Part Twelve:Our Big day

And then I woke up. And it was the day I’d dreamed of since I was a little girl. The day I was to marry my best friend, my love, my Scott. I was surrounded my by girl cousins who had all spent the night. As I looked over the balcony into the living room at my parent’s house there they all lay sleeping. Carissa on one couch, Jessica and Emily on another, and Karen somewhere in there too. And there it hung. My wedding dress. But in a flash we were all awake and squealing and out the door to the church to get ready. The morning flew by in a blur of activity. My sisters-in-law all drifted in, music played, make-up was done, hair was sprayed and pinned in place. The flowers were delivered. They were wrong. My fire and ice (white with red tips) roses were pink. And so calls were made, and while the boutonnières and bouquets could not be replaced, mine was.

And then it was time. Everyone cleared out and my dad opened the door and led Scott into the brides room. And there he was. My husband to be. So handsome in his tuxedo and converse. He wrote me the most amazing letter. And then we read Psalm 1 together. During our pre-martial counseling our pastor had us read Psalm backward as a countdown. And it was this perfect warm moment we shared.

And then our perfect, quiet moment was over. And the bustle began again. Pictures were taken, food was consumed, family floated in and out and then guests began arriving and I was all of a sudden struck with a nervous stomach. I’ve never been one to shy away from a crowd, but suddenly the idea of walking down the aisle in front of everyone I loved rattled me all the way through. But then the doors opened and I took my dad’s arm and we walked the walk we had looked forward to and dreaded our whole lives. My dad had always joked he’d need to be “pickled” to get down the aisle without crying. Well he wasn’t, and he didn’t.

Ken Cross asked,

“Mr. Anderson (in a very, bad-guy from Matrix voice) who gives this woman to this man?”

“Her mother and I do”, he choked out.

Then he lifted my veil and kissed me.

He hugged Scott.

Then my new father, Ryan stood and hugged and kissed me as well.

And then we took hands and walked up the steps to be joined as man and wife.

Melinda, if you still read my blog, can you see yourself in this picture???

I don’t remember much else.

It was all such a blur. I had no clue that during the first prayer Colleen snuck out because she thought she was going to pass out or yak in the poinsettias. Then she snuck back during the last prayer and hardly anyone noticed.

But then we were announced and we kissed (in church!) and then we were down the aisle and out the doors-as man and wife!

We headed to the museum downtown for some less formal pictures and for our reception.

Our first dance was to Elvis Presley’s “Fools Rush In” as a naner-naner to all those naysayers out there who said we were too young. We got toasted, cut our FABULOUS chocolate cake and danced the afternoon away.

It was perfect.

And then we were off, to LA to spend the night and then to Kauai for almost 10 days. But not before stopping at In-and-Out on our way out of town. Nothing like getting married to work up an appetite for a greasy double-double with fries.

My Photographer was my amazing Uncle Jeff Vendsel. And even though he hates shooting weddings-not his cup of tea-he drove all the way down from San Fran to shoot my wedding. It was an honor that he would do that for us.

Our honeymoon was perfect. We stayed in a condo that was right on the water. At night I would open the patio doors so we could sleep to the sound of crashing waves. We rented snorkel gear but never actually snorkeled. We took a three hour boat trip to the Na Pali coast but about 45 minutes into the ride Scott got sick and spent the rest of the trip either below deck empting his stomach, or sitting in the back with motion sickness bracelets and watching the horizon-neither which worked. We shopped, we drove around the island a ton, we went to the beach, to the lua. We kayaked up a river and then got out and hiked up to some falls. We found the infamous rope swing into a lagoon that Sara and Larry had raved about. I almost died there. I back splatted so hard I knocked the wind out of me and Scott had to swim out and pull me to shore. So romantic. It was perfect.

And then back we flew to make it home in time for Christmas.

Two days after Christmas we packed up my car and my dad’s truck and moved all our wedding presents, Christmas presents and so much of my life, and drove to San Luis Obispo to move into our first apartment together. And then our story truly began.

The End! And yes, we do live happily ever after...most of the time.