Thirteen Years Ago Today

Thirteen years ago today............

It was a beautiful April morning. The grass was damp and the birds were chirping, as we drove through the crisp spring air to the gorgeous and elaborate Drive Thru wedding chapel.




I'll never forget A Special Memory Drive Thru Wedding Chapel. We did pay $20 extra to go inside and that made it even more memorable. It's the kind of place dreams are made of. We had actually tried to get married two days before our actual wedding day on the way home from work, and no one came to the window. Lucky for me, because it was much better getting married inside, than in my car.



You should have seen the turn-out. All four of us barely fit inside the little room set aside for the private nuptials. You've never seen a man as happy as Greg was to be getting married. He kept muttering something about "marriage penalty tax", but it sounded more like, "marriage finally at last" to me. I was certain that I was worth the extra 15 grand in taxes we had to pay that year because our combined income put us in the highest tax bracket. I knew he was happy to be paying that and probably didn't think about it once during the ceremony.

The lady who checked us in asked if we wanted the "regular" wedding or the "Christian" one?

Greg's mom said, "We'd like the Christian one please."

So they sent Minister Jesus, aka Chong, from Cheech and Chong. He had the tattoos, LOVE and HATE, on his knuckles, so I knew he was a man of God. What a relief. He told us how he had turned over a new leaf as an ordained minister since being released from prison, and I believed him.

It was a beautiful and long service, lasting almost 3 entire minutes. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. Even Minister Jesus had to touch up his eyeliner, before going on to the other 42 happy couples awaiting him right after us.

After a quick wardrobe change into our reception attire, we journeyed over to our wedding feast.



Here we are standing in line for the All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Buffet at the Rio, where we held our reception with 500 other people I'd never met before. It was an unbelievable wedding dinner, featuring all the lobster, peel-and-eat shrimp, and crab legs you could stuff in your mouth. I like to think the other diners knew they had a bride in their midst, even if I was elbowed in the line for prime rib. What a wonderful and satisfying meal.



We had 52 different kinds of wedding cake too. You've never seen such a variety.

It was really something. I am so incredibly happy to share this special anniversary with my OWN birthday every single year for the rest of my life.

This wedding was really expensive too. It cost almost $200, including the food, so I can assure my girls that we will give them at least half of that when they get married themselves someday. Your father will spare no expense for your happiness, girls.




It just keeps getting better and better with each passing year, ladies.  YOU HAVE NO IDEA.