Step Talk

Jay and I had been engaged for nine months. My mom announced that she was going to go spend a week in Vegas. My daughter mentioned that she wished she could go. Jay looked at me and asked if I was serious about the Vegas thing that I had previously mentioned. SD was visiting her mom (she was four at the time). I thought about it for about a minute and said lets do it!!! This was on Monday. I called the Chapel of Love and picked my package, a friend had bride, groom, and princess t-shirts made which we wore at our ceremony. We flew out that Thursday, got married on Saturday, and spent three more days enjoying ourselves. My mom was our witness / babysitter and my daughter was our flower girl. The preacher added in parts for her and joined us together. It was REALLY romantic and the preacher said the the most beautiful vows. So I put a whole two days of planning into it. It was great!!! And next month will be our one year anniversary! I am thinking of having a more formal ceremony in the church since nobody got to share it with us including SD, but we are still tossing the idea around.

I am so happy that you found someone who loves you that way. That is exactly what I have in my husband. And don;t worry about it being your 3rd marriage. I was my DH's third wife. He tells people that it just took him a little longer to find perfection. He said third time is a charm and I believe that. Happy for you.

VEGAS BABY!!! We did it pretty much all by ourselves! At the Venetian ... Flew in on Thursday, got married on Friday and stayed there until Tuesday ... it was GREAT!!! Most hotels have wedding packages.

I'm happy you have someone great too!!!

~ Katrina

it wasn't my wedding... it was my mothers, mostly. DON'T EVER LET HER KNOW THIS!!!! I'd would be SHOT.

But, I am an only daughter. And being that it was also my first (and only) wedding, I didn't really have much choice as to if we would elope or have a wedding... it was a no brainer that we were going to have to have a wedding.

DH would have liked to have eloped, and as much as I toyed with the idea, it just wasn't going to happen. Oh, I would have just broke my families heart in a second. And being that I was, um, over thirty before I had my *clears throat* first marriage... it was a HUGE deal... I mean, I was the 'old maid' in our family. No one else got married later than 25... I was 32... didn't matter that we had been together longer as a couple than anyone else before they got married...

So, a wedding was planned. What simple engagement I envisioned soon became a dream, and I tell you I had to strap my mother down with some of her ideas at times. I mean, she really got my goat going with her ideas and themes. I said I didn't want pink but red... we ended up with pink. I didn't want a big poofy dress, I already had a dress picked out to make... very simple, eloquent and sleek... I ended up compromising with a beautiful full A line gown. She got her princess gown, I got my simple and eloquent gown.

My mother was a florist at one time, so it was important to me to have her do my boutique... problem is that she's a natural overachiever, and regardless of what you say to her... she was determined to do ALL of my flowers. Even though, I only wanted her to do my boutique. I just let her do whatever she wanted, no since in arguing with her.

When it came to our ceremony/vows itself... I had to secretly meet with the coordinator and literally make our own program without her. She was miffed, but at this point, I didn't care... it was my wedding.

I picked out the photographer. I was sick of interviewing by this point, and went with my gutt.... I am sooooooo glad I got the one that I chose. He was expensive, but one piece of advice that I took was don't skimp on the photographer. It makes a TOTAL difference. Skip on the food! I took that advice from my aunt and a friend who chose cheaper photographers, and both of them were disappointed. I have a GORGEOUS wedding album. (Photos on myspace are actually take by my uncle who is also a photographer, but we didn't want to ask him because he was suppose to be a guest, I thought that would be rude. Hey, uncle... can you come to my wedding in CA, and take my photos. LOL.)

We were suppose to have a garden wedding... but it rained, so we had to move everything inside. We ended up in the chapel. I never wanted a chapel wedding, I was very upset, but what can you do. The other fact was because the venue wasn't prepared for us to be moved inside, and we had more guests then what their chapel could account for, it was chaos. They didn't bother to turn the air on, so everyone was sweating. Thank god we only planned a half hour ceremony... we wanted to get in and get out... get to the PAAARRTAAA. My poor DH was sweating soo bad, all the chapel pictures came out glossy. And the other thing is that his focus wasn't on me, but when can I take this damn coat and vest off. At one point, I had to wipe his forehead with my kleenex.

The other thing, someone was suppose to set up our video camera... that never happened, so because it was moved inside, I couldn't watch the girls go down the aisle, or get to hear the harpist play. I was tucked away in a room until the very moment. So, I never got to see my wedding.

But I was calm. My dad was a wreck. He laughed and said... I think you'll need to hold me down the aisle. I think I must have been the calmest person there was there! LOL. At one point, I remember having to grab my mother, stopping her, and looking at her straight in the eye and saying to her... relax. It's OKAY.

The reception was a total blurb... sorta. I had fun. We had a magician come in for the kids, but no one told the kids we were cutting the cake, so that was a bummer, because SS didn't get the best part. All the kids were bummed. And no one told me the magic show was starting... we had planned to be part of the first half of it. Our DJ was AWESOME... but because we were squeezed into this one room due to rain... we had no dance floor... however, enough guests left that we just started to move tables out and we got to get our dance. DH picked out our first song... Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. He chose it because he said that every time he heard it on his way to or from work, whenever, it made him think of me. (Everybody say awwww.) So, now when I hear that song, it makes me teary eyed. And if you listen to the words... it's sooo true.

But, don't get me wrong. It was an absolutely fun and fabulous wedding. Our goal was not just about us, but our family and friends. We didn't go all extravagant and posh. It was a celebration. Everyone, to this day, always recalls some story about our wedding, tells us that it was the best wedding they had been too, and we always say... yeah right, but they are adamant... no, we really mean it. It was simple, direct and fun... just like are personalities.

If I were to do it all over... in fact I just told my DH tonight... I'd fly out to Hawaii, on the beach with just a handful of friends. I'd wear a simple, ivory flowing gown, flowers in my hair, etc. We'd just have it very simple and eloquent.

StepMom

Man has the intelligence to change his life,
Sometimes, he just fails to use it...

Sorry, never heard the song. And I am a country music fan. Huh! Gonna have to look that one up! I'll get back to you if I get teary eyed too!

My first wedding was also my Mom's wedding. We wanted October, fall, leaves changing, pumpkins, etc. "OCTOBER??? JANICE WHO GETS MARRIED IN OCTOBER??????" Uh, I dunno Mom, but some people must!

"No, you'll get married in May", she dictated. Ooooooooookay. May it was.

The dinner menu? I didn't even see one. Get this: We served stuffed pork chops! I swear.

"Mom, we want a horse drawn carriage." No
"We want limo's." No
"I am going to ask so-and-so to be my maid of honor." Big FAT no.
My sister would be sooooo hurt. Oh! Please, give me a break!

We wanted a DJ. Ready? A POLKA BAND FOR GOD'S SAKE!!

We insisted on a wedding song. She carried on for a while, but we wouldn't budge! Betcha never heard of it! Charlie Daniels singing
"Heaven Can Be Anywhere, As Long As Your There".

Second wedding? My Mom was gone, my father was a mess (still is) and my husband's family consisted of 3 members. So what to do? Married at the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas. My son was present, as was my sister, her husband, my Dad, his Mom, sis and Grandmother. What really touched me was the fact that 7 people from my work came! Anybody could come of course, but we couldn't pay for anyone but ourselves. We had just built a home and had no right to go anywhere but the backyard.

IF, and that is still a big IF, we do decide to do this, I was really thinking of Vegas. Tim has been wanting to get married for about 2 years now. Not begging me you understand. Just those little comments like "Well, if we were married, you would have better health insurance" and "We can always get married to really get tongues flapping" and those kinda things. Yes, he proposed, in Aruba on my 40th birthday, at a romantic restuarant. He too was sweating profusely.

So here's my idea. Since I know for a fact that he wants to get married, and we've been to Vegas a few times already, I was going to ask if he wants to go back for a vacation. Then call his best friends (a wonderful couple that live in Phoenix) and ask them to meet us there. I was going to ask them NOT to tell Tim anything and then surprise him with them knocking down our hotel door, grabbing him and I and driving over to a chapel with him not having a clue; whaddaya's think? Really?

J

Lovers do not finally meet somewhere, they were with each other all along.

We both had done the whole white wedding thing with the hundreds of guests...and those marraiges were both a mistake from the get go. Dh and I decided we wanted to go agiants the grain so to speak, so we got married on October 31.(YES mom,lol some people do get married in October) The only people who were present to witness were my children(as bm was not allowing dh to see ss). Dh had bought me a beautiful wedding ring, but money had been tight so we felt we could wait a week or two after getting married to buy his ring...we decided since it was Halloween we would use a candy ring pop for his in the ceremony,lol. When it came time to place the ring on his finger, my son pulled out the candy ring, opened it then stuck it in his mouth,lol, my daughter handed me the ring box that held dh's wedding band,(which I had secretly bought) I opened it and as I placed it on his hand, watched as he started to cry. I wore a very very light yellow lace dress and had a simple rose bouquet of yellow with red trimming around the edges of the roses. We were married in Panama City Beach, where we were living at the time,so after our ceremony, we took the kids, went to the beach and let my children throw our wedding rings from our previous marraiges into the ocean....this was believe it or not very symbolic for the kids and us..the begining of a new life together for all of us. Btw, stepmom, our wedding song,(we danced together to it on the beach) was also "Bless the broken road" I still cry everytime I hear it because it describes dh and I so well. Biomom, if you want to hear the song you can go to my myspace page, I have the video of it on there...myspace.com/rogersgraham. So we spent the rest of the day with the kids playing and swimming at the beach, and that night dh took me to one of the nicest resteraunts on the beach for dinner, took out a bottle of champange,two glasses and a blanket and we went for a walk on the beach.Our night on the beach ended as everyone can imagine,(wink, wink) with the bright moon, stars and sounds of the ocean as our music. Not the most glamorous wedding day, but ladies I relive it over and over in my mind as it was the most beautiful day of my life.This Halloween will be our 2nd wedding anniversary.

Drove to Vegas on Thursday (only 3 hours away) married on Saturday though and left on Tuesday at the Venetian. It was great, on the bridge. Then had the reception in the hospitality room. Just family and cloe friends. Who else really would drive 3 hours for a wedding? Nothing HUGE, I already had that and it was a waste of money. It was beautiful, my dress was simple and elegant. And everyone had a great time.

Daddys Gurl-

Life is as sweet as you sweeten it.

we rented out this historic buidling, got married in the front lawn and had the reception inside. the house is a beautiful, 1800's plantation house (the bell house) with high ceilings and ornate carvings everywhere, it was really romantic. my hubby's band guys played a couple of songs, then we had a friend dj. i invited about 75 people, close friends and family. our ceremony was super short, but sweet. we had my friend sing 'at last' while my bridesmaids walked down the grassy aisle, and my flower girls (sd and my neices) dropped purple roses along the way. then the band's keyboardist played the wedding song. (we utilized all close friends, thankfully, they're all very talented!) it was so personal and so sweet. then after dancing and drinking (my friend acted as bartendar), and my hubby's serenade of 'tiny dancer,' a horse-drawn carriage came and picked us up. it was awesome. when we ran out to the carriage, everyone blew bubbles...
i would have loved to run off to vegas as well, but i limited my stress by keeping in mind that a lot of the little things just didn't matter to me. i just wanted my family and friends to witness our day, and it turned out perfect!

forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them more.

to Vegas and got married in blue jeans (I hate dresses); we didn't tell anyone - we just did it!! *tee hee*

________________________________________________________________
Rollin' with it since 2006...

We got married in the Catholic church(we had to do the pre-cana class and take a test given by the priest!) that I grew up going to, in my home town. It wasn't a super big wedding but I did wear a white dress. We had live music at the ceremony. My brother was the best man, my best friend was the matron of honor, ss was the ring bearer(he looked so cute in his little tux) and Dh's niece was the flower girl. We did pop for the limo. Since it was the first(and only) wedding for both of us, we wanted to be kind of traditional. My parents paid for the reception(hall rental, food, bar, flowers and cake). Dh and I paid for the limo, DJ and and photographer. Dh's family didn't have the means to pay for the rehearsal dinner so Dh did that(I think my Dad picked up the bar tab). It was just the right size for me. Not huge but we had all of the important things that we wanted.

Then off to Jamaica for the honeymoon!!

Dawn