Wedding Daze

This was written for the contest:

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It was January 18th, 1998, a Saturday. I decided to take Steven up to my favorite place, Gatlinburg, TN. It was only a two hour drive and I thought we would have a lot of fun. Plus, we were planning to marry in a month and I thought that if he liked Gatlinburg, maybe we could marry in one of the small chapels there.

After arriving we checked into a hotel, took a short nap and then went out for a day of shopping and tourism. During our day of shopping we stopped at a small booth in an open air mall and picked up a tourist guide that had many of the restaurants, chapels, places to shop and fun things to do. That evening after arriving back at the hotel we decided to use the guide to pick a restaurant. I found one called L.G.'s on the River that looked nice and so we decided to go there. It had to be the most enjoyable dinner I've ever had, we enjoyed it so much that when the waitress mentioned the Sunday morning brunch, we immediately decided to go back the next morning.

The next morning we awoke, checked out of the hotel and went to L.G.'s for brunch. Again, it was one of the most enjoyable dining experiences of my life and I asked about having a reception there. I was very happy when I was told that they often accommodated receptions and was given information on setting things up. After getting our waitress's name we left the restaurant to go home. On our way out of the restaurant parking lot I told my husband that before we left town I wanted to check on booking a chapel since he had loved the quick getaway as much as I. I opened the guide and used my cell phone to call the chapel in the first ad I came to. "I know that yall probably don't have any openings on Valentine's day, but what about Thursday the 12th?" I said to the woman who answered the phone.

"Actually, we just today had a cancellation for Valentine's day. Why don't yall come by and check out our facilities?" I was flabbergasted. One month before Valentine's day and a chapel in the eastern marriage equivalent of Las Vegas! She gave me directions and we proceeded to the chapel.

It was PERFECT! It was small, could accommodate about 60 people; it had a beautiful fountain in the front and small honeymoon bungalows right next door to the chapel. It also had an actual pastor so we would have a real Christian wedding, which was important to us. Plus it was right off the main strip so we could really have a lot of fun in town. We decided to purchase one of their full packages and left the chapel very happy.

Fast forward to a month later. I had found the perfect dress, my best friend was going to be my maid of honor and wear a hunter green dress (my favorite color), my baby Godsister was going to be a junior bridesmaid and wearing a red dress, my brother was best man, my baby Godbrother was ring bearer, and my cousin's little girl was our flower girl. Plus, my Grandfather was walking me down the aisle and we were having his mom flown down for the wedding. L.G.'s was hosting the reception and a limo was taking us there. Everything was PERFECT! It was Friday, the day before the wedding, we had come up a day earlier to have a little fun before the big day and my family and friends had come in today. We had also driven out and picked up his mom from the airport and had lunch with her. My mom had brought my birth certificate which we needed to get the license so we went to the licensing office to get it. The office is closed on Fridays. "WHAT?? Closed! They can't be closed!! Ok, we can deal with this. They open at 7:30 on Saturday. We will just go early."

So, we all went back for a party at my Godparents cabin. We had a good time and everything was going perfect again. Everyone we really wanted to be there was and we were getting married the next day!

We awoke at 5:30 Saturday morning and around 6:30 Steve was off to the licensing place. It was just up the street so I told him I would walk up there around 7. I got things ready for me to get ready when I returned and then joined him. As I walked up to the building I saw that the line was wrapped around it. I got scared until I realized that Steve was very close to the front of the line. When I joined him I found him talking to some of the other couples around us. They were from all over the country. It was pretty cool. Then we noticed the sign that said we needed to have $37.50, cash only. We only had our credit card so we called my grandparents on the cell phone. Our cell started going dead so Steve went and put it in the car. My grandparents came and gave us a hundred dollar bill. We told them we needed two twenties and they left to get change. The line started really moving and it was getting to be around 8. We were scheduled to get married at 10:30, would we have enough time?

Finally, we were two away from the door, but my grandparents weren't back with the cash yet! Steve went out to get the cell and see how much longer they would be. He came back with a grim look on his face. He had locked the keys in the car! What were we going to do?? One of the nice couples we had been talking to pulled out a wad of cash and handed us two twenty dollar bills. There was a cop right in front of us almost that was just giving the keys to another person who had locked their keys in the car. We asked him to go unlock our car and he said he wouldn't mind and went around to the back where our car was. Right after that, it was our turn. We went in and were in the process of getting our license when I saw the cop leave. My grandparents also drove up about that time and we assumed that the cop had unlocked the door and left the keys in the car. We got the money from my grandparents, paid back the nice couple and wished them happiness, and went to our car.

The door handle was broken! And our keys were still locked inside! My grandparents took us back to our suite and we proceeded to get ready. As soon as he was done, Steve, my uncle, grandfather, and cousin's husband went back to break into our car, fully dressed in tuxes and suits. While they did that my mom sent her boyfriend to get Steven's mom from the hotel in Pigeon Forge, about five miles away. After I took a shower, I put rollers in my hair and went over to the chapel to finish getting ready. I was told a bit later that they had gotten the car unlocked and everyone had arrived except my soon to be mother-in-law. They should have gotten to the chapel in about 40 minutes and it had already been an hour.

After all of the really big great things that had happened up until now, there was only a few small bad things that had happened. Enter Murphy's Law in full force. There was a fire at the O'Charley's just up the strip from us. Traffic was backed up to Pigeon Forge and with only one two-lane street into town we were just going to have to wait. It was almost 10:30 and we didn't seem to have a choice but to do the wedding without the only person from Steve's family who was able to come down. We were both upset, though I only found out later how upset he was.

Then came the couple that was supposed to go after us at 12. They were all there and they were going to repeal Murphy's Law. They offered to go before us. We, of course, accepted and started our waiting game again.

It was 11:55 and we knew that we were about to have to go in. We couldn't wait anymore. Just as we were about to go in, they finally got there. Everything was, well, perfect again. It was a beautiful wedding. I surprised Steve when I had them play our song and that part made almost everyone cry.

After the pictures, our limo took us to our reception at L.G.'s where everyone raved about the food, which we told them was not nearly as good as our first two visits. I asked my mom for my other dress that I was supposed to change into after we cut the cake. It was still in her car, back at the chapel! For the next hour and a half
I was in my very uncomfortable dress.

After the reception my Godparents offered to take us back to our suite since the limo had to leave early because of the traffic in order to get to its next scheduled appointment. We were stuck in traffic for the next three hours. We finally arrived back at our room and after I quickly got out of my dress and took a shower, we promptly went to bed and got some sleep. What a wedding night! :)
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A pic from our wedding: ** Image ID #397510 Unavailable **