Yesterday was kind of a crazy day, what with it being Father’s Day AND my 18th wedding anniversary, which is why I’m posting this today.

Chris and I got married on June 18,1993. I spent the night at my parents house, and my Mom and I and my maid of honor went out that morning and got our hair done, then went back to their house where my friend who was a Mary Kay representative did my makeup. My maid of honor and I got into a limo to head to the church, and immediately began raining. Hard.

I started freaking out, just a little bit, about how hard it was raining. I had family coming in to Lansing from the Detroit area, and I-96 is not fun to drive on in the rain. The limo driver saw me panicking and pulled over at the nearest party store. He came out with a bottle of cold champagne and two plastic glasses. By the time we got to the church I had drank two glasses and was feeling MUCH more calm.

Our ceremony was beautiful. The church organist played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as guests were taking their seats, the Wedding March for the processional, and Bach’s Air on a G String as Chris and I walked back down the aisle. I was so nervous saying the vows that I could barely get my voice above a whisper. I don’t think anyone sitting beyond the front row could even hear me!

After the ceremony, the guests left for the reception while Chris and I, plus our parents and wedding party, stayed behind to take photos. The fact that it had rained actually worked in our favor, because the sky was overcast which meant no glare from the sun or having to squint. I learned that from our photographer, that overcast skies aren’t a bad thing for wedding photos.

At the reception, our guests were being served drinks and appetizers. They should have been finishing those just as Chris and I were walking in, but there was a snag. My wedding dress had a train, which needed to be gathered up and attached with little hooks and loops hidden under a fold in the back. My Mom and maid of honor and I were in the restaurant bathroom, they were trying to get the train fixed, but it got fastened crooked and they had to unhook everything and start over. By the time the train was finally up, our guests had long finished their appetizers and had been sitting there for almost an hour. We felt so bad!

Our reception was in the banquet room of Coral Gables, a restaurant in East Lansing just outside the M.S.U. campus. It was one of my parents’ favorite places to take us out to eat when I was growing up, the owner’s daughter had been on the Swim Team with my sister, and it just felt like the right place. We had a DJ and an open bar, and from what we could tell, everyone had a good time.

We had been planning to leave the reception and just go back to our apartment, which was where a friend had taken all the wedding gifts (and it took her three trips which we really appreciated!), but my parents surprised us at the reception by informing us that they had booked us a room at the Lansing Sheraton for the night. I can’t even remember now, but I think the same friend who took our wedding gifts home had also grabbed our toothbrushes and some clothes to wear home, because I definitely remember walking into the hotel in my wedding dress.

I do remember it took me about 20 minutes to pull all of the bobby pins out of my hair! While I was doing that, Chris ordered us room service, because as my married readers may know, while the guests are eating, the bride and groom are walking around greeting each guest, and might get a bite of the dinner if they are lucky. We shared a club sandwich and fries, that I do remember.

We spent that Sunday opening wedding presents and packing for our honeymoon. We left Monday morning for Traverse City, where we spent the night at the Best Western Bluebird Inn, then spent Tuesday having a great time (and getting wicked sunburned) on Mackinac Island. We spent Wednesday at Tahquamenon Falls, then on the suggestion of the front desk clerk, drove to Newberry which is just beautiful. It’s famous for the black bears that come to it’s dump, but we didn’t try to see those We drove back on Friday and considered it the perfect honeymoon!

So that, in a nutshell, is the story of our wedding, reception, and honeymoon. I’d love to show you more pictures, but our photographer wanted to charge us a small fortune to give us the proofs of our photos, and the originals are in an album he sold us. I know there are camera photos somewhere, but I have to paw through five photo boxes to find them before I can show you. So, thoughts? Comments? Anything you want to share about your wedding, reception, or honeymoon? Tell me in the comments!