"I do"

It’s been 8 years since I walked down the aisle and vowed to spend the rest of my life with my husband. 8 years and still I remember it like it was yesterday.

March 26, 2011…

Unable to sleep I gave up on trying around 4 am. Nothing was on TV so I stuck with Howard Stern’s “Private Parts.” Why? I have no idea. Eventually I got out of bed and went to the diner with my sister and some bridesmaids before we went to get our hair done. 

The girls and I spent the morning getting our makeup done and getting ready at my best friend Katy’s house. I was surprisingly relaxed though I still felt like a ball of energy. And even when my dad forgot to bring my sister’s maid of honor dress and had to go back home to get it I was still fine, which is surprising if you know me because normally I would have freaked out. 

JR and I had decided that we didn’t want to wait til the ceremony to see each other but wanted to do a “First Look.” We met up at the hotel where the men were getting ready. 

One of my favorite pictures of us is this one here where I am coming up behind him. You can just see all the love and excitement we are both feeling. 

We took some photos and then it was time to head over to the venue for the ceremony. You would think that since we had just seen each other that I wouldn’t be nervous. But you’d be wrong. The 10 minute ride from the hotel to Adam Todd’s I suddenly felt like I was going to explode… or puke... or both. I knew I wanted to marry JR pretty much from the moment I met him but suddenly in that ride over I realized just what was about to happen and as excited I was it was also incredibly terrifying.

But the second I started walking down the aisle and saw my handsome soon to be husband standing there everything just seemed right with the world. I felt incredibly lucky that this man in front of me chose me to spend the rest of his life with. 

My mom said a blessing, his father read Corinthians 13:4-8, and a longtime friend Greg sang Ava Maria. Finally we vowed to love each other for the rest of lives and were pronounced husband and wife. 

I think the best thing our wedding coordinator suggested was that the two of us got 5 minutes to ourselves in a room before going out and being bombarded by guests.  5 minutes to just experience the pure joy alone together. 

Finally our bridal party was introduced and the DJ announced us to our party. We had our first dance to Rascal Flatt’s “Everyday.” A song whose lyrics had reminded us of our relationship since we met. My sister the maid of honor gave a beautiful speech, and then my brother in law Joey gave a fantastically drunk speech in which no one understood anything he said because he and JR sobbed for 5 minutes straight. I still won’t let either of them live it down. 

We spent the next couple hours celebrating our love with our friends and family. The DJ was amazing and pretty much everyone spent the night drinking and dancing the night away. We drank the venue out of Southern Comfort, going thru 28 bottles of it doing shots with everyone. Some our guests practically had to be carried out to the van back to the hotel.

 

After the wedding we went back to the hotel for the night before driving to Hilton Head, South Carolina where we honeymooned for a week.

Our wedding was truly one of the best days of my life. Not only because it was so much fun but because it was the official start of our lives together. 

Some of our bridal party - Joey, Sarah, Kevin, Tineke, Katy, Justin, Manda, and Eric