Story of Our Wedding

Friends,



We were married by Pastor Elaine at a Methodist Church in Edwardsville, Illinois on June 18, 2005. I had never gone to that church, and Emily had gone sparingly at best. It was her brother's church, and it came cheap, so we did it there. Also, we had to do it quick because there was a larger wedding later that same day (they had decorated some of the church for their stuff already, too with these little lavender doodads on the pews).

We only invited our immediate family. All told we had an audience of nine (my parents, her parents, brothers, sister, brother-in-law and nephew). No groomsmen. No bridesmaids. No ringbearer. No flower petal thrower. We still made wedding invitations, ones we printed ourselves on from a cardstock from Wal-Mart.

My suit came from a discount men's clothing store in Fairview Heights that was only open a couple days out of the week. Emily got her dress from JC Penney's. She still wore something old, something new and something blue. She had a beautiful bouquet bought from a grocery store.

Emily's brother in-law set up a video camera to tape the proceedings, but it only filmed my back. For pictures, I brought my digital camera and had my parents take pictures.

All told, the proceedings took twenty minutes at most. My wedding ring didn't quite fit. The picture taken right before our first kiss, where I cradled Emily's head a little bit, looks as if I'm about to choke her out.

At the reception later that night, where we invited all our friends and family to attend, we served fried chicken. It was too greasy, so I ate very little and it gave me intense stomach cramps, which people kept telling me was nerves. Our first dance was clumsy, and the DJ didn't listen to my directions about fading out the song at a precise point. One of my friends laughed at us tottering like nervous junior high students. One of my aunt's, Brenda Gail, who had been widowed the year before, caught Emily's bouquet.

Once everybody cleared out, and was good and drunk, except for me because I had to drive, and my stomach issues, we made our way to the hotel for the night. Before we got there, we stopped at Burger King to get something to eat and drink because I felt terrible. In the hotel, the bathroom's mirror was on the back of the door, opposite the toliet, so you had to look at yourself, minding the throne.

The next day at my parent's house, we opened cards and gifts. We asked for only gift cards or money because we were moving to Minnesota and didn't want to carry any extra crap. Then we drove two hours down to Carbondale because we both had to work the next day.

I know laying it out there like that sure makes it sound terrible, especially for those who really like the big, showstopper weddings, but it wasn't. Those moments are what make the wedding memorable for me. If it weren't for those quirks, I doubt I'd ever have more to say about the wedding than "It was nice." With all that, I can always laugh and smile about it. And, you know, I really can't imagine having a wedding any other way.