Once I woke up, James and I had dinner with my mom, her best friend, and my aunt. I wanted to see James' parents too, but
Most people had to go home and get some sleep, but
I did not sleep well. It wasn't so much a foreboding thing or even an excitement thing, I just didn't sleep worth a damn. But even though I gave up and got up fairly early, events conspired to make me an hour and a half late for my hair appointment. At some point
We finally made it to my hair appointment with
We finally got to the courthouse with much swearing on my part (I'm sure I looked odd getting out of my car, all decked out and still saying "MOTHERFUCKER!!") and found the small crowd of family and friends. James would barely look at me because he felt bad about breaking tradition and seeing me before the ceremony, even though in this case it was unavoidable. I'm sure our entourage looked funny stomping around the courthouse. There were two other couples waiting there in street clothes. The judge came out and said "looks like some people want ceremonies, but if you don't want a ceremony, you can get in the express lane. Express lane, right here."
One couple looked at each other, shrugged, and said they'd take it.
"You wanna marry her?" "Yes." "You wanna marry him?" "Yes." "You're married. The paperwork will be in the mail." And the rest of us started cheering.
A couple more minutes waiting and it was our turn. Though there were only about fifteen of us, we still couldn't all get into the judge's chambers. The ceremony was short but covered all the important parts, and I think it was actually more meaningful to me for not going on forever. After the judge pronounced us husband and wife, I realized he wasn't going to say "you may now kiss the bride," so I took matters into my own hands and planted a big one on James. Then we were out, with poor
Finally we split up and started making our way to Wahoo! which is when people started getting lost because I'd done a poor job of giving out directions. James and I had our first spat as a married couple in the car. Finally everyone got there.
Then my brother waved me over:
Brad: "What kind of food they got here?"
Me: "Good food."
Brad: "Do they have... French fries?"
This made me howl with laughter, because when we were kids our family accidentally went to a really fancy restaurant called Port of Call and Brad threw a fit because they didn't have French fries. "What kind of restaurant have you got here?"
Also, he asked the waitress for a menu to look at. She explained that the meal choices were set. She didn't hear him say "well, then can I have a coloring book?"
The food was fabulous. I actually got the little hors d'oervres I'd been babbling about wanting from the start -- cute little crabcakes and mussels that everyone pronounced the best they'd ever had. We were out on the patio, and the staff set up a pretty table for our cake (which was cheesecake and kicked twenty-three different kinds of ass).
My dad doesn't like crowds, so I'd been worried about how he'd do at a wedding, especially when we were planning the big one. But he was relaxed and grinning, having a good time -- two weeks later, he was still talking about what a good time he'd had. Everyone was calm and relaxed and having fun and on their best behavior (I didn't think everyone could do those last two at once).
We came up with the small courthouse wedding to save money and reduce drama, but we never dreamed it would end up being so much fun. It was so laidback and relaxed and we had all the "wedding" things we wanted like a pretty dress and pictures and a cake and yet it was so much better than a fussy wedding would have been with me stressing out and flipping out and not getting to just enjoy the day. I've always been skeptical of the whole "best day of your life" thing about weddings because it doesn't exactly leave a lot to look forward to, but in the end, it really was one of the best days of my life.
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