Getting Married

Mark and I have been dating for 6 years. We got engaged this past February at the Rock n Roll Mardi Gras half marathon (if you missed that blog post click here to read it).  We've spent a lot of time talking about getting married.  How and when we would do it. We agreed we wanted it to be simple, special and inexpensive.  So we just needed the when.

My sister, Sarah, and I made wishes when the clock said 11:11 growing up.  So the idea of doing it on 11-11-11 sounded perfect to me.  Mark and I talked about a couple different ideas for what to do.  Usually, our discussions got pretty expensive.  So we decided to keep it as simple as possible. 

On our first date, we went to dinner at Sunset Grill and then took a walk on the pedestrian street bridge downtown, so the bridge has always held a special place in our hearts.  I know you can rent the entire bridge, but we were having a very small ceremony so there was no need for that.

We should really have started planning a couple months ago, but we started planning the details just before we left for Dublin.  We wanted to be sure our pastor, David Foster, could perform the ceremony and that his wife Paula could attend.  They have been great role models for us in what we want our marriage to look like. We also wanted to be sure Sarah  and my future brother in law, Jeff, could come.  That was our entire guest list.

Sarah and I went shopping for my dress the Sunday before we got married.  Luckily, it wasn't hard to find the perfect dress.  And being the sweet sister she is, Sarah bought it for me as a wedding present.  I tried to convince her that Mark and I would be happy to get married in running clothes.  She was not going to allow that to happen.  Sarah also did my hair and make up the day of the wedding.  It was so nice have her do it for me.  In fact, I think life would be much easier if I could convince her to do it every day.

Even though it was a small, simple ceremony, I really wanted to have a photographer.  I also wanted the photographer to be someone I know (this shouldn't be too hard, I know several).  I asked my friend Beth first, because we grew up together and have been friends for a long time.  Thankfully, she was free.  Click here to see her facebook page and our picture preview.  As you can see from the pictures, it was definitley worth it!

We got married at 11 am - hey, we had to stay true to the theme.  The actual ceremony was short, sweet and perfect!  We had so much fun taking pictures before and after the ceremony.  When we were in Dublin, we saw lots of locks on the Ha'penny bridge.  I remembered hearing about this tradition before.  Lovers put a lock on the bridge and then throw the keys into the river.  We thought it sounded like a perfect way to celebrate. 

Lots of people have asked us if we had the boys there.  And, of course, we get curious looks when we say no.  Our main reason for not having them there was because we wanted it to be about us as a couple and as a partnership.  We love both of the boys more than anything, but we also know our relationship has to come first if we are going to be good parents.  We were a tiny bit concerned they'd be disappointed.  But, they were fine.  We told them at dinner Friday night.  Their reaction?  When can we get a bigger house and a puppy?  Truthfully, I think they would have been bored with the actual ceremony, and I know they would have been tired of taking pictures before we were.  We took them to the bridge on Saturday and let each of them add a lock to our lock.

The wedding was perfect.  Yes, we would loved to have had a huge event and celebrate with all of our friends and family, but the reality was it wasn't something that we wanted to spend a lot of time and money (and stress) on.  We just wanted to be married.  It was everything we wanted it to be.  And now we are excited to live happily ever after.