Happy Anniversary

I was not one of those girls who planned my wedding at four. Somewhere around 14 I picked the day, and the rough concept, but that was it. Luckily, along the way, I acquired the wisdom to stick with a rough concept. While the day was not negotiable, the year was.

Eleven years ago I'd met a man who decided he might want to try out forever with me. So, with the date set we notified the family. We kept it to immediate family and spouses and grandparents, and our first battle as a married couple began. There was actually a cousin who wanted to crash our wedding, who knew we were so cool?

His family arrived days before the ceremony, we had time to enjoy each others company. We did not have a rehearsal, but the tradition of the rehearsal dinner was kept. His mother insisted we wait for my family to arrive, my first lesson to my new mother, was "we never wait for my family." So, we enjoyed a nice dinner with his family. My family...God love them, had decided to go to Yellowstone on the way to my wedding, since they were in the neighborhood (give or take 500 miles).

We'd set a time of 10 o'clock for our ceremony. My family showed up to our house around that time, needing to shower and iron, and whatever else they didn't get up early enough to do. The second lesson my new mother learned, was that like it or not, we sometimes do have to wait for my family.

Now, this is enough to send a bridezilla over the edge. I had accounted for this likely event. The only thing on the agenda for the day was I was going to marry the man that I loved, we may not know when, but we were having a wedding. Luckily, my new dad would be officiating and we could be flexible. After two return trips to the hotel to retrieve forgotten items, my family was ready.

We caravaned over to the park where we'd picked the perfect spot to say our "I do's", and the perfect spot had been taken over by someone else. We moved over 100 feet, and half an hour later we were married.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, we took some pictures, we ate some lunch, the boys played whiffle ball in the back yard, I took some family to a carousel. At one point my new hubby and I were babysitting (yes it was for someone in my family), it rained HARD. It was a great day.

I'm so happy that I didn't let details ruin my wedding day. I could have been upset that my family went on vacation instead of coming to dinner with us. I could have been upset that they didn't show up on time, or that I didn't get the perfect picture or had to move the location at the last minute. Ten years later the time and the place don't matter. I am so glad the stories that make us laugh are not about how I went crazy, but about my wierd family.

What truly matters ten years into forever was that I married the right guy. And I would do it all over again.