Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Fourteen years ago today...

... I married my best friend.

Yes, I chose a burgundy velvet dress for my four bridesmaids. I still swear to this day that the dress could be worn again. You could *totally* wear it to a holiday party. My own dress was "candlelight ivory" as true white made me appear quite corpselike - not exactly the look one strives for on one's wedding day...


We opted to have birdseed thrown instead of rice as we left the church, because of the birds and their exploding stomachs and all. My family helpfully made up approximately one zillion little bags of birdseed, which were then most enthusiastically thrown at us - many people had multiple bags for ammo - as you can see in the above picture. I wound up using my bouquet as a shield as we made a dash for the limo. If you look carefully, you'll notice my father hurling birdseed from the church's doorway to ensure that we were bombarded from all directions. When I changed out of my dress, there was birdseed in my underthings and embedded in my skin as well, and still more came out in the shower the next morning from where it had become one with my bridal coif. (I felt a wee bit Sally Field-in-Steel Magnolias-ish with the amount of products the hair stylist used to create my bridal 'do - my hair was hard enough that one could knock upon it. I think that was more stuff in my hair on that one day than the entire rest of my life combined, which is saying something when you consider I'm from Jersey and I grew up in the 80s...) My siblings learned from our experience, and opted to have much safer "celebration" type things done for their respective wedding church-exits, like having tiny bells rung or bubbles blown. Thus, Hubby and I never had our revenge upon them for the pelting we endured.

Our first dance, to "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" as sung by Harry Connick, Jr. Great song but not really that danceable, as it turns out. It is "our" song though, one that Hubby used to play for me when he deejayed at the jazz station back when we were in college, despite it not being on the approved playlist.

Cutting the cake! We went with a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, quite delicious but rather a pain to frost with white icing. We also had plain, yellow cake with raspberry filling available for those attendees who didn't like chocolate. We didn't smash it either - we made a pact that we wouldn't, and we fed each other that momentous first bite simultaneously and with decorum to the strains of the Beatles' "When I'm 64" (you know: "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?").

Seeing as how we got married waaaay back in the early days of the interwebz and before digital photography and/or personal scanners were common, I didn't have any of our wedding photographs on my computer. I dug out our wedding album, which was redone for us by a friend who scrapbooks a few years back, and scanned the above pictures in from that. This is why some have borders or rounded edges or what-have-you, and also why they're not the greatest quality - I didn't want to try removing either the pictures from the album or the protective cover off the page, so I just slapped the album onto the scanner bed as best I could to scan them in. At least now I have some form of them on the computer!

We plan to celebrate not tonight, as Hubby is working late and it is the middle of the week and all, but rather this weekend, when we're going out to eat at Macaroni Grill, with Kiddo, who is fascinated by our wedding album now that she is old enough to sort of understand what a wedding is and also able to remember being a flower girl in her uncle's wedding back in 2007. She is a little upset that we didn't have her as our flower girl, so she's not quite getting the whole concept of "back before you were born" too well right now. At least she gets to go out to celebrate with us this weekend - she loved eating there for my birthday last month!

Anyhow... to get all mushy and sentimental for a moment (hey, it is my blog!), here is one of my favorite poems of all time. I wanted to have the first line - or at the very least, the first phrase - inscribed on the inside of our wedding bands, but both Hubby and the jeweler laughed their heads off at me. We settled for our initials and the date instead. As there are no such space limitations on my blog, I will share the poem in its entirety with you now:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
~ e.e. cummings

Happy anniversary, honey! Thank you for putting up with me and my craziness for these past 14 years!

29 comments:

BloggessJ said...

Happy Anniversary!

Anonymous said...

Happy anniversary!

Unknown said...

Ahh, Happy Anniversary! I hope it's a wonderful day :)

Unknown said...

happy anniversary!! may you have many more wonderful years together!

kristin said...

awwww, happy anniversary!

Givinya De Elba said...

Happy Anniversary! Lovely post. Thanks for being there for me, even though we're on opposite sides of the earth.

Andy said...

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Anonymous said...

Awwwww, this is so sweet! Love the photos!

Happy anniversary! May you have many many more!

RMF said...

I know I'm being a troublemaker, but my ring inscription is 23 characters long, and I have teeny-tiny fingers (my ring is a size 4.) "I carry your heart in mine" is 25 characters, by my count, so if you have anything approaching normal-size fingers, your jeweler is a wuss.

Oh, and happy anniversary! :-)

Safire said...

Happy Anniversary! (Over here from SITS, saw your comment and thought you needed some congrats! 14 years is AWESOME!)

Unknown said...

Awww - Happy Anniversary!!! Congratulations on 14 wonderful years!! And here's to a bajillion more together!!!

(Gert & Essie are fascinated with my wedding pictures too, which considering my impeding divorce is kind of a pain in the buttkiss... and they BOTH have said that if I ever get married again they FOR SURE get to be flower girls.)

Kristen said...

Happy Anniversary
What great pictures to remember that special day!

Outnumbered2to1 said...

Happy Anniversary! What a beautiful retelling.

I just visited with my friend who was married this past June. She brought her wedding album to show me and she whips out this hard covered gorgeous photo book with jacket sleeve. I was so jealous. It's amazing how far technology has come.

Unknown said...

awwww beautiful thanks for sharing your wedding day with us and Happy Anniversary

Elisabeth said...

Happy Anniversary! You both look so happy!

Smoochiefrog said...

Happy Anniversary Heather! May God grant y'all many more years together!

Ronnica said...

Happy anniversary! Fun wedding photos!

Debbie said...

I hope you have a glorious anniversary. What great photos. You may have been getting pelted, but you sure look radiant.

nikkicrumpet said...

Congrats and Happy Anniversary. I hope you are as happy now as you looked then! What a beautiful bride and wedding! Now pass me some cake!

Michele said...

Ah, I adore love stories. Sounds like you have a good one! Congrats!

Ash said...

Happy Happy Anniversary!!

I'll pass along my father's toast..."may you be as happy as you are beautiful tonight."

I love that Kiddo treasures your album. Sweet. You guys are her Princess and Prince Charming.

Tiffany said...

Happy Anniversary!

Gretchen said...

What a wonderful post. Hope you have a great day celebrating with your best friend.

WheresMyAngels said...

Happy Anniversary! What beautiful photo's! You haven't changed much at all have you!

MammaDucky said...

Aww, so sweet! Happy belated anniversery!
I roll called below you, and your comment made me simultaneously laugh out loud and shake my head saying, "Yup, been there."
I also loved how you said "sleep in till 7:30." Is it not hilarious that THAT is a luxury to a Mom?! Have a great NOT Saturday.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary to you and your dear hubby!

You look absolutely adorable in the wedding pics, too. You'd never know your hair was bulletproof. Hee!

Debie Napoleon said...

That poem is lovely and your wedding day looked like such fun! Have a great Anniversary meal this weekend and many more to follow!

Cristin said...

Happy (Belated) Anniversary!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Love that pic! You look so happy!