4 Years of Matrimony

Today marks the 4-year anniversary of my marriage to Travis. Seven years before that, we met in high school.

Our wedding was a stressful one. For me anyways. We had it outdoors at my mom's friend's house in the middle of the country in Illinois. We were smack dab in the middle of the corn fields and we have several photos to prove it. All of our family came to watch us get married in front of an old, battered, red barn. Between my dad and I, we did all the decorating ourselves. The reception was held on the other side of the house by the pool. We rented white tents, in case it rained (which it did, but it stopped for our wedding).

Here were the major stressing events for me:

• When the flowers arrived, they had been PAINTED red (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?). During shipping, they became stuck together and when peeled apart there were pieces of paint missing to expose the white calla lily underneath. Travis spent days trying to get them to send us a different flower as a replacement but was never able to get a hold of anyone. We ended up throwing them all in the trash and Travis' mom went to Walmart to buy out their stock of red and orange flowers. Our credit card was thankfully never charged for this heinous faux pas.


• After the DJ set up, we found out that the breaker was incapable of channeling enough power and was continuously shutting off. Thankfully, I was marrying an electrician who was able to move a few things around to make it work.


• The pastor who married us was so far gone that he ended up being admitted into a home with Alzheimer's not even a month after our wedding. He forgot to come to our wedding rehearsal and we had to prompt him on what to say during the ceremony.


• When the tents were set up, they forgot to put up the sides. I got back from getting my hair done to find this mistake and had to have them rush back to get it up before the guests arrived for appetizers before the ceremony was to begin.


• It rained all through our pre-ceremony photo taking. My curls fell before the photos were even taken. Thankfully it stopped by the time we were walking down the aisle!


• After all that fighting with the flower company, we only had 24 hours to prepare the centerpieces. After the rehearsal dinner, my bridesmaid Chrissie and I stayed up until midnight (while the boys were at the bachelor party - Travis chose the bowling alley so my underage brother could attend - so sweet!) putting together the arrangments.


• I left an entire box of stuff - everything required for making our bouquets and all the candles - in our apartment in Texas. Had to re-buy all of that.


• Because of the rain, our caterer decided that they would not be able to serve each individual their dinner. Instead it was a buffet style, cramped inside a tiny tent.
  

In the end, the only aspects of our wedding that did not go entirely wrong was our cake and our photographer. Both were absolutely fabulous.

After all of that, I can say I would honestly do it all over again even if I knew it would be that hard. Once it all began (aside from our memory deficient pastor), it was great. The memories were worth it and what matters most is that everyone enjoyed themselves and WE ARE MARRIED.

That said... if we ever renew our vows - we're going to Vegas.