Happy Anniversary to Us!

By the numbers:

Years we have known each other: 13.5
Years we have been together: 12.5
Years we have lived together: 7
Years we have been married: 7
Years we have lived together while married: 3

We need to work on that last number a little bit....

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Some interesing tidbits about my wedding day:

*There are several pieces of advice I give to people who are planning their weddings. One is: don't do your own hair. I had practiced doing my hair and it had always turned out fine, but the day of the wedding, it was just not behaving. I had bought this beautiful hair comb and made a veil that attached to it that could be removed. I had planned on removing the veil for the reception, but my hair was such a disaster, I left it on. To let you know how frustrated I was, I actually looked at my very good friend from college and said to her, in all earnestness, "Okay, here's what we'll do. You're going to cut my hair...."

*John and I have similarly sized hands and therefore, similar ring sizes. At the ceremony, the best man (John's brother) put the rings on a glass plate for the priest to bless. The priest then picked up a ring and gave it to John to put on my finger. Which he did, but it felt slightly loose. I didn't think much of it until the priest handed me the second ring and I tried to put it on John's finger. It wouldn't go past his second knuckle. At that point I realized that the priest had given us each other's rings! However, as soon as the priest saw my confusion he made a gesture that amounted to, "just go with it," which we did. Immediately following that was the candle lighting. After lighting the candle, we stood behind the altar and waited for the song to be over while contemplating our lit candle. The timing was perfect. I nudged John, and whispered, "give me your ring." That's when we exchanged rings. Literally.

*I had my bridal shower two days before the wedding because that was the only time I could have my family and John's family at a shower. We decided that we should send the men off to dinner for John's "bachelor's party." The men included all of my male relatives and all of John's male relatives. I wasn't worried about it getting out of hand. Besides, that night several people were flying in, so they decided to have this dinner at O'Hare (the airport). They asked the people at the airport where they might have such a dinner, and they suggested a steak place in one of the hotels. They showed up at this "steak place" which has a rather innocuous name like "Fireside Grill" or something, to find that the waitresses were dressed in high heels and teddies. To this day, I am amused at the thought of my poor, straightlaced husband at such a place with his (even straighterlaced) father (the man once left the room during an episode of Rosanne because they were talking about breast reduction surgery), my stepfather, and my two brothers, among others.

*My brother was one of the people flying in two days before the wedding. He was flying back from a semester abroad in The Netherlands. In fact, this was one of the reasons we chose this weekend for our wedding, because he would be back in the country. He ran into some delay in New Jersey and so called me to let me know so I could tell the people picking him up at the airport. He had this advice to give at that moment, "Never drink so much that you can't remember how you got home the night before a transatlantic flight." Imagine, if you will, him arriving at O'Hare, seriously hungover, tired, confused, and then led to a "steak place" in the airport where there were scantily-clad women to have dinner with a bunch of people, of whom he knew less than half. Apparently, "surreal," didn't do it justice.

*The photography company was a pain in the butt to deal with, but the photographer they sent was fun and took wonderful pictures. John's brother and my aunt spent the evening trying to decide which one of them he was hitting on. I'm not sure they ever came to a conclusion about it.

*My reception was in dowtown Chicago and one block away from the Hard Rock Cafe. At some point during the evening, I was looking for my brother for a picture and was told, "he's at the Hard Rock Cafe." Apparently, John's cousin had a burning desire to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and he convinced my uncle and my brother to go with him. He also tried to buy them a drink there, but my uncle convinced him that was crazy seeing as there was an open bar at the reception. The next morning we had an informal brunch at our apt. John's cousin wore his brand new Hard Rock Cafe Chicago t-shirt.

*The petticoat I wore under my dress has since been worn by two other brides. It is so full and stiff that it can stand up on its own!

*The other piece of advice I have given to people is the following: "Remember, the purpose of the wedding is to get married. If, at the end of the day, you are married then it was a complete success." This is how I approached my wedding and I gotta tell you, it was very liberating. It allowed me to let go of all of the silly little fears about things being perfect and just enjoy the day. Once John, the priest, and I (and the marriage license) were all at the church, everything was going to be fine. All we needed were those three people and that document.

Even now, years later, there is very little I would change about that day.

Well, I would've hired a hairdresser!