My Wedding Day...

Our wedding day dawned crisp and clear, I had planned to sleep well and get up refreshed and ready for a long day that I KNEW would be quite an ordeal to get through. Well, instead I got up at six, finished packing up my few things and drove the Montana over to help Bryan finish up smoking the bbq and make a few tomato cages in the garden. We had rehearsal at eleven, so we needed to finish up a few things first. We gave up on the tomato cages and walked away from the garden exasperated since the wire wasn’t strong enough, even though it had cost plenty. The smoking got done fast, there wasn’t too much work to that, just put it on, pull it off, dump it, cover it, taaaaa-daaaa! Then we pulled the truck around and hosed out the back of it, sprayed it down with cleaner, and hosed that down…it was a mess, and we wanted it clean for out honeymoon trip. As soon as that was done, and relatively dry, we packed out bags and hanging clothes into it, and finally sat down for a minute on the sofa downstairs. Whew. I was already tired! He had thought I was going to take a shower at his place, but I had left everything for that over at the Gidden’s, so I drove back over there at about ten-thirty to take a fast and furious scrub all over, I even shaved my legs pretty good in about four minutes! Now THAT takes talent!

At about five til eleven I emerged from the apartment downstairs, lugging my last two bags behind me, and my wedding dress over my shoulder, ready to RUSH to the church that is about five minutes down the road. Pastor Tim was working on his Suburban with Aaron and Sarah, and Sarah rushed upstairs to get some shoes on so that she could come on ahead with me. As I stashed my toiletry bag in the back seat of the van, and draped my wedding dress over one of the front seats, I turned and looked at the place that had been home for almost two and a half months. All I could see of my Pastor was his legs sticking out the door of the vehicle he was working on. Wow. What a lot I owed to that man. My mind traveled back over the last few months, memory after memory, tear after tear, change after change filling my mind, but….I jerked back to the present and jumped into the van, tearing down the driveway at breakneck speed, I only had a few minutes to get there to be on time! As I swerved around the curves by the water I caught a glimpse of Sarah’s white face in the passenger seat, oops! Some law abiding citizen I was! I slowed down enough to give the poor girl another hope of life, and we soon arrived at the church.

Not everyone was there for the rehearsal, so I went into the sanctuary with my daisies and tulle to do a bit of decorating. I didn’t want a whole lot of floof and poof everywhere, but I did want a little up at the front, soooo….I arranged this and that and the other, but nothing really looked right until Kathy came and suggested we move the altar. Then it all fell in place. When we were done there was a cloud of tulle and daises right in front of the pulpit, graceful silver candlesticks with white candles, and daises in the windows. Simple and perfect. Just what I had wanted. Bryan came in the church right then, and we both plopped down on the front pew to await the rest of the wedding party, and to rest some. I remember thinking that my hair was a frizzy mess, my face was blotchy and red since I had been sun burnt the day before and hadn’t put any make-up on, my skirt was wrinkled, my back hurt, my toenails were not painted very well….but then Bryan leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You look very pretty.” Hmm, I felt a little better.

Soon everyone was there, and it was time to begin, so as Pop and Ma started down the aisle I gave Krystal my 1 gigabyte memory card for her to take pictures on for me, and as Momma Lisa and Daddy Gerald walked down I finally settled in to prepare myself for the actual ceremony. Jonathan didn’t have his little bridesmaid with him since she would arrive late, so he went down the aisle pretty uncertainly, not sure that he was doing it al right. Laughter and teasing followed the next couple down the aisle as Kelsey held onto Sebastian’s arm, both of them red faced as could be, but obviously enjoying it. Tiffany glided down the aisle alone, perfectly stepping along slow and elegant. The doors shut on me and Daddy Gerald, and as I took his arm I looked up at him and told him once again thanks for being willing to do this, and thanked him profusely for all that he and Mom Lisa had done for me in the past several months…There was no-one I would rather walk me down the aisle except my own father, and Daddy Gerald knew that, but felt honored to stand in that place since Dad wouldn’t. The doors slowly opened and we walked down the aisle, dum dum da dum, to the front where Preacher Larry took Bryan and I through everything that we were gonna do, ring exchanging, vows, how to hold hands, and all that fun stuff. Then came the exit, and as we turned around to face the ‘congregation’ [which consisted of seven Blake kids and Momma Lisa] and Preacher Larry said we could now go, Bryan took him at his word. Gripping my hand even tighter than before he said, “lets go!” Lord help, if I had known what he meant, I would have slipped my flip-flops off first cause off he took! We RAN to the back of the church, me trying to keep my feet in my flops, and laughing my head off at the same time.

Kathy got all the females of the wedding party together and told us that she wanted pictures before the ceremony and to go get ready. Now, listen. It was already one o’clock. The wedding was supposed to be at TWO. You’ve got three bridesmaids and a bride to get ready in half an hour? For pictures? Before a ceremony??? Hmm…We were not sure that would work, but we hurried out to the fellowship hall and began to get ready. I think we all started with make-up, I put my base on, and Tiffany did eye-shadow while Momma Lisa did blush, while I put my hair in hot stix. We had a TIME getting electricity in the bathroom, we had hot stix and rollers to heat up, but none of the plugs were shooting juice, so we ended up getting Preacher Larry in the girls bathroom [yes, the girls bathroom] to fix them. He got them working somehow, and we got our hair stuff blisteringly hot. That all took a half hour, so we knew that no pictures would be made before the ceremony, but we still tried to hurry. Tiffany put make-up on Kelsey and then herself, and I pulled the rollers out of my hair and shook it out the way I wanted it. After checking out my make-up in the mirror close up, and adding some mascara, I headed to the toilet stall to change into my dress…as the folds of white fabric fell around my shoulders down to the floor I felt a calm come over me…I was ready for this to be over, but I was looking forward to enjoying every single moment of it as it came. This was my day. I called Tiffany in to button up the top eight buttons that I couldn’t reach, and as I stepped out, in my silver high heels and white satin everyone in the ladies room went on and on about how beautiful my dress was, and Momma Lisa started to cry and said “Oh Hope you are such a beautiful bride!” She helped pin my veil on as I clasped on the pearl necklace that Matt had given me, and hooked in my ears the new silver pearl drop earrings I had bought just for today.

As I looked into the mirror I gasped at how well everything fit together…the smiling faces of my bridesmaids were looking back at me on either side of the mirror too, with their mothers in the background dripping tears and smiles. Tiffany, Kelsey and I all had gone shoe shopping together, so we all had the same shoes on, and before we left the ladies room we got a foot picture. They looked so good in their green skirts and white shirts and Tiffany had done an AWESOME job on applying the make-up, they were beautiful! I’m sure we all felt special as we left the bathroom and headed over to the church, Kathy holding my train up free from the grass as we went.

It was about fifteen minutes until the ceremony was supposed to start, so my bridesmaids and I went into the ladies room in the church to await the rest of the visitors to get seated and it was time to begin. Sara had showed up and got into her green skirt as well, and Anna was an adorable flower girl in a vintage creamy lace dress. They had got their hair put up professionally and they looked absolutely adorable. I was proud of my soon-to-be nieces.

Missy and Grandma showed up, and Missy told me that Hana was going to be coming but that she would be a few minutes late, so Bryan talked to Pastor Larry and they held the service off fifteen minutes so that Hana could be there for it. I had hoped that she would come because she was my favorite sister and I wanted her to be there so I was glad to hear it, and more than willing to hold off a few minutes. A quick hug was exchanged as she arrived and as soon as everyone was seated Mommy and Daddy Blake went down the aisle with my soon to be in-laws coming right behind them. I peeked around the corner of the door and saw Pastor Larry and the men taking their places in the front of the church as Lavern started tinkling the soft beginnings of the wedding march. Sebastian and Kelsey took off down the aisle, and then Sara and Jonathan behind them. Tiffany gracefully drifted down the aisle next, and tears sprang to my eyes as I thought of all that we had been through together over the past several months, and before that, the past several years. She truly was an honorable friend, and I was so glad that she was my maid-of-honor…Kathy’s granddaughters rolled the filmy aisle runner down between the pews all the way to the altar as Anna got her basket of rose petals ready and started down the runner dropping handfuls of flowers as she went with a sweet shy smile on her face. The doors closed behind her as she went into the sanctuary and Daddy Gerald and I took our places behind them. I tucked my hand in the crook of his arm and looked up at him again and thanked him…words couldn’t get across to him what I wanted to say, so all I could say was ‘thank you’. My sweet crazy adopted father, boy was he a mess, but I sure did appreciate all he and Momma Lisa had done for me…I was blessed that he was willing to walk me down the aisle.

The cue came, dum dum da dummmmm, and the doors swung open wide and we started our slow walk down towards the front of the sanctuary, towards my Bryan, my love, my soon to be husband, the one that I had dreamt about in my younger days and now was there, at the end of the aisle, ready to bind his heart with mine for the rest of our days together. The people on either side of us rose to their feet as we walked forward, people I loved, friends through the years, family by blood, Bryans friends that I didn’t even know, but still stood in honor of me as I walked towards him…none else mattered now, as we neared the front, no one else was in my scope but him…Pastor Larry started out ‘we are gathered together this day…’ and prayed. Then Daddy Gerald put my hand into Bryan’s and we said our vows, ‘til death do we part’…’in sickness, in health, for rich, for poorer…’ At the time I didn’t know that within two weeks Bryan would be deathly ill, and almost die. I didn’t know that we would struggle financially almost every step of the way. But regardless I vowed that I would stand by him through it all, and he did the same to me.

‘I hold in my hands these beautiful rings’ Pastor Larry started. Bryan chuckled and I almost cracked up, we had already spoken to each other about how corny that sounded, but as we slid the rings on each others hands as a representation of the vows that we had just made and the love that we held for each other it didn’t matter. It was beautiful. As we bowed our heads for the closing prayer Bryan softly prayed in my ear for us, our lives together while Pastor Larry prayed over us. It seemed as if it were just me and him, holding hands and praying to the heavenly Father over our future. As Pastor Larry ended his prayer with a fervent ‘Amen’ he looked down at Bryan and said, ‘you may now kiss the bride!’ ‘May I now present to you Mr and Mrs Bryan Biggs!‘ As the recessional music played and we stepped freely towards the back of the church with our friends and family clapping and congratulating us I looked up at the face of my new husband and anticipated the days to come, living and working with this man whom I had come to love…

Yes the reception was beautiful, the cake was GORGEOUS, Kathy did a wonderful job. Yes, I did spill my punch, and NO, I did not smear cake all over my new hubby’s face, there was an agreement we had made before our wedding day! And as we took off in our painted up ranger that was plastered with banners and signs and tin cans I was glad to be through with it all…it was beautiful…it was perfect…it was my wedding day…