Our Wedding Day and Ceremony

Mom came upstairs to wake me around 8:00. She'd fixed us french toast for breakfast. We sat down together and ate. Shortly, Barbara and Stephanie arrived to get started on their day. They headed to get more magnolias then headed to the church to finish decorating the church and start arranging flowers. Meanwhile Mom and I headed to get our hair do's started. For me it was a wash, dry and preliminary curl. My hair is very fine does not hold curl and I sweat terribly so the goal was to get enough product and curl in to hold for the whole day. Mrs. Susan would come to the church later in the day to do the actual fixing of my hair. My goal until that time was not to sweat. Mom stayed behind and got her do completed.

I headed to the church to check on Barbara and Stephanie's progress. They were working steadily. I waited for them to complete the cake toppers. Then we loaded the cakes, cake toppers, and all other reception items into my car and I headed to the museum to get all the tables set up for the reception. Luckily Aunt Linda had recruited Uncle George, Tim and Michael to help and I had gotten Melissa, Anitra, Elliott, Zemp and Jonathan. In no time flat we (or rather the men & Aunt Linda) had all the tables set up. The girls made sure all the table cloths were properly arranged and a flower was on each table. I had already written out instruction sheets for the caterer and my friend Chele to come in and put finishing touches on everything.

Mom, Anitra and I proceeded to drop Mom's car off at Dr. Holman's house for Dave and I to leave in after the reception. We headed back to the church. Anitra had picked up lots of yummy sandwich stuff for us to have lunch so we fixed something to eat and sat down to relax for a few minutes. Barbara and Stephanie didn't have time to stop and eat at that point because they were so busy. Mom went next door to finish vacuuming the church.

By this time, Dave's family (Mom, Dad, Brian, Granny and Grandpa) had arrived and Dad Bill helped Mom finish vacuuming the church. Dave got there and he went into the church to get dressed and hang out with his dad and brother. Before long, Mrs. Susan arrived to complete my hair do. She worked her magic on my completely uncooperative hair. I looked up and it was 4:00. Rachel, the photographer, came in and started taking a few shots while I finished getting ready. By 5:00 I had my make-up done, my hair done and my veil on, my dress on and we started taking some more pictures outside.

The weather called for a strong chance of thunderstorms that afternoon so we were watching the skies. For a while it looked like it might rain. The next hour we spent looking out the windows to see all the people arriving with got occasional updates from Aunt Linda about how full the church was getting. Anitra, Melissa, Mom and I had some quiet time together before the ceremony. The sky cleared up and the sun came out. It was already time to walk over to the church. The girls walked over together to wait for the service to begin. We waited together in the men's bathroom for a few minutes. Then it was time for the girls to walk in.

Mom and I were the last ones now. Uncle George and Michael closed the doors and Mom and I got ready to walk down the aisle together. The music started, the doors opened and everyone stood up and turned around to see us walk down the aisle. Surreal again. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone because I was determined to maintain my composure. I knew if I saw anyone crying I would cry and it would be all over. I could see out of my peripheral vision that the church was completely full which was heart-warming. My eyes met with Anitra's and Melissa's briefly but they were both teary-eyed and I had to grit my teeth to stop from crying. Then the most massive hot flash began. I always have a hot flash whenever I have to speak in front of group of people but this was the worst one ever. I had some tissue that I used to discreetly mop my face and we arrived together at the front. Dave luckily was all smiles. I was afraid he would be crying, too, but he did great.

Mom presented me to Dave and shared special words with both of us and the ceremony proceeded. We had Jericho's current preacher Roger and the last preacher Robin both perform parts of the service. We kept with the traditional Methodist service and vows and had my Uncle Bud sing the Lord's Prayer and the Irish Blessing. The comment we've heard most from the guests is that the service was very sweet. We both did great during the vows even though for months and months I was convinced that I would dissolve in tears at that point. I think I was too worried about not sweating too profusely. We were so excited after being pronounced husband and wife that I pranced right out of the church without my bouquet. Oh well.