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September 02, 2004
Happy Anniversary!
Today marks 4 years of wedded bliss to Fabulous Babe. I know it’s not the 60 year anniversary that my maternal grandparents just celebrated but we’re still early in the process.
Our wedding day went pretty well for being planned from over 1200 miles away. (We were living in Seattle and got married in Illinois.) Our only “hitch” was the 6 hours that we thought we didn’t have the church reserved after the invitations were ordered. The only “non-traditional” thing at our wedding was that instead of a best man Fabulous Babe let the Best Woman handle the duties. (She did great. I highly recommend her.)
Some of the more humorous memories from that weekend:
My cousin, Goolia, brought a date from Italy named Max who won the prize for having traveled the farthest for the wedding. This annoyed my Auntie Dearest who groused for the rest of the rehearsal dinner.
After the rehearsal dinner the Best Woman took us out for beer and cigars. At the appropriate moment she ducked aside for my requisite trip to the nudie bar. Alas the experience was horrific as one of my friends paid for me to be mauled by a VERY large woman wearing a red tarp. *ugh* We left soon afterwards.
Early in the morning of the wedding day I was hanging out in the hotel lobby when Fabulous Babe came downstairs to go get her hair done. Her friends, spotting me, quickly whisked her off sideways to a closet sized bathroom so I wouldn’t see her. This led to me teasing her through the door for a few minutes before finally going upstairs and letting her leave.
Just before we had to walk in to the sanctuary my friend Archaeon looks at me and, in the time honored tradition, says, “It’s time. Since I’m the first man after the Best Woman I have to ask: If you don’t want to go through with this we can still get you out of here. You just need to tell me now.” I assured him that I was fine as My Brother laughed remembering when I had phrased the exact same question to him during his wedding.
At the reception Fabulous Babe’s parents danced to Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” for what may have been one of the most surreal experiences of the evening.
There's more but I have to save it for future anniversary posts.
So four years ago today I’m standing at the end of a long aisle. The organ music starts to play and then, after what seems to be a non-stop parade of my fiancé’s niece and friends there she was.
I remember the tunnel vision effect when everything to the sides dropped away as I looked at her. I remember thinking the veil over her face did nothing to hide the fact that she was starting to cry. I remember how she fussed over how she looked in the dress and how I couldn’t see the last 2-3 pounds she had been complaining about. All I could think was that I was about to become the luckiest man in the world.
I took her hand from her father and then we turned to face the minister. I also vaguely remember we whispered to reassure each other but whatever we said is lost to time. Pretty soon after that we were into the ceremony.
When we got to the vows I remember wanting to shout them so everyone in the world would be able to hear my responses. FB’s responses weren’t nearly as loud by comparison but every time she spoke my heart seemed to stop.
It’s funny how you kiss your wife for the first time. Not funny in a “Lets see if we can embarrass our family!” sort of way. It’s funny because the two of you are so awestruck with the moment that it’s almost impossible to function properly. You’ve just finished making the most powerful vows of your life and you’re still woozy. Someone long ago figured out that kissing is the best way to break the spell of that moment.
When I leaned forward, lifted the veil, and kissed FB it was like lightning struck. There’s eagerness and hunger to the moment that bares some similarity to those furtive moments as teenagers when you’re first trying to figure it all out. There’s also tenderness and passion that comes with time and experience as you’ve aged. It’s a release for all the stress you’ve had piled on you during the planning and organizing. Best of all it’s a moment that can be described but never shared with anyone else.
We had both had our share of hardship and heartache, struggles and moves but all of that fell away with a simple ceremony, a few spoken words and, finally, a kiss. In a few simple moments my life changed completely. After everything I was finally able to say the following words that I count as one of the greatest blessings of my life:
Fabulous Babe became my wife.
Posted by Jim at September 2, 2004 12:21 AM