Friday, October 29, 2010
Our Wedding Story
When Rick and Melissa held their wedding reception a month ago, the members at my table felt they were getting off just a little too easy. I took advantage of a quiet moment, before too many people started to leave and gave them an honest congratulations and a thank you for the lovely party. I then proceded to hijack the stereo and play a lovely song by Rick Astley that apparently is associated with the term "Rick Rolling", although I was unaware of this at the time. They took it well and with a grin, I told them "Every wedding needs a story".
I asked Alison to marry me on June 17th, 2010 after 6 years together. We met at our summer job, working the roller coasters at Geauga Lake, on my 20th birthday. She is still the best gift I've ever gotten. We've been through so much in 6 years: both attending college at Kent State; a long distance relationship when she switched to culinary school in Pittsburgh; she then moved to Texas under the assumption that I would follow when I got hired by an airline (I succeeded only a few months before hiring stopped); and even buying a house together. I knew she would say yes but that didn't stop my heart from beating like crazy when I asked her out of the blue in our living room. I had never seen her happier.
Alison wanted an autumn wedding back home where the leaves where changing, and a thanksgiving-style dinner. We both wanted it to be small and simple, and family only. October was coming quick, but we decided 4 months was enough time and it would be nice to not stretch the planning out too long. The short time frame we gave ourselves certainly led to some problems, but (almost) everything worked out and we are certainly happy now that it's off our shoulders.
We flew up to Cleveland in the morning of October 14th. The weather was looking a little iffy, but the forecast was good for Saturday. I got dropped off at my dad's, spent some time with him, briefly went back to Alison's parents' house, and then got my tuxedo fitted. Luckily, everything was fine and I went out to dinner with my mom. Surprisingly, the next day would be one of the best I've ever had.
October 15th was the day of the rehearsal, and there was still so much to do to prep the house. I arrived later than I wanted to, but I helped move some tables around and did what I could. Soon after, the officiant arrived and we ran through the quick ceremony. We were lucky to have found the mayor of a local city to perform the ceremony on such short notice. Originally, we were going to have a family friend perform, but she had to back out to prior commitments. He was impressed with the ceremony that we had written ourselves. We timed Alison's walk to the music and the mayor practiced his speech. There were definately butterflies in our stomachs as it really started to feel real now.
Throughout the day, more and more people showed up to help us prepare for the big day. My dad arrived in the early evening with my aunts and his aunt Miriam from Seattle. Everyone was interested in the homemade food we were making, especially the pies! All the food at the wedding was our families' tradional recipies. It was great. I can't begin to describe how good it was to watch our two families come together so quickly and effortlessly in our interest. I took a special, silent sense of happiness that in my asking Alison to marry me, I had made all these good memories come about. Things come and go in our lives, but it's the people and the memories that mean the most and make us who we are.
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I spent the night at Jo's after a fun night at DasLAN, which included a nice toast of congratulations. Those guys are great and it's always fun when I can make it to Ohio for one. I was able to sleep pretty well since I was so exhausted.
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Posted by eclipse on 10/29 at 06:29 PM
