Our CRAZY wedding story - LONG Version

Everyone said that we should write down the events of our wedding so we could tell people in the future...it also made it easier for us to tell long distance guests what happend before and after the wedding. Sooooo I figured I'd post it on here. I already posted earlier some of the stuff but this is in more detail and a lot more of my emotions during it. Enjoy!



A Wedding in the Midst of Insanity

 My wife and I are not last minute people. We do things well in advance in order that we are ahead of the game and not having to rush through making a decision. We had all of the major events for the wedding planned well in advance, but little did we know that at the last minute they would all change. Despite the events that caused the shedding of many tears and stressful moments, we found a way to push through what became our first big hurdle in our marriage.
  While driving home from the last bit of shopping for the reception my then fiancée and I were talking about how we were excited for the wedding and the honeymoon. We were in the midst of conversation when I, being the cautious driver that I am, checked my driver side mirror when my eyes switched back to the road I saw something fall out of the corner of my left eye. I looked back quickly to discover that my driver side mirror was no dangling from the cable that causes it to adjust. At the time we laughed our heads off because it was hilarious that the mirror fell off.
 I was then informed that I had to find a replacement for my mirror by the weekend because we could not have my truck looking like that in all of the pictures for the wedding. I checked e-bay and there was no way I  would receive it in time and all of the dealers in the area wanted over $100 for a new mirror, which on e-bay they were $17. My father and I worked it out and we mounted the original mirror back on for the wedding and then we would order a new mirror after the wedding. This was the first event that made the week stressful. At the time I felt this was going to be the worst thing that happened during the wedding week, boy was I wrong.
 Many of us have those moments in our lives where our human fallibility is revealed and we are left exposed as the erroneous beings that we are. We booked our honeymoon for the Riviera Maya in November of 2006. We got a great deal that would allow us to leave the morning after the wedding and arrive at the resort Sunday afternoon. It was going to be a fantastic honeymoon, until the day before the wedding when I began to pack my final bag for the honeymoon. I began to gather the essentials for the trip such as my toothbrush and deodorant and then was going to stick my passport in a pouch of my backpack. I looked all over for my passport but could not find it. I then enlisted the help of my parents to search for my misplaced passport. After a few hours of looking for the passport I decided to be brave and call my fiancée and ask if she somehow had my passport. At the time I knew if she said no then my world was going to change because then she would know that I cannot find my passport and would turn into “freak-out” mode.
 My fiancée then informed me that she had not seen my passport since it was in my truck a few days earlier. I informed her that I had cleaned my truck out and thrown away a pile of papers and that it may have somehow slipped into that pile. The trash had gone the next day and if the passport was in that pile it was gone with the trash and would be impossible to find. After hours and hours of searching it came time that we had no option but to simply give up and go to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. By this time we had come to the conclusion that my passport was gone and that we were not going to Cancun like we had hoped for seven months. I called the travel agent and asked what he thought would happen and he said he would do his best to work it out with the resort to get as much money as possible back for us and that on our next trip he would give it to us at a discounted rate.
 That night most of our wedding party came back to my house and hung out for a little bit while one of my groomsmen and another of the groomsmen’s fiancée practiced a song we had asked them to sing. We were there for about an hour and a half and then we all went our separate ways until the big event the next day. My parents rented a home in the middle of the woods for my groomsmen and me to hangout the night before. We watched a couple of movies and a childhood show called “American Gladiators,” which provided much amusement.
 The next morning I woke up early to go back home and book a location for our honeymoon. We had decided that we would drive to Clearwater, Florida and stay there for six nights and then visit my wife’s Uncle in Orland the next day and then drive back. Everything was arranged by 10:00 and we finally had a honeymoon booked that we were going to be able to go on. We went from flying to Cancun to driving seventeen hours to Clearwater, Florida.
This was an insane change in plans and a definite time of me questioning why God would do something like this to my soon to be wife and I. I kept questioning if God was even real because surely he wouldn’t allow us to go through something like this so close to our big day. I felt that we were being treated unfairly because we had served him so faithfully and at the last minute he changed the plans. After I booked the hotel in Clearwater it made sense to me that this was a huge test in faith for me and Jacklynn and so far we had failed. I was driving to the wedding ceremony and thinking about what had all gone on this previous week and thought to myself about how little my faith truly is if it can be impacted so greatly by something that in the grand scheme of things is so little compared to God.
I cannot say enough about the day of the wedding, everything went phenomenal. The minister, who is a friend of ours, did an amazing job at molding the ceremony to fit our personality. The ideas that were expressed and the words that were used to express those ideas were a masterpiece. It was like an artist painting a picture as he described the covenant that we were entering into. When the doors opened and I saw my bride for the first time, she took my breath way. The entire ceremony I could not help but stare into her eyes and think about growing old with her and learning every little detail about her.
The reception was phenomenal as well because we decorated and catered the food ourselves. My wife’s dad is an excellent cook and was able to prepare enough food for 200 people in the midst of the insane wedding week. The food was delicious and the music was top far exceeding our expectations. As people began to leave we decided that we would leave earlier than we had expected because so many people had left once the dancing started. We began heading towards Indianapolis for our hotel when we were about halfway there we noticed my truck was smoking. We pulled over to the side of I-74 and watched as the smoke rose from under the hood of my truck.
I got out and popped the hood of my truck and did the typical guy “I’m pretending to know what I’m looking for although I have no idea what is wrong.” My wife had been uploading the pictures from her digital camera that had been taken by one of my groomsmen’s girlfriends. She opened her door to tell me to be careful because several semis sped by without getting over. After the engine had cooled down we began to drive towards the next gas station and began hearing this “tinking” sound on the passenger’s side door. We had no idea what it was but thought it may be loose gravel from the side of the road hitting the truck. Eventually the time came when we knew it was not gravel and decide to check what it was. When the door opened and I heard the gasp of breath from my wife I knew it was not good. She pulled up a cord from her digital camera that had once had her camera attached to it and revealed to me what was making the noise. She began to freak out because her digital camera was once attached to the other end and she could not find it. The one thing that kept her sane was that she had already uploaded the pictures from the wedding and that all she would be out was her digital camera. We decided that the camera must have slipped out the door when she opened the door to tell me to be careful, but that was over five miles back and there was very little we could do about it.
We arrived at the gas station and contacted my grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle who were behind us traveling along the same interstate just several minute behind us. They know more about cars than I do so they said they would look at my truck and look and see if they could spot her digital camera along the way. We were supposed to be in Indianapolis relaxing after our wedding, but instead we sat in a gas station parking lot in Jamestown, Indiana. My grandparents and Aunt and Uncle came and looked at my truck and decided it would be best if I took my grandparents car to the hotel. After a few minutes of transferring bags from my truck to their car we were finally on our way to Indianapolis.
In conclusion it is my pleasure to say that this was the last hiccup in our journey to get married. It was a test of our faith and our love for one another. We experienced more in one week than some couples experience in years of marriage. In the midst of one of the craziest moments of our lives, we were finally able to say that we are husband and wife. The make-shift honeymoon was an awesome time of lying on the beach and talking all day. It was an opportunity to spend quality time together talking and getting to know one another. Every morning we woke up we always said “Good morning husband’ or “Good morning wife” and the realization finally began to set in that every morning for the rest of our lives we would be waking up by each other’s side. If this experience isn’t proof that our marriage can survive through struggles, I’m not sure what is.

_______________________

Travel quote of the week: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

Sorry about that hopefuly this will help somewhat. I even added somemore that I forgot. We had to buy a new digital camera after returning from the honeymoon...haha.


                                                    A Wedding in the Midst of Insanity

 My wife and I are not last minute people. We do things well in advance in order that we are ahead of the game and not having to rush through making a decision. We had all of the major events for the wedding planned well in advance, but little did we know that at the last minute they would all change. Despite the events that caused the shedding of many tears and stressful moments, we found a way to push through what became our first big hurdle in our marriage.
 
 While driving home from the last bit of shopping for the reception my then fiancée and I were talking about how we were excited for the wedding and the honeymoon. We were in the midst of conversation when I, being the cautious driver that I am, checked my driver side mirror when my eyes switched back to the road I saw something fall out of the corner of my left eye. I looked back quickly to discover that my driver side mirror was no dangling from the cable that causes it to adjust. At the time we laughed our heads off because it was hilarious that the mirror fell off.
 
I was then informed that I had to find a replacement for my mirror by the weekend because we could not have my truck looking like that in all of the pictures for the wedding. I checked e-bay and there was no way I  would receive it in time and all of the dealers in the area wanted over $100 for a new mirror, which on e-bay they were $17. My father and I worked it out and we mounted the original mirror back on for the wedding and then we would order a new mirror after the wedding. This was the first event that made the week stressful. At the time I felt this was going to be the worst thing that happened during the wedding week, boy was I wrong.
 
Many of us have those moments in our lives where our human fallibility is revealed and we are left exposed as the erroneous beings that we are. We booked our honeymoon for the Riviera Maya in November of 2006. We got a great deal that would allow us to leave the morning after the wedding and arrive at the resort Sunday afternoon. It was going to be a fantastic honeymoon, until the day before the wedding when I began to pack my final bag for the honeymoon. I began to gather the essentials for the trip such as my toothbrush and deodorant and then was going to stick my passport in a pouch of my backpack. I looked all over for my passport but could not find it. I then enlisted the help of my parents to search for my misplaced passport. After a few hours of looking for the passport I decided to be brave and call my fiancée and ask if she somehow had my passport. At the time I knew if she said no then my world was going to change because then she would know that I cannot find my passport and would turn into “freak-out” mode.
 
My fiancée then informed me that she had not seen my passport since it was in my truck a few days earlier. I informed her that I had cleaned my truck out and thrown away a pile of papers and that it may have somehow slipped into that pile. The trash had gone the next day and if the passport was in that pile it was gone with the trash and would be impossible to find. After hours and hours of searching it came time that we had no option but to simply give up and go to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. By this time we had come to the conclusion that my passport was gone and that we were not going to Cancun like we had hoped for seven months. I called the travel agent and asked what he thought would happen and he said he would do his best to work it out with the resort to get as much money as possible back for us and that on our next trip he would give it to us at a discounted rate.
 
That night most of our wedding party came back to my house and hung out for a little bit while one of my groomsmen and another of the groomsmen’s fiancée practiced a song we had asked them to sing. We were there for about an hour and a half and then we all went our separate ways until the big event the next day. My parents rented a home in the middle of the woods for my groomsmen and me to hangout the night before. We watched a couple of movies and a childhood show called “American Gladiators,” which provided much amusement.
 
The next morning I woke up early to go back home and book a location for our honeymoon. We had decided that we would drive to Clearwater, Florida and stay there for six nights and then visit my wife’s Uncle in Orland the next day and then drive back. Everything was arranged by 10:00 and we finally had a honeymoon booked that we were going to be able to go on. We went from flying to Cancun to driving seventeen hours to Clearwater, Florida.

This was an insane change in plans and a definite time of me questioning why God would do something like this to my soon to be wife and I. I kept questioning if God was even real because surely he wouldn’t allow us to go through something like this so close to our big day. I felt that we were being treated unfairly because we had served him so faithfully and at the last minute he changed the plans. After I booked the hotel in Clearwater it made sense to me that this was a huge test in faith for me and Jacklynn and so far we had failed. I was driving to the wedding ceremony and thinking about what had all gone on this previous week and thought to myself about how little my faith truly is if it can be impacted so greatly by something that in the grand scheme of things is so little compared to God.

I cannot say enough about the day of the wedding, everything went phenomenal. The minister, who is a friend of ours, did an amazing job at molding the ceremony to fit our personality. The ideas that were expressed and the words that were used to express those ideas were a masterpiece. It was like an artist painting a picture as he described the covenant that we were entering into. When the doors opened and I saw my bride for the first time, she took my breath way. The entire ceremony I could not help but stare into her eyes and think about growing old with her and learning every little detail about her.

The reception was phenomenal as well because we decorated and catered the food ourselves. My wife’s dad is an excellent cook and was able to prepare enough food for 200 people in the midst of the insane wedding week. The food was delicious and the music was top far exceeding our expectations. As people began to leave we decided that we would leave earlier than we had expected because so many people had left once the dancing started. We began heading towards Indianapolis for our hotel when we were about halfway there we noticed my truck was smoking. We pulled over to the side of I-74 and watched as the smoke rose from under the hood of my truck.

I got out and popped the hood of my truck and did the typical guy “I’m pretending to know what I’m looking for although I have no idea what is wrong.” My wife had been uploading the pictures from her digital camera that had been taken by one of my groomsmen’s girlfriends. She opened her door to tell me to be careful because several semis sped by without getting over. After the engine had cooled down we began to drive towards the next gas station and began hearing this “tinking” sound on the passenger’s side door. We had no idea what it was but thought it may be loose gravel from the side of the road hitting the truck. Eventually the time came when we knew it was not gravel and decide to check what it was. When the door opened and I heard the gasp of breath from my wife I knew it was not good. She pulled up a cord from her digital camera that had once had her camera attached to it and revealed to me what was making the noise. She began to freak out because her digital camera was once attached to the other end and she could not find it. The one thing that kept her sane was that she had already uploaded the pictures from the wedding and that all she would be out was her digital camera. We decided that the camera must have slipped out the door when she opened the door to tell me to be careful, but that was over five miles back and there was very little we could do about it.

We arrived at the gas station and contacted my grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle who were behind us traveling along the same interstate just several minute behind us. They know more about cars than I do so they said they would look at my truck and look and see if they could spot her digital camera along the way. We were supposed to be in Indianapolis relaxing after our wedding, but instead we sat in a gas station parking lot in Jamestown, Indiana. My grandparents and Aunt and Uncle came and looked at my truck and decided it would be best if I took my grandparents car to the hotel. After a few minutes of transferring bags from my truck to their car we were finally on our way to Indianapolis. We then traveled back to my wife’s parent’s house and traded my grandparent’s car for my in-laws car because they said we could use it since it gets much better gas mileage. A few minutes after driving my wife picked up her camera to take her first picture of me driving on our honeymoon and her camera said “Camera Error See Users Guide.” We couldn’t fix it so we drove by the reception site where her parents were finishing cleaning up and traded her mom cameras and again we thought it wouldn’t end. We left there and drove to Macon, Georgia and stayed in a hotel where we were upgraded to the executive suite by mentioning that we were on our honeymoon. We went to leave the next morning to drive to Clearwater and were informed that I-75 was closed because of the smoke from the wild fires. We were freaking out because the road was the road we needed to be on for over 300 miles. Luckily a few hours before we arrived to take the road they opened it and everything was fine from there on out.

In conclusion it is my pleasure to say that this was the last hiccup in our journey to get married. It was a test of our faith and our love for one another. We experienced more in one week than some couples experience in years of marriage. In the midst of one of the craziest moments of our lives, we were finally able to say that we are husband and wife. The make-shift honeymoon was an awesome time of lying on the beach and talking all day. It was an opportunity to spend quality time together talking and getting to know one another. Every morning we woke up we always said “Good morning husband’ or “Good morning wife” and the realization finally began to set in that every morning for the rest of our lives we would be waking up by each other’s side. If this experience isn’t proof that our marriage can survive through struggles, I’m not sure what is.