The romance continues...

So the groom and three of the kids took off for where the noon ceremony was going to be held.

I finished getting ready with the two remaining daughters PLUS a daughters friend. By this time I was feeling really quite ill. My throat was killing me. I felt like I was burning up. Very bride-like!

And on top of that I had this annoying buzzing in my ears that was becoming increasingly hard to hear over.

But we all piled in the car and got to where the ceremony was being held.

This was a lovely place. There was a small fountain with a classical guitarist playing lovely music and about fifty guests gathered around. The music was beautiful many people told me. I couldn’t hear it over the buzzing in my ears.

Oh, and I forgot to mention but two days before the ceremony the minister had taken ill and we had to scramble to find someone else that could do the ceremony on Saturday. I was puzzled when a woman I had never seen before came up to me and told me she was ready to start. Who was this? It was the new stand-in minister who we had never met before.

The ceremony started. I couldn’t hear a word. I was just trying not to throw up. It was very romantic.

We got to the part of the ceremony where my husband was going to give gold chains and a little speech to my kids about joining our families and blah, blah, blah and I was going to do that for his kids. I think he did great. There were lots of hugs and some tears. Yea, yea, whatever. “Hurry this up so I can lay down” I was thinking.

Then it was my turn. And I could not remember what I was supposed to say. My almost- husband stepped in and gave his kids the chains and I have no idea what he said to them but there were more tears and hugs. And blah, blah, blah…I was just trying not to fall over.

Next we exchanged our vows. And for some reason the only word I heard was “bzzzzz, bzzzzzzz, zzzzzzz…povery…mumbbble, bzzzzzz” I interreupted to say “POVERTY? WHAT ABOUT POVERTY?” and the minister and my almost- husband said this was part of the vows and blah, blah, blah, so I said “I do” and he said “I do” and we were married.

I didn’t care. I thought I was dying even worse now. I could hardly hear anything with this buzzing and I was super dizzy.

But, hey, it was a wedding and isn’t there some saying about “the wedding must go on”?

So it did. (wow, this is getting long. Do you need to take a potty break? I do! Be right back!)

As the reception started we heard a commotion out in the lobby. Somehow we had each arranged a mariachi band and neither band was very happy with the whole situation. My new husband got them settled down. Actually I think he payed one of them to go away.

And the reception stretched on.

I was told that the groom gave a beautiful speech to me during his toast. I literally could see his mouth moving but could not hear a word.

I tried dancing with him but I was so dizzy I thought I would fall over.

I could not eat a thing. It looked amazing. It looked delicious. It made me want to throw up.

Finally I went into the restroom and lay down on the floor. The cool tiles felt wonderful on my burning-up face. I laid there for awhile and one of my girlfriends came in and got all upset and I got all upset and we both started crying, although I had no idea of why I was crying. I’m tellin’ ya. I was just sick, sick, sick.

My parent left early to take care of my sister.

One of the other guests wore a beautiful white lace dress and at one point I told Steve just to marry her because I was too sick and she was dressed for the part. He told me it was too late, that we were already married.

Acccck. Finally this was over.

The kids all left with many admonitions not to get arrested or burn the house down (that is an entire other story…sigh)

And we retired to our honeymoon suite in the hotel.

Steve kept trying to help me (or perhaps he was just trying to have some bridal night fun - ha) but I just wanted to be left alone. By this time I could barely stand up and could not hear at all with the buzzing. I felt like I had boiling water poured over me.

Steve tried being sweet and I kept saying “leave me alone” and he tells me now that I told him I wanted an annullment because I wasn’t going to ever get married again AND I took off my dress because it was too hot and I threw it in the trash. I don’t remember that at all.

At four am we had an urgent call from home that one of the sons was really, really sick and needed to go to Urgent Care…

…so Steve and I packed up, ran home, got the kid and both of us went to Urgent Care!
Both of us had strep throat AND my blood pressure was above stroke level (because of the strep) which explained the fever, the buzzing, the dizzy and everything else.

All Sunday the two of us were raging sick.

I have no idea what anyone else did. And actually I could have cared less.

Monday we went to court with our daughter. (another long story)

And on Thursday we finally got to go on a quick little “honeymoon” trip to Northern AZ. And it was fun.

And I decided I liked my new husband! In fact, I loved my new husband! And I decided I wanted to have a another wedding because I really, really don’t think the one we had just endured counted at all.

My new husband thought it really wasn't worth taking the chance on having all that bad luck find us again! Hmmmm....

And now, here it is ten years later. And all year my husband has said we would have a little wedding ceremony since I couldn’t recall the first one at all. And we’ve been talking about this for months.

Which means, of course, that several months ago I started having some health issues that have laid me up.

Which means, of course, NO WEDDING CEREMONY! (which doesn’t totally, totally surprise me!)

But you can put away your kleenex now because with our without a remembered wedding ceremony marrying my husband is the absolute best and most wonderful thing I have ever done. Ever.

We have lived through drama, illness, death and even some of the dreaded POVERTY!!!!

And we have gotten closer and more in love.

But I won’t bore you with all that mushy-gushy stuff.

To close up this post I thought I’d share some wedding photos with you.

But wait. I only have a few.

Why? Because the photographer messed up the film from the wedding. True story.

But I suspect you are not the tiniest bit surprised.

Sigh…