Fifteen Fabulous Years

October 15, 1994.  It was a bright, sunny and rather unseasonably warm day.  I was up before 9am, having had a fitful night's sleep.  My mind raced with fears that the taped wedding music would fail or other like tragedies would occur.

Mom, my one sister "C", my best friend, "P" and I head out in two cars to get our hair done.  Mom and C were done first and left to go get other things ready for the big day ahead.  P & I followed about an hour or so later, me wearing a blue denim buttoned shirt and my wedding veil, feeling a little like a dork driving around.

When we got home, the photographer was already there.  We ran past him into the house and straight to the bedroom where I literally jumped into my dream gown, getting lipstick on my white silk dress hours before walking down the aisle.

Mom was late for pictures as well, having just gone down to deliver the fresh wedding cake she had finished making and decorating that morning.  Soon we were all ready and the home pictures were taken and the big day was underway.

I remember sitting in the backseat of Dad's car, waiting to leave the driveway.  Dad and I had discussed a few times in the weeks leading up to the wedding if he would kiss me as he gave me away.  Being the non-demonstrative, rather conservative, Scottish-heritage, man my father is, he was not really wanting to make that kind of gesture in front of so many family, friends and strangers.  C, always my advocate, tried to convince him of the importance of such a move.  In the car that afternoon, he turned from his seat in the front and asked me, "So, would you like me to kiss you at the front when I give you away?"  "Yes, Daddy.  I would LOVE for you to kiss me as you give me away!"  My "Daddy's girl" heart, the one that had missed out on such precious moments my whole life, burst with joy and pride in my Dad stepping up to the plate!

We arrived at the church before the last of the guests arrived.  I hid in a downstairs bathroom until a little closer to the alloted time of our ceremony (which if memory serves was 1pm... but I can't remember offhand just now).  One of my friends from my previous job rushed in just before the ceremony was to start.  She took this picture... one of my absolute favorites from that day:

Waving Goodbye to Singleness...

and Carolyn, my tardy friend behind the camera

The music swelled - Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring - and I began my walk down the aisle, clutching Dad's arm the entire way.  Thoughts flew through my mind - I'm not ready for this... I'll just turn around and come back another day.  Can you say commitment phob?  Yikes!  Upon taking my groom's hand, the thoughts silenced, never to return.

Together we stepped up the stairs to meet the pastor at the altar.  Suddenly, there was no one there but Pastor G, Hubby and me.  It was one of the most surreal moments of my life and it felt so perfectly right.  The ceremony went quickly.  There were a few solos, the pastor's charge and signing the wedding license.

Stepping down as Mr. and Mrs., our first duty was to present our mother's with small bouquets of white roses - me handing one to my new mother-in-law; hubby handing one to his.  Then we were off in a flash down the aisle.

Phew... Now onto the marriage!

Outside the sanctuary, with the scary part over, it was time to greet our guests in the receiving line...

Greeting our guests

and then on to the light reception where we cut our cake and served light refreshments. 

I loved my dress... especially the back! (If you click on this pic, you'll get a better look)

The nerves were all gone and the first set of guests fed.  Next we were on to picture taking at a place called Dundern Castle.  If I have one regret from our wedding, it is that we cinched out on the photographer.  The best pictures we got from our day were the ones our friends and family took.  The ones our photographer took were so-so but like most things in life - you get what you pay for!

I had chosen cocktail length dresses for my attendants, in the hopes that they would have a nice Christmas dress to wear elsewhere.  They were a hunter green velvet with white satin sashes in the back.  Very elegant, although I don't think even these dresses were actually worn again - try as I did to choose kindly for my girls!  Here's a pic to show you the dresses...

The dresses look black but were a beautiful hunter (deep) green velvet.

We held our reception in a quaint courtyard of a local Christian broadcasting station.  It had the facade in the room of old Victorian type buildings.  A few years ago, my niece "R" and her hubby "A" held their reception there as well.  The speeches were touching and the memories precious, especially with loved ones now passed on.  One particular memory I think you'll get a kick out of was when Hubby's mom came to give her speech.  She told of the time when Hubby contracted mono that summer, I had been away on training with my job at Youth for Christ.  I was away from him for about 2-3 weeks and when I arrived home, he was contagious.  That meant NO KISSING.  What?  So... having worked with youth... I got to thinking... They say you can have "safe sex" using condoms... so... I wonder if we can "safe kiss" through saran wrap.  May I just say... when The Pie Maker and Chuck kissed on Pushing Daisies using saran it was old news!  I came up with that little nugget of important information (at least I'm taking credit for it!)  As Hubby's Mom retold the story, his twin sister came over to the head table and laid a fresh new box of Saran Wrap before us.  Being the shy, genteel, woman I am, ha ha I got up, ripped a strip of that saran off, and placed my plastic wrap on my new hubby's face and planted a big wet one on him.  Demonstration is always needed in times such as these, don't you know!

Because I was a missionary at the time, depending on a whole whack of older folks for my support (and because of where our reception was held) we had no dance.  We did however, have hubby's twin & her hubby (the best man) and friends of ours come back to our new townhouse (and present home) with our gifts and well... us... and the six of us had our first dance together to Celine Dion's "The Color of My Love".

I love remembering our day.  It was the beginning of a wonderful life.  God has blessed us richly.  Things may not have turned out as we had planned or anticipated (my wedding vows claimed that I would be honored to be the mother of my hubby's children ~ although God had other plans on that), I cannot for one second imagine being with anyone other than my precious "D".  He is the best thing that has ever happened in my life, next to salvation.  He is everything I could have ever dreamed or imagined my husband to be and I love him more and more with each passing year.

Tonight we celebrated with a movie (Time Traveller's Wife) and dinner at a beautiful Greek Restaurant.  He brought me home a dozen long stemmed roses which have the sweetest aroma - Snnnnifffff.  We exchanged cards, expressing our love to one another and as I lay my head down tonight, I will, as I do every night, thank God for the privilege of being his wife!

Thanks for reminsicing with me tonight.  I leave you with one last photo from that special day... a family photo of hubby and myself, along with most of my siblings/in-laws/niblings.  It's amazing to see how small those kids were when we got married and what fine young adults they have become today!

Surrounded by my family on our special day