Even a husband; even a wife.

Today is Champ’s and my 7th wedding anniversary! Since I’ve told you part one on Friday and part two yesterday, today I will tell you about our wedding.

Champs and I didn’t have a lot of money to put toward a wedding, but we did want to have a nice, big celebration. In order to achieve this, we cut some creative corners. First and foremost, we had our wedding on a Friday night. Everything cost less on Friday! Since it was an evening wedding, we decided on a candlelight service with a dinner and dance after.

Because Champ’s family lived 550 miles away, we planned our reception at a hotel that gave us a deal on a block of rooms for the wedding party and family. Champ’s father, who had ALS, made the trip with his wife and mother. Having him at the wedding was very special to us and we were so honored that they made the effort to come.

We wanted to have a celebration of all that was important to us. Doing all this made a ceremony that was more than an hour long. Here are a few of the highlights:

* Champs had said that he didn’t want to see me on the day of our wedding until I was coming down the aisle. He stayed at my brother’s house the night before the wedding. During the day I called to talk to him. The turkey wouldn’t come to the phone! I was so mad and told my brother to tell Champs he was in trouble. When we got to the church, as I was walking past the men’s dressing room, I called out “Champs, if you can hear me, I LOVE YOU!” That was the closest we got before the ceremony.

* We showed a video of pictures of our childhood and courtship. It was a touching video, and Champ’s dad sat with tears in his eyes through the whole show.

* Princssis and a friend of mine were our candle-bearers. As a friend of the family, Jim, sang “How Great Thou Art”, they lit all the candles for the ceremony (and there were a lot of them!). Jim was a diabetic who had just gotten out of the hospital that afternoon. We offered him the chance to back out, but he insisted on singing. He was wonderful. I stood off the to side, waiting to go in, and goose pimples broke out on my arms at how beautifully he sang.

* Champs escorted his father, my mother, his mother and his step-mom to their seats. This was a nice honor, but he felt a bit like a yo-yo, going up and down the aisle.

* My mom, who used to be a florist, designed a lovely (and complicated) processional for our wedding party. I had 4 bridesmaids, 2 junior bridesmaids and a flower girl, along with the attending gentleman. I didn’t think I had a large wedding until I saw them all together. Oh my!

* My dad walked me down the aisle. As we walked down, I kept seeing the faces of all these people who were there to celebrate with us. Suddenly, I remembered Champs and looked up to the front. After that, I didn’t have eyes for anything else. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo!

* The pastor had instructed Dad to turn and kiss me and present me to Champs. He forgot, though, and I had to remind him, “Daddy, kiss me! KISS ME!” Sigh.

* Geekwif, who was one of my bridesmaids, had helped me write a song for Champs, called “The Sweetest Part of Me”. I sang it right away at the beginning of the ceremony so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it for very long! I still remember looking in his eyes as I sang; he hadn’t wanted to hear the song before the wedding, so he was intently listening to each word. He didn’t cry until the pastor did and it was lost after that. The whole wedding party was wiping their eyes. Thank God I made it through!

* The pastor started his sermon by saying, “They met on the net. From the first click of romance, they were set apart. It seems you can find anything on the Internet these days. Even a husband; even a wife.” Now, we hadn’t told most of my extended family how we had met. I could only shake my head at this unexpected revelation. My family still talks about it to this day.

* We wanted our mothers to have an important role in the wedding, so we had them read scriptures. My mom gave us a huge family bible as a gift, so they read from that bible.

* We recited vows that we had written together. After the vows, we had the rings. Our ring bearer carried the rings down the aisle on a pillow I had made (that is still on our bed). Everyone wanted to know why we didn’t use fake rings on the pillow and give the real ones to our best man. We said it was because our little guy was so earnest and wanted to do such a good job that we knew the rings were safe. He was so proud of himself!

* We served each other communion as a friend of mine sang “How Beautiful”. Then we had the unity candle lighting as Jim sang “Love Moves in Mysterious Ways.” During this time, I showed Champs the wreath that hung at the front of the church. I had made it for him as a wedding gift and it hangs in our living room today.

* The best part of the ceremony was probably the kiss. Geekwif still teases us about it. Champs decided that he didn’t want an ordinary simple kiss. He wanted to make this worth his time and worth the drive. He dipped me back and gave me a long, Hollywood worthy kiss! The pastor wiped his brow and said, “Phew! Is it hot in here?”

* After the ceremony, we came back into the sanctuary and released our guests row by row in lieu of a receiving line. Then, while the guests made their way to the reception, we had our photos taken. It was a big rush!


The reception was so much fun! I could write another 5 pages about this alone, but I won’t (aren’t you glad?). A few highlights are:

* My brother, Paddy, is a chef. His gift to us was a huge ice carving of a swan. It was lovely! Along with the edible orchids, this gave our reception an extra dose of elegance.

* The first dance was “From This Moment”. It was delightful. I remember looking into Champs’ eyes and singing to him as we danced. I took Champs’ bowtie off him and put it around my neck, where it stayed for the rest of the night. That bowtie now resides on the Winnie-the-Pooh bear that Champs gave to me the day he proposed.

* Geekwif walked down the aisle with Princssis’s husband, AR. Naturally, they danced together during the wedding party dance. The Geek was NOT happy about this and couldn’t wait for the dance to be over! At the last note, he stalked unto the dance floor to whisk away the wif. That was fine with AR, he went to find his Princssis and everyone was happy.

* At one point they played “I Swear”. Champs doesn’t sing and doesn’t like people to hear him sing. However, he sang that song to me as we danced and it is one of my sweetest memories ever.

* During the dollar dance, the bartender came to dance with me. Apparently he paid well. He was so drunk! He rubbed his beard against my face and sang along to “The Unchained Melody” as he danced. Behind his back I kept making motions to my sister-in-law (who was my maid of honor) to get rid of him. She just smiled and laughed. Finally she took pity on me and sent in the next dancer. I used to love that song but all it took to ruin it for me was one drunken bartender.

* My aunt and uncle, at different times, asked me “So you met Champs on the internet, huh? You’ll have to teach Paul (my cousin) how to do that. He’s still single, you know.” Poor Paul!

* Near the end of the evening, our best man requested the song “I’m Too Sexy”. I can still see Champs dancing and being silly. It was so fun!

* When everyone left, our best man escorted us to our bridal room, where he showed us the champagne he had on ice and the gifts he had prepared for us. He explained how he had made sure no one pulled any pranks on us and how he had protected us and then he took pictures of us and then we said, “thank you. We love you. Goodbye now.” It took twice, but he finally got the hint.


I could write so much more. To anyone else, our wedding was probably the same familiar string of events that comprise so many marriage ceremonies. But it was ours and it was beautiful. I hope as you’ve read this that it has stirred in you memories of your wonderful day and if you’re single, I hope this gives you ideas for things you might want to make a part of your day. As for me, I am off to spend the day with my family.


Here's some comments from this post:
Chatty said...
Happy Anniversary!
We celebrated our tenth yesterday.

Maria said...
I enjoyed reading and plan to come back to visit because Minneapolis is my home town. I haven't been there in years and sentimentally, I miss it.

ribbiticus said...
sounds like it was a wonderful event! wish you could have posted some pictures.

trusty getto said...
That's really sweet. Happy anniversary. I hope you have many, many more! :)

princssis said...

Happy Anniversary!
So, what exactly was the Geek upset about? Cuz someone other that him was dancing with his wif? I hope he wasn't upset personally with AR! Please tell me the truth. I can handle it. It's been 7 years, anyway.
Hope you had a wonderful day!

Geekwif said...
Hi Princssis. I can answer that personally!
The Geek just didn't like that anyone else was dancing with me. It didn't matter who it was. Of course, your hubby was a perfect gentleman so he wasn't upset with him personally. He just didn't want anyone else dancing with me. A little silly, maybe, but I kind of like that my hubby is a little bit jealous. :)
Blond Girl, it's a lovely story about what was an even lovelier wedding, but I can't believe you left out the part about Mr. S's kiss! That's one of the best stories there is about your wedding day! It still makes me laugh out loud, even 7 years later!

YellowRose said...
Happy Anniversary may you have many more happy years together! Your wedding sounded beautiful and the reception, a blast!

Paul said...
Happy Anniversary. Blessings. Nice story.

Lis said...
Happy Anniversary Blond Girl (and Champs!) Thanks for sharing your love story and memories of your special day! It gives us single/divorced folk hope :)

Russ said...
Hey Blondy... happy anniversary! Seven years is practically a milestone these days.
By the way, The Princssis tagged me with one of those thingies that she caught from you... so of course I lay all blame at your feet. *grin*
Anyway, congrats again.

Suzy said...
Hi Blond Girl!
Ahhh finally I got to read part two and the wedding day story as well. Brought back so many memories for me!! Your right, October 9th is a GREAT day for a wedding. Thanks for visiting my blog today! =o)
I wish you and Champs many, many more happy Anniversaries!