Four Whole Years

We're goin' to the chapel and were gonna get married!

Or, rather, we already did. Four years ago. Sometimes it seems like yesterday, other times like forty years....

Paul and I had the best wedding - I'm sure all brides think that - but we really just did. Don't ruin it for me.

It was small - tiny even. With a big party a few weeks later.

Wedding in Oxford in hundred and fifty year old church, big party in Jackson in courtyard of Highland Village.

There were crab cakes, cheese grits, sweet potato biscuits, mint fruit salad and petitfours. There was an all lace dress and all white and green flowers.

There were very best friends and family. It was a perfect April morning (and then a perfect may evening for the party, where our dear friends The Pates played great music and we danced and my daddy and I drank tequila...)






Our sweet little girl threw flower petals...and then, like her grandmother had taught her, picked them up so she could use them again.

My bridesmaids and I walked down the aisle to a dear, dear friend playing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing on the piano - he jazzed it up a bit when it was my turn to walk down.

We took communion. With Taylor Port. As people at all weddings should.

Our dear priest, counselor and friend, Ollie Rencher,




tied his stole in a knot ('tying the knot'...who knew...) around our hands while we were kneeling before the altar rail. At this point, I cried. And Paul handed me a handkerchief with the letter F embroidered on it. And then everyone else cried.


We, unbeknownst to us at the time, got married on Earth Day. And what's my favorite color?


green...

Our dear friend, Karla Pound, took amazing pictures of both events.

We had catfish at our rehearsal dinner. And Blue Moon beer. And enough toasting to last me a lifetime. Yes, we toasted with beer in styrofoam cups.




Our groomsmen put crickets in our car before we left the church. Paul almost wrecked and killed us - which while tragic, would have been so poetic with me in my wedding dress.

One of my bridesmaids almost wore sunglasses down the aisle, because she was so hungover....and possibly still drunk. I won't mention names, in the interest of protecting the guilty.

That same bridesmaid got sent to the store for birdseed to throw. And came back with cat litter. Funny girl she is.

I'd show pictures, but then everyone would know which one she is...



All in all, I look back on those weeks, and I think I wouldn't change a thing. Not a darn thing. Well, maybe we would have had beer glasses rather than styrofoam cups. And there are a few dear people - who we didn't know or were not very close to at the time - who weren't there for our wedding. And every now and then, I get sad about that. But, perhaps I'll just photoshop them into a few pics and we'll pretend?

You know why it's all really so great?

Because I'm married to the man that God designed for me. He's just beautiful. And a great kisser. And an amazing father. He's way smarter than I am, and he works hard - at school, at work, on our house. He's also funny. Really, really funny.

And you know why else it's so great? Because today is our anniversary and tonight we're going to Walkers. To eat a great meal. Alone. And maybe play footsie if Paul doesn't get too embarrassed. And I'm going to wear my pink pearls that he gave me when we got married.


And then we're coming home to emboss books with his book embosser I gave him.


Not really. We're coming home to make out.

But he might rather emboss books. He does love to do that.