Early Day 177

December 11, 2001

I woke up that morning to falling snow. That much was expected. In fact, a blizzard was expected... Snow Storm Aiden was headed for us! It took my mom and Ashley a bit longer than normal to get to my house, but they eventually showed up and we made it to the hair salon. Shannon did a fantastic job on my hair! It wasn't like the picture, but it was exactly what I needed for the day!

In the mean time... Josh had to stop at DuBois to fix our one wedding glitch. When the tuxes came in they came with mint green ties..... WRONG! Oh so wrong! Initially, I had to specialty order the navy ones I wanted, so DuBois had to fly them in the night before the wedding. Luckily they made it here despite the snow and Josh was able to pick them up and get them to the boys! Disaster avoided!

After getting hair done, I met the rest of the girls at the church to get ready. Getting ready before the wedding was the only time I cried. I had just gotten my dress on and Bobby called. Bobby is my brother who couldn't make it to the wedding due to his Air Force pilot training schedule. He made me cry. He should know better than to call after I put my make-up on. I so wish him and Cassie could've been there. That is the only thing I would change about the whole day.

Before the ceremony, with Josh safely hidden away, we took pictures. We did family pictures and pictures of the bridesmaids. I had no jitters. I was so ready for the day. It was so nice seeing all of my family as they came trickling in. With every new person showing up, I got more excited! Then it was the big moment!!!!

I remember walking down the aisle, and seeing everyone's smiling faces. I didn't get choked up like I thought I would, all I could think about was getting my butt down to the front of that aisle and be with Josh. We rehearsed the stand up/sit down drill many times, and Josh still got it wrong! He sat down when everyone else was standing, and I had to pull him back up! Everyone got a good laugh out of that, and it set the tone for our ceremony.

As we sat up there, I didn't realize that everyone could see my big furry boots! But hey, I was ready for the snow! While we were sitting, I kept looking out into the crowd to see who showed up. I spied my nursing friends which was really exciting! During the homily Father Dave gives us words to live by. Josh got his word first: Passion. My word is: Playful. And our word together: Prayerful. And then came the quiz.... Father Dave asked Josh what his word was. Josh blanked. He listens to Father Dave just as much as he listens to me! Haha! He goes, "I want to say Patience but that isn't it... passionate?" Haha, he was so close! My silly boy.

Then we said our vows, exchanged rings, and lit our unity candle. Afterwards we went down and hugged our wedding party and parents. Our mothers both did so good not crying during the ceremony, the bridesmaids on the other hand were a mess! Haha!

After the ceremony we had our receiving line. There I really got to see who showed up and talk to a few people. Then we took more pictures. Then it was party time.... wedding party time that is!

For pictures we went to a park across from the zoo. After we were done with all of the formal pictures we decided we would rather play! So we had a classic snowball fight, boys against girls!

I think the boys may have

won. I got a snowball smashed on my head by the best man, and I stepped on my dress and ripped it! But no worries... we McGyver-ed it with a bobby pin until we got to Curly's pub, where Angie met us and sewed it up!

Then we went to the hall. The dinner and cake all tasted amazing! Next came the dancing! For our first dance we danced to "The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Oliver James. My father-daughter dance was to "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw. And the mother-son dance was to "The Woman in My Life" by Phil Vassar.

The dancing lasted all night! My nursing friend, Brian, caught the garter, and my aunt's foreign exchange student, Anna, caught the bouquet. That was really cool because it was her first American wedding. As the night dwindled down, it came time for the last dance. He played our first dance song and had us in the middle of the dance floor, with all of the remaining guests circled around us. It was a neat way to end the night. Then the party moved to the casino for all the late night partiers!

It was such a great day! If I could relive our wedding every day, I would. Everything went off without a hitch, and was tons of fun! Even the snow didn't scare off our guests. There were so many people, and so much love! It was perfect! Life as newlyweds has been perfect so far also. I'm living my dream!