Thursday, March 02, 2006

We survived (Our wedding story)

I had always dreamed of getting married in May, and having a reception in my parents backyard. But because "S" was in school we were limited to the two-three week breaks between semesters. That meant we could either get married during the first part of March or wait till July. We knew we didn't want a long engagement, that would be too tough, and waiting till July would be pushing it a little too long.

We needed at least two weeks to fit in the actually day of the wedding, a reception in Washington AND Idaho, plus a honeymoon. We decided on Friday March 3rd. We scheduled the day for the Portland Temple.

Christmas was approaching. "S"'s family was coming down to Arizona for Christmas. It would be the first time I would be meeting his younger sister and his dad. The two times I had visited his house in Idaho his dad was on the road and his sister "B" was at college. "B" was flying into Phoenix. "S" had to work and wouldn't be able to pick her up. The office I worked for would be closing at Noon. I would pick her up. The only thing is I didn't know what she looked like! I talked to her on the phone the night before. I was told to look for a blonde short-haired girl wearing a black leather jacket. I drove around the airport three times before I saw her. I don't know how many times I passed her before I realized it was her though. I was supposed to go straight to their grandparents house from the airport. I still wasn't completely familiar with the freeways and surface streets, "B" hadn't been there in like 10 years, and every time "S" and I had gone to his grandparents house he would take a different route. "B" and I were like the blind leading the blind! We eventually found the house but probably after an hour at least driving around Tempe! At least we had a bonding moment! "S" wouldn't be off work for a few more hours, and his family wasn't supposed to arrive till later that evening. "B" and I decided we needed to go do something, her grandmother suggested we go see a movie. Great idea. We went to a $1 theatre close by and decided to see "SuperStar!" (Another one of those Saturday Night Live skits made into a movie). When the movie was over it was dark outside, but we managed to find our way back to their grandmothers house.

We arrived to find that "S"'s family were already there, but "S" wasn't. Apparently he had called while we were at the movie, and he was really sick. He wouldn't be coming over to their grandparents house that night. My first time meeting his family officially as his fiance' was by myself!!! We spent a lot of time talking that night. Christmas morning came, and "S" was still feeling under the weather, but good enough to at least make an appearance. Their grandmother wanted family pictures taken. Even though "S" and I were only engaged, she wanted me to be in the pictures. While we were standing there for the large extended family picture, "S"'s uncle loudly asked a question of the photographer. "If this engagement doesn't work out, can you digitally remove her from the picture?" It was just a joke, and everyone laughed, but I think he was really just saying what everyone else was thinking.

New Years Eve we went to a single adult dance. We got all dressed up in formal attire. New Years Day we had our wedding announcement pictures taken.

Valentines Day, he gave me his sweater. We were counting down the days till we left to drive up to Washington for our wedding. One night we were talking, and I mentioned that 2000 was a leap-year. "S" replied "you mean that if we got married on any other year we would have one less day to wait till we got married?!?!" I thought that was pretty funny.

A week left till our wedding day. Here was the plan as we had it in our heads: We would drive "S"s truck up to Washington. On Thursday we'd drive with my family to Portland. We would be staying at my mom's cousin's house for the night. Friday morning we would be married. All of the family would drive back to Washington, and we would spend out wedding night in Portland, then drive back to Washington Saturday morning for the reception Saturday night. Sunday morning we would go on our honeymoon. I had booked a cabin at Lehman Hot Springs in the Blue Mountains near Pendleton, Oregon. From there we would meet all the family in Idaho for the second reception in his home town.

This is what actually happened: The day before we were supposed to leave to start driving up to Washington "S"s truck wouldn't start. We couldn't risk the chance of the truck breaking down on the way up to Washington. Instead we bought last minute plane tickets and flew into Spokane where my dad and brother picked us up. Thursday we drove to Portland, with my parents, and stayed at my mom's cousin's house. My aunt had been making my dress. She still wasn't finished with it. Thursday night, my mom stayed up most of the night sewing on the decorative pieces onto my dress. Thursday night we also had a special family dinner at the hotel planned my "S"'smom. "S"'s dad did a wonderful slideshow presentation of pictures of "S" and I as we grew up. Friday morning we drove to the Temple and were married. Immediately following, we rode with my parents to the hotel room my grandparents were staying in. My parents and grandparents shooed us into the bathroom to get changed. We were going to take turns, but they insisted we were married now, we could both go in and change at the same time. (embarrassing? uh ya!) After changing clothes we went to Chevy's for another family dinner. My grandpa wasn't feeling well, so my dad suggested that "S" and I drive their car back to Washington with my grandparents in the backseat. We finally get back to Kennewick, and convinced my dad to let us use his car. We then spent out wedding night after a long day, in a hotel room in Kennewick. Saturday morning we went to the church to help set up for the reception. The reception was beautiful. Sunday morning, again after convincing my dad to let us use his car we drove to our cabin in the blue mountains. The hot springs was closed to the public for the whole week we would be staying there. It was only the two of us on this snow covered mountain range. Our first night there was a huge snowstorm. The power went out for a few hours. The rest of the week we had no idea what time it was, all the clocks were blinking 12:00. The end of our honeymoon we drove back down to Kennewick, where we rode with my parents to Idaho. My dad grew tired and couldn't drive anymore so we stopped for a night at a hotel in Burley, Idaho. Before we could speak up, my dad booked one room, with two double beds! The next morning we drove the rest of the way to "S"'s parents house where we had the second wedding reception. Some of our old Music Major friends came up from Provo, Utah for our reception, along with some of our old friends and roommates that were still in Rexburg. The next day Shane's sister "B.W." drove us to the airport in Salt Lake City where we flew back to Phoenix, and waited for "S"'s roommate to pick us up. We had moved all of our things into our new apartment before we flew up to Washington. We toasted our first night in our apartment with a bottle of sparkling cider a co-worker had given me as a wedding shower gift. We survived two weeks of events that we hadn't planned on and never could have forseen happening!

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 3/02/2006 10:30:00 AM :: 8 Comments:

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