Five Years Ago Today: A Wedding Retrospective

On August 12, 2000, Marc and I said "I do". And we've been saying "I don't" ever since. Ba-dum chuu. Aah, that old chestnut... But really, five years ago today I married an awfully handsome 22 year-old, who wiped his nose throughout our entire wedding ceremony, and who was, undoubtedly, my best friend and the perfect fit for my lifelong companion.

So today I thought I would share with you some of the great memories from that day that made it, unquestionably, Marc and Dixie's wedding. (Apologies for the poor quality pictures. But after all, this was five years ago, and picture technology wasn't quite what it is today.)

Five years ago today... we looked something like this:




















Five years ago today... the uncle who married us said "Marc, you may salute your bride"... and he did:










Five years ago today... we thought it would be a good idea to pose like this:
















Five years ago today... the rear-facing third seat of my parent's '84 Caprice Classic wood-panelled station wagon was our wedding car:












Five years ago today... we got our pictures taken at PA's Court House where there are beautiful big trees, stairs and pillars, but the photographer thought that this brick wall was, perhaps, the nicest spot for family pictures:













Five years ago today... we deliberately danced like idiots to a Queen song into our reception:




















Five years ago today... we asked people to pay to get us to kiss, and then gave them way more than their $10 should have got:
















Five years ago today... I got a tear in my veil because of a very emotional moment in Marc's dad's speech (but it was worth it!!):


















Five years ago today... we sang and played "When I'm 64" and proceeded to do an impromptu lounge singer bit, at the end of which Marc said "Thank you. We'll be here all week.":















Five years ago today... I cried so much during our "thank-yous" that all you can hear on the videotape is a series of high pitched noises and squeaks between phrases like "Mom and... squeek, squeak, squeak... dad" and "And to my sob, sob, sob bridesmaids...":
















Five years ago today... we made a mockery of the cake-feeding tradition:

















Five years ago today... we took off to Saskatoon, where Marc read the "how-to you know what" chapter of our Christian marriage book while I was getting ready in the bathroom in our hotel room(!!):




















(But now I'll stop because that's already too much information!)

It was a wonderful day. And even though today, 5 years later, we collectively weigh at least 50 pounds more than we did then, we have 2 kids (that together weigh 50+ pounds) to love and raise together. And even though today we've had many arguments about countless things -- both reasonable and unreasonable, we know each other better and have forgiven enough to know that nothing will ever break our love. And even though today we're still as uncertain about "what we're going to do when we grow up", now we know that even when we've been married 50 years we won't be done growing up. And even though today we won't be wearing $400 outfits and saying "I do" in front of all of our family and friends, I can say right now to all of cyberspace that I love you, Marc, so much more today than I did on that day, you've made my life unmeasurably blessed, and you mean the world to me.