Thirteen Things About My Wedding Day

As hard as it is to believe, nine years ago today, I got married! Apparently this year is the "pottery and willow" anniversary gift, or else the "leather" gift if I'm going the modern route. Darn. Too bad I never remember to read up on these things till after I've already gotten my husband a present. I'm sure something willow related would be so well received!

As if my anniversary wasn't exciting enough, today is also Thursday, which means it's time for a little Thursday 13 action!

Wedding Anniversary + Thursday 13 =

13 Things About My Wedding

I have never ever in almost four years of blogging talked about my wedding day (and I can't believe I am now either!) but here goes... let's take you back to Evanston/Wilmette/Kenilworth, IL, circa 1999:

1) The official start time was s'posed to be 4 pm: We picked a late afternoon start because my husband is not a morning person and I did not want him to be stressed out about having to get up early to get ready. On the day of, I was especially happy we'd picked late afternoon to begin because it rained all morning. Thank goodness the rain cleared up in time! It was still a bit damp but apparently, rain on a wedding day is good luck.

2) The wedding started an hour late: Guess who was late? Yep, yours truly, Miss Hate-To-Be-Late. My dress got locked in my parent's hotel room and they were at the reception hall. And then somehow I got left at the hotel after everybody got ready. Mind you, this was in the era before cell phones so I remember sitting on a bench outside the hotel lobby, thinking about how eventually someone would realize the bride was missing and would come and get me. I definitely remember how smug my husband looked when I finally got there. He was actually early.

3) I rode to my wedding in a Jeep: My brother-in-law came to my rescue, stuffed me and my humongous wedding dress in his Jeep and off we went. I kept myself calm by painting my nails along the way. Speaking of nails...

4) I wore silver nail polish: Wet 'n Wild Silver Frost to be exact. Nine years later the company's discontinuing the color, which is a shame because I still love it. It's the perfect neutral. Back then though, I really thought I was edgy wearing silver polish to my wedding, and besides, our wedding colors were pink and silver so it totally worked!

5) I got my makeup done at the Prescriptives counter: A makeup artist working at the Old Orchard Marshall Fields Prescriptives counter totally hooked me and a few of my girls up. I'd gone in there a week before the wedding to browse through some of their stuff and I totally loved the makeup of the girl behind the counter. So I asked her if she'd do mine for my wedding and she said yes. I went there before getting dressed and she really did a fabulous job. With her doing my makeup and my sister doing my hair, gosh, I honestly don't think I've looked quite so fabulous since.

6) I missed both my rehearsal and my rehearsal dinner: Let's just attribute my missing both to road construction and leave it at that. I'll tell you it's a really terrible thing to be sitting in a car on an expressway instead of at your rehearsal. And of course that meant that the next day, I was more than a little nervous about what was going on once the ceremony started. Sure you can talk about it and plan it out, but if you don't get to actually walk through it... well wouldn't you be a little nervous about it? Plus I'd been working in Houston all summer and only even got to Chicago a mere ten days before the wedding so we'd barely even practiced how we were gonna walk down the aisle.

7) My husband's best friend wrote a custom wedding march song for us: We did not do the "Here Comes the Bride" thing at all. It was a fabulous and unique hip-hop/neo soul song, which probably sounds odd but it totally worked. And as for the ceremony itself...

8) We had a Baha'i wedding: This simply means that you say, in front of two witness from the local Baha'i governing council, the following verse: "We will all, verily, abide by the will of God." And then you're married. Other than that, every individual Baha'i wedding looks different depending on what the couple wants. There's no rituals or traditions that are set in stone so we were free to really make the ceremony our own. We decided to have our friends and family say prayers and read scriptures of our choosing, and then we stood up before all the guests and said our vows. It was very simple, which was what kept me from 100% spazzing out about missing the rehearsal. (I only partly spazzed.)

9) A box of tissue got passed around during the prayers and readings: I got a little teary-eyed at one point so someone got a box of tissue and began handing it down a row of guests so that it would get to me. However, it seemed like everyone in the first few rows of guests was suddenly crying too so it began getting passed around out there till finally somebody hijacked it and pointed out that the tissue was actually for me. It was totally hilarious and dried all my tears up.

10) My husband accidentally left the rings at home under his mattress: We rode in the limo to his house to get them before heading to our reception. I remember all his neighbors came out and cheered for us as we pulled away. We got stuck in horrible road construction on Green Bay Road between the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette (where we got married) and his home on the west side of Evanston. It's not a far distance at all, maybe a ten minute drive normally, but it seemed like it took like an hour to go get our rings and then head to our reception at the very lovely Kenilworth Club.

11) Etta James' "At Last" was our first dance:


And you thought the first dance might've been to a Depeche Mode song, didn't you?

12)Ex-Convicts Were There: But they were not related to yours truly. A friend of my husband's brought as her date some guy who'd just gotten released from prison. I remember he sat around looking crazy and surly and I'd never seen him before so I thought he'd maybe crashed our wedding. This fool had the nerve to get a little salty when I asked him what his name was and who he was with. Talk about random ridiculousness!

13) We stayed and partied till almost the last guests had gone home: You know how sometimes the bride and groom tend to skip out of the reception a bit early? Well, not us. Folks had come from all over the country for our wedding and who knew when we'd see them again, so we stayed and danced and had a great time with everybody. And then started helping my mom and dad clean up!

And so that's 13 Things About My Wedding Day!

Believe me, there are so many other things that come to mind but it's the Thursday 13, not 113! I'd scan you some pictures from the day, but that would mean I'd actually have to learn how to use the scan function on my printer! One of these days I'll track down the manual and learn how to do it. But today will not be that day!

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Comments

1969 said…
Aww...my 8th annivesary was Tuesday..LOL

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you and your hubby. Wishing you many, many more.
Nerd Girl said…
Yay for true love. Happy Anniversary! I walked down the aise to "At Last" :)
Mamita Umita said…
I don't remember you being late. I remember you looking BEAUTIFUL!! And you had those pretty clips in your hair, were they little flowers?? I remember EB looking so nervous, like he was almost a green color. Your party was the best, and I do remember staying there until the weeee hours of the morning. I am so happy I was there to share that special day with the both of you!!

Cheers!!
Liz Dwyer said…
1969,
Thanks for the happy wishes. I told the kids they can clean the house as a present to both of us. And do you know my husband thought this was year eight until a couple of days ago. Poor guy!

Nerd Girl,
Thanks! How cool that you walked down the aisle to "At Last"! Such a great song. :)

Mamita,
I'm so glad you were there, too! Wish I could cheer for you this Saturday. Those were little flowers with crystals and pearls attached, and oh yes, I was totally late! Maybe that's what made him a little green? :)
Jameil said…
happy anny!! congrats liz!! i'm so excited for you and loved getting a closer look inside your wedding day!! now for pics! lol.
Liz Dwyer said…
Jameil,
Thanks! By this time next year I'm sure I'll have the scanner figured out and then y'all will get a pic! :)
Happy anniversary, Liz and Lovely Husband,

Yes, you've proved that rain on your wedding day is very good luck indeed.

Etta James sang our wedding song, too. I absolutely adore her, and that song still makes me cry every time I hear it, which is often since I have all her records.
Tafari said…
Happy anniversary to you & your boo!!!!!!!!!!

Bygbaby
Liz Dwyer said…
Heart,
Thank you for the well wishes! Etta James has such a beautiful voice. It's so effortless, like spreading soft butter on a roll, and so free of Auto-Tune and gimmicks like so many of today's "singers". How fab that you have all her records!

Bygbaby,
Thank you! I guess Kwame's arrest was one of our gifts! :)
Lisa Blah Blah said…
Aww, Happy (Belated) Anniversary to your and your honey. Thanks for sharing this! And this is a weird coincidence...I am working at home today and I was just listening to The Best of Etta James while reading this. How I love that song and how I love her voice!
Lisa Blah Blah said…
P.S. Since I'm behind on my blog comments, let me just say (also belatedly) how much I love your haircut! It frames your face really nicely and is all sassy!
Jen said…
Sounds like it was a great time, despite construction/road glitches.

I LOVE "At Last" - I think it's the most romantic song ever.
Liz Dwyer said…
Lisa,
Thanks for the happy wishes. What a cool coincidence! Etta James is just so classic and timeless. Her songs never get old. And thanks for the compliment about the haircut. I'm liking it more and more. I'm so glad I finally chopped all that hair off!

Jen,
Totally such a romantic song. And it was a great time. Road construction in Chicago is an inevitable evil in Chicago in the summer. It really is. What can you do?
Anonymous said…
Happy Anniversary! And what a day! Sounds like you really had fun - with all the drama - and irritation - I can see the bright smile under it all! :)

Congratulations on loving, commiting and caring for 8 years. May the next 80 be as wonderful
Felicity said…
Congratulations on being married for 13 years! At last is a lovely song by Etta James.
Liz Dwyer said…
Claudia,
Thanks for the congrats on the 9 years! It was a fun day and I try to smile about the whole thing, even though some parts of the preparation were more cringe-worthy than anything.

Felicity,
It is a lovely song! LOL, not 13 years, just 9 but thank you for the congratulations! :)

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