4th Anniversary

Today is Nick and my fourth anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for four years. That's crazy.

I remember a lot getting ready for our wedding. I stayed at my mom and dad's the night before. My mom, sister and I went to get our hair done together. Afterward we all went up to Glen Echo (where the reception was) to meet up with everyone and get ready. We had brunch waiting for us. I think I was almost too anxious to eat.

I think I was a pretty calm bride, all things considered. We had a LOT of things "go wrong" at our wedding and I think we handled them in stride. The night before our wedding, one of the diamonds in my engagement/wedding ring fell out. Nick had to take it to the jewelers the MORNING of our wedding to fix it. (He didn't HAVE to, but he did because he's amazing and he loves me!).

Shannon started doing my make up (and made me look beautiful, if I may say so myself) and the rest of the girls got ready, too. During the make up session, a few bridesmaids came in to tell me that one of the groomsmen got the wrong color vest from the tuxedo place but that Andrew (my brother in law) was heading to the tux shop to get it fixed.

After we were all pretty, we did some pictures. I was insistent that Nick and I were not to see each other before the wedding. So I did my girl pictures and my family pictures at Glen Echo. Nick did some of his boy pictures there as well. Then the boys piled into the cars they had and us girls climbed into two limos and we headed off to the church.

I remember the girls had to clean my dress because I somehow got a black footprint on my train, but they got it out (thank goodness for Shout wipes!). I remember waiting in the little itty bitty back room waiting for it to start. I was very calm at this point, chatting with the girls. When the music started and my girls slowly started leaving me, I started to get anxious. By the time it was just me and my Dad, I was downright nervous. My whole stomach felt all twisted and turned. I thought I might get sick! Or faint! Neither good options.

But my Dad is a big guy. He held on tight and we made it down the 100' long aisle. Nick was smiling at me from his spot on the altar. His face calmed me down.

I don't remember much about the ceremony. I remember seeing my ring, with all it's diamonds and realizing how lucky I was. I remember being announced as husband and wife and kissing Nick and everyone clapping. I remember the priest asked a question about why we wear our wedding rings on our left ring finger and I knew the answer (woohoo! Go me!). And I remember walking out. That's about it!!

After the wedding ceremony is even more blurry. I remember the things that went wrong. I remember when getting announced to go in and sit down, the DJ didn't announce our Best Man and Best Woman (no "maid" at our wedding). And we had to have him announce us a few different times to get them to go in before us! Also, we didn't want a long head table so we had regular tables so people could talk and they weren't reserved correctly. We invited 320 people to our wedding. 295 RSVP'd yes. 310 showed up. There weren't enough seats and we had people sitting at our head tables. We just pulled up some chairs and joined them!

I don't remember the speeches which I hate. This is the one reason I wish we had a videographer. I remember my Dad's was perfect. My sister's made me cry. And Mike's made me laugh.

When dinner was served (which was amazing) the waiter dropped Nick's plate right onto my white dress. A whole plate of beef tenderloin in RED WINE sauce. He felt terrible. I looked at my sister and she said, "We have Shout Wipes" and I said, "And the pictures are done". And we calmly cleaned it up. (The shout wipes REALLY work too!).

I remember our first dance, kind of. I remember almost crying during it, for some unknown reason and the photographer caught a person shot of Nick telling me that everything would be fine. And I knew he meant it. Forever. No matter what, everything would be fine.

That's about it.

It was perfect. Despite all the other things that happened, it was perfect. It made the wedding unique to us. No one else has those memories. I bet no one else even realized half of that stuff happened. But even from Day one of our marriage, we were resilient.

We have always had each other to lean on and we always will. I'm thankful for these last four years and eagerly looking forward to the next 50+.

♥ ♥ Happy Four Year Anniversary Nicholas. Every day I love you more than I ever thought I could. ♥ ♥