With much anticipation, the big day had finally arrived!
Naturally, I was excited, so I didn’t sleep easily the night before. It’s like the day before Christmas, only, it was actually the day before the day before Christmas. And this year, I didn’t care at all about Christmas. (Nothing personal, Christ.)
Rather than sleep in, I got up early and started to get ready. One of the first things I did was go to my sister’s chapel where the wedding was to take place while the girls gathered around the kitchen to prepare the food.
To my dismay, I was not able to shake the powers-that-be of Mormon weddings. Translation: a working basketball hoop overhead to grace the reception. Centuries from now, archeologists will study the history of Mormon weddings and think that we must have worshiped these hoops as powerful deity of marriage. They presided over every wedding and were central to all ceremonial celebrations. Some incarnations would be lifted up higher towards the ceiling as if to ascend the vows higher towards the heavens. Others would hang low and be lavishly adorned with plants and lace on the day of the event. No one is quite sure how this God came to be, but one thing is sure, he was Lord of matrimony.
And on the side of that pic you can see my mom working on the punch fountain. That was a problem as well. After about an hour of just trying to set it up, it was determined that the motor was faulty. Various people were sent on missions to get it replaced or find an alternate at K-mart. My brother-in-law Rob was unfortunate enough to be buying a new one and setting it up while I was getting married. By the end of the night we had 4 of those fountains lying around. We kept one, took the broken one back and took another new one back for a refund. I think someone must have decided to keep the 4th one they bought.
The cake was graciously made by my sister, LaDawn. I never knew that she could bake cakes like this. Seeing as how this is a new hobby of hers, I assume she didn’t know either until recently. She said that the cake would normally take as much as 15 hours, but mine was special. In her words,
“I doubled the recipe for the chocolate cake, but forgot to double the sugar...very gross. That was the big bottom layer and the top layer. Good thing I tasted part of it before the wedding. So had to completely re-bake that. Then I didn't use a "crusting" cream cheese frosting as I knew I should, so the middle layer kept bulging, melting dropping and sliding. After several hours of trying to "fake it" I gave up, took it apart, scraped all the filling from between the layers, and all the frosting off the outside, remade that frosting and filled and frosted it. Then...when putting the dots on the outside, I used a lemon extract with the luster dust to make them shine like pearls, but they made the dots slightly yellow, so I scraped off all the dots and repainted them with clear vanilla extract...right color, but didn't like the look of the dots...too big and not smooth looking, so I scraped all of them off again, switched frosting types and tip and repainted again. Finished 3:30am night before. Total about 30 hours. Many valuable lessons learned on that one.”
I guess one lesson was to never offer to bake a wedding cake for free.
A lot of work, but what a cake!
By the time that I got back from setting up the chapel, Anna was already in the preparation states of her wedding garb. I tried to sneak a peak at Anna before the wedding, but Sammie and Lizzie (my nieces) would not have it. I still tried.
Behind the closed door my wife-to-be was busy taking pictures of herself.
She's even hot in just pajamas!
Finally, we arrived at the chapel, in our nice clothes where it looked nice, but people were still all hurrying around with something to do. Poor Anna just sat in the bathroom until the wedding. She had people come in and help her primp herself some, so I guess it was ok.
Then after we decided the Hawaiian caterers were not going to show up, and the singers were a no-show, and the leis wouldn’t make it, we just went ahead with the wedding.
It was simple but wonderful. My nephews walked up as the ring bearers. My nieces were flower girls. And my lovely wife was escorted up by my dad since hers was not there. Her mom stood by her side and my best friend since childhood, John, stood behind me as my best man.
Bishop Toone had some nice words to say and then came the part where I agree. Internally: "What do I say? 'I Do' or 'Yes'? I can’t decide. Well, I guess I’ll just...um... What happens if she says 'No'? No, she won't do that. But what if she accidentally says 'no'? That's not very likely. So, what if it isn't an accident? Oh, he just asked me..." Externally: “Yes!”.
Now for Anna. Internally: "Don’t think to not say 'no', or else I will say 'no'. Just say whatever Jared says. What if he says 'No'? No, don’t even think of the word 'no' or you accidentally say it. Ok, Jared said 'Yes'. Now me. Don't say 'I do' or 'no'. Shoot, now I'm going to say one of those! Oh, here's my turn..." Externally: “Yes!”
Then we kissed (and I held it out some…). After that it was time to take pictures like there was no tomorrow. Although that phrase doesn’t make sense. Why would you bother to take pictures if there was no tomorrow? That’s like filling up our tank the day before you take your old car to the junk yard. Anyway, back to the wedding.
We took pics while everybody waited to eat the food that the caterers just delivered.
I warned John not to ACTUALLY kiss her
Don't know why, but I love this shot
Then we took pics outside.
With her bouquet
She is so light, I could carry her all day
On the full size pic, you can zoom in and see my face, Anna's and the camera man's reflection in my ring
My current fav pic of us at the wedding so far
We came back in for the cake cutting.
No, we didn't mash it into each other's faces. But I was tempted...
After that people came up to us and we talked and talked. I didn’t really get to eat much of the food, but it smelled good.
When the crowd cleared some, we realized that we totally forgot to do the garter belt and bouquet. So, we did it with the few people left, immediate family.
Lizzie, the taller one in back, caught it
Yeah, it's as fun as it looks!
He was so busy trying to get that off his head that we barely got the pic in
We all hope that Lizzie and Connor are not the next to get married.
Much of the time I found myself worried about Anna’s mom. She was a stranger in a strange land. At one point, she ran to the bathroom crying. I hoped and assumed it was just how moms always cry at daughter’s weddings. Apparently, she was fine. She mostly either followed Anna or sat at the table poking at her food. But regardless of language barriers, there was one person who transcended all differences and keep close to my new mother-in-law: Brooklyn.
She had her coming...
...and going!
Despite the issues and whatnot, it was a wonderful wedding. Those pics are just the ones that I took with my digital camera that day. The other pics and the real film pics will come later, I hope. I am grateful for everybody who put so much into making this wedding seem like it had been planned for, um, at least a month.
After the wedding, we relaxed at my parent’s house some, but not too long. I was ready and eager to get going to the honeymoon room my parents booked for us at a local resort. And, just for posterity, I decided to document the whole night. Parents: before you view this pic, I suggest you have a talk with your young ones.
No, that's not a chicken up there, that's just the way she's holding the grapefruit
Well, perhaps total transparency is not always ideal. Did you really think I'd post a pic like that? Hey, you can’t live vicariously through me in every aspect of life...
Needless to say, I'm a very happy and lucky man. Next we are off to see the Grand Canyon and play in snow. After that, we are off to Maui for or real honeymoon (with my mother-in-law). Then we have more time in Oahu before I go back to Guam. Whew, I'm so tired, I hope I'll be able to enjoy my honeymoon and not just sleep through it.
