love to hear your wedding memories!