A Wedding Tale

Often times, people say “begin at the beginning,” but I’d rather not. Today I want to begin in the middle of the first chapter of our relationship – our wedding day. This day, 12 years ago, February 17, 2001, I woke up to a glorious morning. In typical Oklahoma fashion, we’d had snow four days earlier but the weather forecast predicted sunny and highs in the mid-60′s. I arrived at the salon around 7:30 in the morning to begin the process of getting ready. Originally I thought 7:30am was ridiculously early as our wedding was not scheduled until 1pm. As it turned out, I was in fact rushing around to get dressed, get my makeup on, and calm myself before the photographer arrived to take some pre-wedding photos. I won’t go into all the pre-wedding drama between my mother and I. It doesn’t matter anymore because at the end of the day, I was married to my best friend and the man that was better than I could have ever dreamed for myself.

My sister sent me a note this past week expressing fond memories of My Love and how much fun our wedding was for her. It was fun! We paid for the wedding ourselves and because we also chose to buy a home (we closed on it three days before our wedding), we kept our wedding and honeymoon a simple affair. We held our reception in the parish hall, had simple hors d’oeuvres, but we splurged on the most delicious cake (bavarian crème cheese cake). While the venue was simple we made sure there was music and dancing because my family LOVES a party. One of my favorite memories of that day, was not dancing with My Love (the man truly had no rhythm but loved me so attempted “the first dance”), or the “father-daughter” dance, but dancing with his mom while the song “So Young” by the Irish band The Corrs was blaring from the speakers. His mother passed away 5 days after our first anniversary so that is a particularly treasured memory.

My favorite part of our wedding day, however, had to be attending Mass for the first time as husband and wife. We did not celebrate a Nuptial Mass because I am the only Catholic on my side of the family, and many of his family members have left the Faith. So we attended the Vigil Mass right after our reception ended. As we were walking in to the vestibule, the couple in charge of finding gift bearers asked us if we would like to bring the gifts for Communion. They had no idea we’d just been married that afternoon. It seemed a perfect end to our wedding as it brought us back full circle to the beginning of our relationship.

Over the last few days, as I have dreaded this day and planned for how I would get through it, others have admonished me to “remember the good times” I had with My Love. I do. I always remember the good times, which makes each and every day without him such a heartache. I treasure what we had and know that it was special, and dare I say, even rare in marriages today.

My Love, I will love you forever and always, to the moon and back!

~ The Reluctant Widow