Dear 21-year-old Kelly exactly eight years ago,
This is the biggest day of your life! I know you’re pumped to finally put on that dress and walk down the aisle, but just be prepared: this day will not go like you planned!
As you’ve been planning this wedding over the last year, you’ve said over and over: “As long as I end the day married, all the rest of the planning is unimportant in the end.” …but then you’ll quickly add: “But I REALLY REALLY just want the flowers to be amazing. That’s the one wedding planning detail I care about the most.”
You know what foreshadowing is. You should’ve known all the beautiful rose bouquets would turn brown and die in the too-cold church fridge the night before your wedding.
Thank goodness you hired an amazing florist who worked some kind of crazy magic and somehow produced brand new last-minute bouquets anyway!
And then remember when you expected to walk down the aisle fresh and at your best? Go ahead and lose that idea. Andy’s going to surprise you with a sweet little video to watch right before you walk down the aisle which will MESS YOU UP and get the waterworks going early.
It’s a little late to mention this, because you already spent the last several days carefully hand-making programs for your guests with notes to them and directions to the reception, but that was a waste of time. Your brother, the usher, will forget to hand them out and they’ll still all be there, right in the basket you put them in, when the wedding is over. It’s cool: no one needs to know how to get to the reception.
But don’t be too hard on him over this. Someday you’ll realize that this day will be a memory of him you cherish.
I know once the church doors open, the aisle stretched before you, and the strumming of guitars playing that beautiful song that means so much to you and Andy, you’ll think you’re home free and the rest of the day will surely go smoothly. Think again.
No one at the ceremony will notice your entire exchange of rings because they’ll be wondering why the maid of honor, your sister, is bent over at the waist, leaning all her weight on the unity candle stand. She’ll spend the first part of the ring exchange doubled over behind you as she suddenly feels nauseous, then she’ll almost throw up on your dress, and run off the stage! Never fear, it’ll make a funny video and memory.
And you know how you and Andy chose your pastor friend to marry you who you’ve known for years and who did your premarital counseling? Well, he’s going to come down with pneumonia and an intense fever the day before your wedding, and he’ll be so drugged from all the medication he’s taken in a valiant effort to just survive the day, that he’ll mispronounce your new last name when he announces you as husband and wife to the congregation.
But thankfully, for all the things that can go wrong during a wedding, one thing went really, REALLY right.
You’re about to make one of the best decisions of your life. It doesn’t make sense why this guy would put up with you for all these years, even love you, but he does and he will. Even you, who are terrified of commitment and will have a minor freak-out moment the next day when you feel the permanence of the decision you just made, will KNOW that this is the man for you. The fact that he loves you as steadfastly as he does will teach your fickle heart a thing or two about Jesus.
Will everything about marriage be easy? Nope. But today during your ceremony, your family and friends will spend a little time praying for your marriage together, and you’ll be quite certain at times that that prayer and support has carried you through the rough spots. And you know what? The rough spots are hard, but they’re rare. There will be more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches enjoyed on top of a mountain, more giddy midnight conversations about plans for the future, more inside jokes, and more life than hard stuff.
You’re going to find yourself growing old together a little more quickly than you expected, but that’s okay. At least you’re doing it together.
Plus, this whole deal is going to result in the two coolest kids you’ve ever known.
So buck up, laugh through today’s bloopers and just know that there might be some truth to the saying that the more disastrous the wedding, the happier the marriage.
Happy anniversary, Andy!
Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
Love this! It’s a perfect wedding story. Not because of the comedy of errors, but because it oozes love.
Aww you’re making me tear up! Rocky and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary last week. Congrats guys. 🙂
Awww what a sweet post…. Happy Anniversary you two!
The video of your sister is HILARIOUS! Happy anniversary 🙂
Happy Anniversary!! I loved this post 🙂 So right on, you always have those unexpected’s. xo Kristin
What a great post! LOVED the video Andy made. There would have been no way I could have held it together! Happy Anniversary you two! HE has great things in store for the next year! 🙂
Happy Anniversary!! Your wedding story had me laughing and crying. 🙂 May you have MANY MANY…more years together!!
What a fun post! So true – weddings always have some glitches! I love your photos – it was all so lovely. And your kids are so adorable!
This was so fun reading about how the two of you started out. Best wishes for tons of fun in the years to come!
Happy Anniversary! Your story is beautiful and funny and touching all together.
Happy anniversary! I loved this post. We definitely need to swap wedding day horror stories with each other. You know your special day is going to be a doozy when your grandma passes away the morning of.
Well you got me all misty eyed this morning. Your brother. I have not forgot how short his time here was, and I get why forgetting to pass out the programs made a memory. And then, you took a page out of my own book, “growing old together a little more quickly then you expected”. I live that every day anymore and it’s happy and sad at the same time.
Happy Anniversary.
Bliss
Loved the post. It’s our 27th weddding anniversary on the 31st. Both our daughters will be getting married next year. So I’m sharing this post with them. Happy Anniversary.
Happy happy anniversary to you both!! What a great story, and that video of your sister is too funny!!!
Happy Anniversary!
happy anniversary!! I love that you shared what went wrong, I’m getting married in about 2 months and literally every day I have “what if it rains,” “what if my dog rips my dress,” “what if I’m terribly allergic to all the flowers” thoughts. but luckily at the end of the day as long as we’re married it’s a good day!
So true! That’s the ONLY way to think going in to your wedding day. I had every nightmare you can imagine leading up to the big day, but it’s amazing how quickly afterward you don’t really care if it was perfect or not. **EEK! TWO MONTHS!! YAY!**
Our “kids” are 30 and 25 now. You and Andy seem to have many, many appropriate attitudes about being together, maturing throughout life, and growing up the next generation to be good people that uplift other people. Indeed, Happy Anniversary
!!
This is great. SO great. Thanks for the smiles this morning!
Aww, Happy Anniversary!!! We’re only a year and a half into our marriage but I hope 8 years later we’ll still be as happy as you guys are! And that video Andy made is adorable!
This post made me laugh AND cry! Happy anniversary you guys.
So cute 🙂 many wishes for a long and happy marriage!
I am sooo glad you posted this. I was married a month ago and of course nothing seemed to go according to plan that day. No matter how hard I tried not to have a preconceived notion of how the day was going to go, I had one. Now that it’s done and over with, and I look back on all the GREAT times we had that day. I realize that it really does override all those little hiccups. And I’m helping two friends wedding plan, so I keep trying to remind them not to over plan b/c it really does take all the fun out of it! :o) Happy Anniversary!
LOL, coming from someone who just got married a month ago, this post seriously made me laugh out loud. Oh man, you have some great memories here. Happy Anniversary to you and Andy 🙂 what a fun journey – you’re so beautiful!
Happy Anniversary! I love how real you are and how you look at life, with humor and gratitude. This made me tear up a little, thanks a lot! 🙂 Such a beautiful post.
OMG! Kelly this was so beautiful. I am sitting here just loving the excerpt below the pics. Very sweet. Oh, your brother forgetting to hand the programs out is priceless.
Oh bless!! Hahaha! This is so cute and so honest and so YOU. I got a little teary (at WORK no less dear god).
Happy Anniversary to you both! xxx
Hysterical! But sweetie, I do want to point out that you are in no way old! I have 4 years on you and I think we are still *super* young:) Just don’t ever go to the beach or pool with teenagers again…
Jessica
so sweet. Happy anniversary!
So sweet! Happy Anniversary to you two!
And I totally hear you on the wedding mishaps! We had tornadoes during ours!
This is my favorite post of yours ever. ~V
So cute! think of how boring it would have been if it all went as planned. Life doesn’t go as planned so neither should big events. Happy Anniversary.
You were a beautiful bride and Happy Anniversary! And what is all this getting old talk. I read that and thought “hey, we’re the same age…wait…no…I’m 2 years older…”
Gah I can’t even remember how old I am!
hahaha! I have to think sometimes. Except this year – 29 – I am very, VERY aware. 🙂 I don’t feel old yet, just definitely oldER than I was then!
Happy Anniversary!! What a great wedding story and an even better tale of a wonderful marriage. I hope you both have many, many more happy years together!
Happy Anniversary!
Love your story. The White Wedding video was classic 🙂 Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary Kelly! lovely post and beautiful pictures! 🙂 even the events we work hard at planning don’t go as planned but your day turned out beautiful because you are both now together and with your beautiful kids! 🙂
Love this! I’m definitely going to have to write up something similar for our wedding anniversary next month. It’s funny how nothing goes the way you think it will! 🙂
SO ADORABLE. I still love that Andy photoshopped your pictures together on the steps. 🙂 Happy anniversary!
This is the sweetest! So much love between you two! Happy Anniversary.
love that, friend. Beautiful!
Absolutely adorable! I loved the letter – read every word of it. Congratulations on a beautiful anniversary and I wish you two many, many years of love and laughter! God Bless :).
I cried. I CRIED. Funny, happy, and sad tears.
Our five year anniversary is on Saturday and you just said so much of what is in my head and heart.
Happy anniversary!!
Happy Anniversary, Kelly and Andy! Sounds like a very memorable day! It wouldn’t be a wedding if everything went smoothly, right? Our photographer didn’t show up until 10 minutes after the ceremony was supposed to have started, but we’re still married and even have pictures to prove it, lol! Hope you’re having a wonderful week!
~Abby =)
ok i admit i cried a little because i am a spaz lol i also laughed a lot at your sister LOL i love it. if it makes your sister feel any better at our wedding she bent down SEVERAL times to fix the train on my dress and the entire church saw her spanx poking out each time. LOL
happy anni!!
You two are adorable. And I thought I got married young at 24. You guys were babies! Our wedding was pretty uneventful other than most of our guests getting soaked when arriving at the reception. Oops. Oh, and Nate’s childhood pastor called him “Nick” during the ceremony. Awesome. I laughed. Nate cried. Seems about right. 😉 Happy anniversary!
Aww this is so sweet. You’ve got to love wedding mishaps! My mother-in-law missed our whole reception trying to find the keys to the getaway car that were in my purse all along- woops! 😉
Amazing. Makes my wedding feel awfully boring… Well played, Kelly! Happy Anniversary!!
Happy anniversary!! Weddings that go smoothly don’t make good stories 😉
I’m a little late, but happy anniversary! That video Andy made..ugh. Turned me into a gibbering, sniffling fool.
During my wedding I was trying so hard not to cry, that I finally couldn’t hold it in. But, it came out as a really loud and forceful SNORT. I.am.still.mortified, and I think about it almost daily even 8 years later. WHY DID I HAVE TO SNORT?!?!?
I think sometimes when things don’t go as planned they become more memorable. Such great stories you now have to share! I bet your kids will love these stories someday. 🙂 You had me laughing and crying with this one. Happy Anniversary!
WoW. Happy Anniversary! I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now, but this is the first time I’m commenting. this is just beautiful, especially the part about how your husband’s steadfast love shows your fickle heart a little about Jesus. that is exactly how I feel about my husband. also, I think we may have had the same wedding dress! your blog is AMAZING, btw.
I love this so much! What a beautiful and funny story. I remember my wedding cake being the fugliest thing I’d ever seen. It never even mattered, though! I was surprised at how I didn’t care:)
Happy Anniversary! Great post =)
Let’s see…my sister-in-law (who was in the wedding) sat in traffic during out entire ceremony, the church played the wrong music for my entry (which we actually paid extra for), we forgot to give out prayer cards that Kevin ordered (similar to your programs), we had quite a few “extra” flowers (oops, that’s because we forgot to give them to grandma/aunts/etc-glad we paid for those!), we had approximately 1 hour to take photos and the groomsmen were filling a cooler with ice for about 35 of those minutes. Oh happy day! Glad that’s over!!
OH! and I lost my grandmother’s diamond ring that I insisted on wearing as a remembrance to her. That still upsets me!
Kelly & Andy,
Congratulations on 8 years. I wish you two a lifetime of happiness, as much happiness as my husband, Joe and I have had over the past 36 years (+ 5 dating) together. The growing old together part comes quicker than you think, so really pay attention to the important things. May is a good month for Happy Marriages (28th)! It’s a beautiful post and you made me cry!
Happy Anniversary
Karen
Happy Anniversary you two! Oh the {lovely} memories of these big life moments ~ thanks for sharing with us! 🙂
So beautiful and sweet, Kelly!!! The perfect wedding is never perfect and that’s what makes it so great! The lifetime commitment is the most important and you got that right! Happy anniversary!!
Blessings,
Kayla
Haha I love it! Happy Anniversary! I don’t think anyone’s wedding turns out like they plan. Nick slipped me the tongue and I pushed him pretty hard. Way to ruin your first kiss as man and wife. Oh well there were so many mishaps who can even remember that one!
Kelly this is sweet as sweet can be. I love your wedding story, and I love your pics..how precious, then, and now……
Way to make a grown woman cry…you with your powerful words and Andy with his amazing video. Sheesh! I had a friend tell me to expect three major things to go wrong on your wedding day, and then you won’t be shocked when they do happen. And while your three things may have been more like five, I think that’s fitting for someone with as grand of a sense of humor as you. God knew you’d be able to laugh at it all someday…and turn it into an incredible tribute to your marriage to your husband on your anniversary. Way to go, girl.
This is so sweet and adorable. Congrats on your 8th anniversary!
You made me laugh. You made me cry. You made me cringe. You made me smile!
Love this post — and you two are the cutest!
🙂 Linda
Hi Kelly! I’m new to your blog and this post has really helped me a lot! I am a newlywed (of 3 weeks) and completely blew out/dislocated/partially tore my knee at our reception. Still on crutches and haven’t been able to work! But I just hope this means we’ll have one HECK of a marriage 🙂
LOVE your blog!
Jen S.
Got started on our anniversary reflections (finally!) Posted part one today if you’ve got time to pop over and read 🙂
http://prettybittybugs.blogspot.com/2013/06/anniversary-reflections-engagement.html
I am new to Pinterest. I have found your page/blog so refreshing. I am so thankful I found you. This post made me cry immediately because it is so beautiful. Love is such a wonderful thing! Thank you for making me step back and realize how good I have it. My husband is wonderful and I am sure he was sent from God. My saving grace! Thank u for putting it in perspective for me! Also, it was wonderful to get a look inside your special day!
So, hi again,
As you may be able to tell, I’ve been reading through your latest email. And I seem to want to comment… on almost all of them (okay, actually all of them, but I’m holding back. I’m just not sure we know each other THAT well, lol).
My wedding was… interesting. Yeah, interesting. Let’s see, it starts with my Regan, my then-husband-to-be proposing, and quickly went down from there, lol. The good news was we got married, and are still married some 14 and 1/2yrs later. The bad news?
When we announced our engagement to the collective parents, we were told that in the next 6-9 months, there were two Saturdays that his mom was available due to her necessary work-related schooling. One in the fall, not what we wanted, and one in the spring, more to our liking. However, that Saturday was in just 5 weeks. We’ll do it.
We couldn’t get our first pick of marrying officials, an old friend of the family that I called ‘Gramps’, because he had retired. We couldn’t get our second pick either because it was his 25th or so wedding anniversary and he had already changed the date of his party TWICE on his wife due to other weddings and was smart enough not to do it a third time. So we got our last pick of officials. I knew him at least, but that was about the only good thing. He was stiff, formal, and took a dislike of Regan the first time they met.
All of my savings had just been spent the month before on setting up Regan in his first apartment, which was soon going to be OUR apartment. And he had worked long enough to just pay the bills for the following month. So, this was going to be the budget wedding of all weddings (and this was pre-Pinterest, so that was a lot worse than if I had to do it now, lol).
So, a week or two into the lengthy 5wks of pre-wedding planning bliss finds me driving, alone, to a nearby city to meet Regan and book our wedding site- a beautiful park with a Japanese garden section I was dying to say ‘I do’ in. About half way there, my car sputters, slows down, and dies on the side of the road. Thankfully I have one of those still newish things called a ‘cell phone’ (oh yeah to you big bulky Nokia phones) and am able to call my parents, who can’t come help for a while. Playing a bit of telephone tag also enables me to get a message to Regan to tell him to book the park, but I’m not going to make it. Then I hunkered down with a book, always present in those days, to wait for my parents to save me. At the end of the day, we discovered I had managed to shove a piston rod through the engine block (who new I was that talented?) and the car was no longer in the picture. My parents then made arrangements to rent one for a couple days during the wedding weekend.
Lots of little incidentals, like Regan buying my wedding dress at the mall for $100- not your typical wedding dress as you might have guessed, just a simple white dress with some beautiful cut work lace. And I got to buy him tires for his car as a wedding present- bought because the auto shop wouldn’t let him drive out without better tires than he had on. Spending far too much time making little tulle sachets of bird seed to feed the birds at the park as wedding favors (forgotten in the confusion of the wedding day in my in-laws van). Arranging some food for the luncheon after, though no dance because we didn’t have time or money to plan one. We had always planned on doing a dance a few months later, but to this day we never have, so I think it’s safe to say that boat has sailed. Arranging to buy flowers to make the arrangements needed (done the night before, in a style I never wanted or liked, but more on that later). You know, wedding stuff. Thankfully I’ve forgotten all of the details of how badly it went, lol.
Then, less than a week before the wedding, my mother is hospitalized due to what we thought was a fairly routine asthma incident (we would later find out she had gotten a blood clot that had traveled to her lungs and exploded, nearly killing her). We were stuck- go ahead with the wedding and not have my mother, or re-book and not have Regan’s mom. We finally figured we would be able to sneak my mom out of the hospital for a couple hours as it was literally RIGHT beside the park. Disaster averted, phwoo.
However, a day before the wedding my mother was moved to a different hospital, one too far away to sneak her out. Feeling sick, we decided to keep going with the wedding. Regan spent that WHOLE day with my mom in the hospital. He played cards, talked, snuck in chocolate bars, made her laugh, and was the greatest husband-to-be I could dream of. I spent that day doing all the last minute wedding stuff, a lot of it- picking up flowers, picking out jewelery (bought from a chain store found in malls that carry cheap jewelery and pierce ears), you know, stuff.
That night, my sister, her friend and I went out to my in-laws to make the flower arrangements and stuff. I wanted rose globes. I got rose bouquets. It was one of the few details that I really cared about, and it so didn’t happen. Aaanyways, as we are driving back to the city to check into the hotel we rented so we could make our hair arrangements in the morning, our car starts to sputter coming up to the MAIN intersection. It dies, which sends me into gales of laughter, and my sister into howls of hysteria. Her friend and I manage to push it to a nearby parking lot, still laughing, while my sister steers. We call my in-laws house (another shout out to ancient Nokia cell phones) to see if Regan and an assortment of the males there (his three brothers, dad, and his uncle were all at the house) could come check it out. They arrived an hour or more later (thank you near-by A&W for being open so we could get drinks while we waited), only to be totally useless due to having had a drink or two after we had left from making flowers. So, they offer useless advice and thoughts on the car, like ‘maybe the tires have too much air’ before we abandon the idea of getting it running. So they drive us to the hotel and head home to their pretty tame stag night. We watched tv and talked while I did my own nails, french manicure, and finally went to sleep.
The morning of the wedding, we walk to the hair dressers, thankfully right beside the hotel (which was why we had chosen it in the first place) and get our hair done. We get back to the hotel and start getting ready only to have my father in his rental car, my oldest sister and her husband in their car, and my entire in-law family show up within minutes of each other. My hope of not letting Regan see me before the wedding died right there, along with my hopes of getting married in the Japanese garden. Due to rain the night before, our wedding day itself was beautiful, it was too wet to use the garden for the wedding. So we switch the wedding to my in-laws house 30min away and set up my dad to re-route everyone coming to our wedding.
So we race off to my in-laws which is where I finish getting ready for my wedding day, by myself because I really didn’t need help getting into my dress and there was NO way I was letting my sister do my make-up! My dad shows up, our wedding starts only 30min or so late, and I figure, this is it, nothing else can happen. Ha, ha, ha.
I’m informed that my cousins-in-law are my flower girls, a position I specifically didn’t appoint because the little girl I had wanted, along with her family, hadn’t been invited due to budget/limited room constraints.
Whatever, I’m getting married.
During the wedding talk, I feel something funny on my chest. I look down to find my (rather cheap) necklace had broken and had started sliding down into my dress. In view of all our guests, yeah all 50 or so of them, I now had to fish it out of my bra. Whatever, I’m getting married.
Then the phone rings. One of my girlfriends was late to the garden, so late my dad was already gone, and now needed directions to my in-laws house.
Whatever, I’m getting married.
Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rings. Yes, said girlfriend shows up and decides to ring the doorbell. My oldest sister almost murdered her on the spot.
Whatever, I’m getting married.
Time for our wedding vows- during which the official mis-pronounces Regan’s name, repeatedly. He also forgets/refuses to use our middle names which still bugs me to this day.
Whatever, I am FINALLY married.
I don’t remember a whole lot after that, probably because it went smoothly from that point on, lol. Our cake, which my mother-in-law designed and made/decorated was amazing (not my style if I was doing it now-a-days, but it was cool then). The pictures went really well, with several stolen moments captured on film (yes, film, not memory card, wow I’m old). And my in-laws had made an incredible banquet of food for all the guests that we/I hadn’t even realized we would need.
We opened all our gifts there, after the luncheon, surrounded by our friends and family. We decided to save my mom’s card for last (fools). When I start to read it I end up breaking down and crying. Regan, the dutiful new husband, wraps his arm around me and continues reading the card… until he has to stop because he’s crying. So I, the dutiful new wife lol, take it back and finish reading it. What was really funny, though we didn’t realize it at the time, was the fact that almost no one knew my mom was in the hospital and that’s why she wasn’t there. Only a couple knew, though we all assumed they did. Oh well, our bad.
After that, we drove out to the hospital my mom was now at and had pictures taken. She was so drugged up, which was fairly obvious in the pictures, that to this day she only remembers that Regan and I were there and doesn’t remember anything else. Not even that some of the family stayed and chatted with her for time.
Then Regan and I headed off to our honey-moon. We missed our ferry and took the time to sort through all the gifts thrown into our little car. The couple in the car behind us noticed the suit and dress and came up to ask if we had just gotten married. We talked for a bit, and before we got off our little ferry trip, they came up to us again and gave us a card with some cash in it as a wedding present, along with their business card and the offer to come visit anytime we were in town.
When we finally got to the honey-moon location, a cute little chalet surrounded by mountains, there were no lights on at the rental office. We waited about half an hour before Regan went to knock on the door, only to find a note saying our chalet was open and the keys were on the table. When we got in, there was a welcome/wedding basket with champagne and some odds and ends.
And that’s pretty well the end of my wedding tale. I mean, we got home, and the plants we had been given for wedding presents, and were dropped off by my in-laws, were pretty well dead because we hadn’t been there to water them for a week. The rumors of our wedding hadn’t spread, so no one knew and we had to keep telling people who had no idea what was going on because we were suddenly living together. Oh, and I kept telling people the wrong wedding date, but hey, whatever right? lol
Aaaanways, once again, now that you have another story-long ‘comment’ to read, I’m going to bed. But I wanted to share my wedding story with you, and I profoundly hope that your old saying about disastrous beginnings leading to great marriages keeps holding true, it has for our 14 and 1/2yrs so far, lol.
Kylha
PS- my mom is fine, though she ended up getting another blood clot in her lungs two years later, which was incidentally about 3wks before my sister’s wedding. But she made it to that one, lol.