10
We officially made it to our 10-year anniversary! Ten. In honor of the big day, I thought I'd tell you about our wedding.

I was broke. My parent's, who were both battling health issues, were broke. In other words, the wedding was not extravagant.

I chose a small Methodist church in Edmond because it reminded me of the church my family attended in Indiana. It had wood pews and stained glass windows and a comfortable, intimate feel to it. My dress was ivory and low cut. The dress was totally out of my comfort zone, modest as I am, but I bought it for James, not me. (I still don't like to look at the photographs). The bridesmaids wore ivory dresses of their choice. I wanted their personalities to shine through. They all looked lovely.

The church was decorated simply with some ivory flowers on the communion rail. I carried a bouquet of ivory and pale pink roses and gardenias with ivy trailing down. The bridesmaids each had 3 ivory calla lillies tied with ivory ribbon. The men all wore tuxes, James with a gardenia boutonniere and the other men with ivory roses.

4 of my orchestra friends played as the guests arrived and until I entered. A friend from law school played the organ and piano. Friends from church sang “Holy Ground” from the balcony and Stan sang “How Beautiful” during the ceremony. The preacher had us face the audience during the entire ceremony, which was wonderful. While Stan sang, I fixed my eyes on each guest and I thought how they had meant so much to me. When it was time for our vows, the sun lowered just enough to shine through stained glass windows and land right on James. He started sweating and made a little play to the audience, taking his handkerchief to wipe his brow and then pretending to wring it out.

Lot’s of things went wrong that day, but I didn’t worry about any of them. My friends took care of me. For an example, we took an elevator up from the dressing rooms to the foyer. The church’s wedding coordinator was insistent that we start exactly on time and was rushing us. I asked that she and the bridesmaids ride up and then send the elevator back down so I could spend a few minutes with my dad. She said NO!!! She wouldn’t back down and said we would be late. We spent enough time arguing about it that we could have all arrived upstairs, when a bridesmaid suddenly pushed the ‘close door’ button while the coordinator was still talking! HA!

I will always remember what one close friend from my past said about the ceremony. He said he felt true agape love in that church that day and was impressed by my friends and family. He came with his brother and sister and didn’t know anyone else there except my parents, but he saw what I knew, we are blessed.