Our Wedding Adventure

After he moved here-we spent almost every second together that we were not working. After a few months, he popped the question "Will you marry me?" You know sometimes how you just go into dumb founded mode and get this odd expression like: What do you mean-you want to get married! I am afraid that is what happened to me for moment. When we were talking online, I had explained to him that I would never, ever get married again, and the only thing he said was, "Never say Never." Well, after getting over my dumb founded mode, I happily accepted his proposal and from that moment on, our stories are never ending.

From the moment I met this man, I knew he was the one. Of course everyone of us go through stages where we "think" many things at different times, but what happens and what we "think" do not always turn out to be a good thing. No one will ever be able to convince me that each of us do not have a soulmate out in the universe. Oh, I have heard it a lot in my time, but I have never dreamed I would ever find mine. How do you know you have met your soulmate? It is like fitting together two puzzle pieces. Even if you follow different paths and have many different views, there is still that fitting together "Spiritually". Somehow, someway you know in the deepest part of your heart, body and soul that come hell or high water you are meant to be together. That is the only way I know how to explain what having a soulmate means to me.

I have never been a diamond kind of girl. Don't get me wrong, I love the way they sparkle but it has just never been important to me to have this huge rock on my finger. HOWEVER, he purchased me the most beautiful engagement ring I have ever laid eyes on. It has a marquise cut diamond and oh my goodness to me it is the most beautiful ring. We had to compromise though, since I was not a diamond type of girl and he is somewhat of an old fashion type of guy, the ring he ended up getting for me was perfect. We had to have it sized because unfortunately, I do not have tiny size five fingers. But instead of having to wait for weeks to get it back from being sized, we took it to this place I knew of that could have it ready within a couple of days.

When we picked up the ring, he said he was planning on doing this whole proposal thing again and me being who I am-I had to have that ring on my finger right than. I was so excited I had the ring on before we got to the car. (laughs) Oh, it was too funny-I suppose you had to be there.

Soon our wedding became everybody else's wedding. It actually got to the point where everyone was making the decisions about our wedding except for us. We both wanted something small and private and most important something we would remember. And trust me; we got exactly what we wanted!

I know I will have to get my wedding book out for this (yes, I took lots of notes during our adventure!) He went online and did a search for wedding packages in Tennessee. And guess what! He found the perfect package in Sevierville, Tennessee. It was a weekend wedding package that included a wedding ceremony and a two day, two night stay in a Honeymoon Cabin. We set the date, he made the reservations, and we kept this very private and only called his parents to let them know what we were planning-just so someone would know where we were.

The reservations were made for the day after Thanksgiving (And no we did not realize or think about it being Black Friday). I packed us a few turkey sandwiches, gathered up a small suitcase and my little yorkie and we were off! We did not tell anybody where we going or what we were doing, we just took off!

Oh, my goodness we had forgotten it was Black Friday-the biggest shopping day of the year not to mention the biggest traffic day. Holy Cow!!! The following are the notes I wrote while waiting in the traffic.

It is six hours before our wedding hour and traffic is stopped! It is not flowing and tension in the car was growing. Bill was gripping the steering wheel tight! But look ahead, what did we see? The Cabin Rental Office at the next traffic light. Minutes were ticking by fast-we were thinking how much longer can this traffic last?

The Cabin Rental Office gave us our directions, maps and keys. Off to City Hall we flew-But what is this, the sign on the door said "CLOSED" For the Holiday. WHAT? I got my notes out, found the telephone number and called the main number-They answered!! They explained they were opened, we just needed to go to the back entrance! We finally found the back entrance and got our marriage license from the City Clerk. I don't know at this point I felt like I was becoming a basket case.

We drove to our cabin and thought we would relax for just a little while before we had to leave for our appointment to get married. BUT to our dismay the cabin was TRASHED! I guess they forgot to clean it from the previous guest! Here I am again making another telephone call and explained to the cabin office rental manager this cabin was dirty! I was trying to be calm and not let out a scream! OH, NO! The lady shouted. I will send someone to clean the cabin ASAP! Needless to say, the cleaning people rushed in as fast as they could, cleaned everything and even stacked the wood for us. They finished cleaning the cabin fifteen minutes before we needed to leave to make our appointment to get married!

We hurried and dressed and dashed to the car and off we went to the church! According to the map we had, it was not that far so we thought we were pretty safe as far as timing goes. BUT the directions and the map were both wrong!! The place had moved and the information on the flyers had not been updated! Somehow, we found the place on our own and arrived five minutes before our appointment. We took a deep breath and the rest of the ceremony went fine. Yes, I almost forgot what finger the ring went on, and Bill was afraid I was going to escape through the bathroom window, but all in all the ceremony went great. We were even given a small solid white wedding cake. (Yes, I still have the small china plate it came on) Every year on our anniversay, I always order a small solid white cake with the number of roses on it for the number of years we have been married.

Since we have had a very exhausting day, Bill thought he would take me to a nice dinner at a Seafood Restaurant because he knew I loved shrimp. But Gatlinburg traffic was even worst then earlier. Both of us no longer wanted seafood and had lost the taste for it after seeing the long (and I do mean long) lines outside of the restaurants. We seen a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant that was not that crowded, when through the drive-thru and got a sandwich and some fries and took it back to our cabin.

By the time we got back to our cabin our food was ice cold but that was okay, we still ate it. Bill lit a fire in the fireplace, I turned on some music and we ate our sandwich and enjoyed a small piece of our tiny wedding cake. We both just smiled and just enjoyed sitting there together as husband and wife.

The name of our Cabin was: Queen Ann's Lace-it was rustic and it was perfect for us.

We spent the day walking around Gatlinburg. I wanted pancakes but once again the lines were so long so we just kept walking around town. The weather was colder than we had expected it so we both had to purchase a new jacket. We were really lucky because we found a shop that had fantastic prices!!

After purchasing our jackets we just continued to walk around Bill was still trying to find me a place to get some pancakes-but no luck. Some of the restaurant's had lines that were so long; they went half way around the block.

We came upon a shop that took old-time pictures. What a fantastic idea and a way to mark our wedding adventure. So we went in and of course knowing us, had to dress with a Victorian Flare. I hate having my picture taken, but this was fun.
Soon we just got pretty tired of all of the crowds in town and decided to go driving through the mountains before going back to the cabin. All in all the day was pretty good!!

Sunday: We returned Home

When we returned home, we decided it was time to let a few close people to us know we had gotten married. We did get the reaction we had expected they were of course shocked, disappointed because they were not a part of the ceremony, but each of them still gave us their blessings.

The most ironic thing about this whole experience is; no matter how stressful, crowded, and rushed we were-I seriously doubt if either one of us would ever change anything about the adventure-even if there was a chance we could. Today we still look back on it and have a good laugh. Every anniversary we get our marriage book out and reminisce the whole weekend all over again. Oh, by the way on our first anniversary, my husband made sure I got my shrimp dinner. He cooked it himself! And of course, I cannot let some memories die, so I have made us chicken sandwiches and fries for our anniversary dinner a few times.