My Wedding Day

So the slip that I have drawn for this particular blog is about my wedding. This should be fun.

Tell about your wedding- when, where, by whom, reception, colors, etc. (anything you can remember).

Well I will start at the beginning. Roni and I dated for about 6 weeks at the end of the fall semester of 1996. I remember that I asked her out one night after we had been to the big worship service that we had on campus each Thursday night. We went out the first time, and it was fun...Roni tells the story a little different than I do I'm sure. Anyway, the second time we went out, it was with another couple and I recall that when we got back I told Heath that I thought I could see myself being with this girl for a long time. Of course within about a month of that comment, I broke up with her. Great story right?

Well, for the next year and a half, we developed a relationship as friends that was...different. We would see other people (or at least I would), but then we would end up being together at some point. We would do some kissing and such, and then I would go back to pursuing other young ladies. All the time though, Roni waited for me to realize what it was that she already knew...we were going to be together in the end.

So after a year and a half of dating other girls, and being kissing friends, I woke up on the morning of March 3rd, 1998, and just knew that I was going to marry Roni. I told her later that afternoon about it. I remember the date very clearly because it was the day of my grandfather's funeral. It still seems strange to me that that was the day that it all became so clear to me.

Anyway, we went through 8 months of being engaged, three of which we were in totally different parts of the state, and saw each other only about 4 times in that span.

I remember being mad at some of the bridesmaids, because of some of their pre-wedding stuff...they were more concerned about doing what it was that they wanted to do than they were about being there for the bride it seemed. I remember Roni telling me that I was not allowed to confront any of them, because she didn't want them to be upset (I still think I should have).

So I recall that I got to Quanah late on the night of the rehearsal, but I was still there to do it, so what if I was one of the last ones. One of my groomsmen didn't make it at all for that part. I recall that we were really trying to be laid back and to just have some fun, but that kind of got shot down by Grandad, who was performing the ceremony for us. He really wanted to get to have much more of a say in what we did. We had brisket for our dinner that night and it was great. The guys and I went to a motel after that and did nothing really. It was fantastic.

The next morning Mom called me at about 6:00 so that she and I could go and have breakfast together. I was the first one to do anything like this, so she wanted that one last bit of time together. We had some donuts at a place there in Quanah and just spent a little bit of time talking...I really don't remember what it was about, but I know we did that.

I remember that I got to the church and we did all the pictures before hand, because of the fact that neither one of us really cared about the "tradition" of stuff. We were just happy to be getting married. As the pictures were ending, and some of the girls took Roni to finish getting ready, I was standing up at the front of the sanctuary with Linda, my soon to be mother-in-law, when a couple of the ladies from the church came in and told Linda that they needed her to make a decision for them about our cake...it seems that the bottom layer of the cake had collapsed. Not to worry one of the ladies husband had caught it to keep it from all hitting the floor. The had decided that they didn't want Roni to have to deal with that before hand.

When we finally got to the ceremony part, we had some praise and worship that was led by a friend of ours. I think, looking back, we should have thought this through a little bit better, as it lasted for a long time with all the guests standing for it. Roni's Grandpa and brother-in-law walked her down the aisle, and they had to stand for a while waiting to give her away.

Of course during all of this one of our nephews starts getting all lovey with his brother. All he wanted to do was to put his head on his shoulder, but that wasn't happening. Since all of this is going on just to the right and behind me, we have no idea about it. In the video however, you can see the hand of the best man reach out and grab Austin by the head to settle him down. It was pretty dang funny to see actually.

Also during this time, Roni's hearing goes out, so she can't really hear the praise and worship. And, every time there is a break in the music, Grandad starts to step forward to do his part. Fine if he didn't have a program on him, but he did and it said what songs we were doing.

So we finally get into the actual vows and such and when it comes time for the rings, Roni gives me the wrong hand to put her ring on. I notice this, but felt that for the sake of pushing through, I would ignore it and we would change it later. No such luck with Grandad. He sees the mistake, and with no reservations whatsoever, proceeds to announce to us (and everyone else since he spoke into his microphone) that it was the wrong hand. So we promptly switched hands and carried on. Finally the end got there, we kissed (Roni says rather weakly) and headed off down the aisle for the reception to have cake that had collapsed, been caught, and re-mounted with one less layer.

Our colors were Royal blue and white. Roni had first wanted white and peach, but in my young male ignorance I said that peach "reeked of gayness." Grandad performed the ceremony, Johnny Ray Watson sang for us, and Bryan Sims did the praise and worship.

The bridesmaids were: Kelly Scott, Darla Gaines, Kelly Laxson, Rhonda McClendon, and Julie Hampton.

The groomsmen were: Justin Nesbitt (best man) Bryan Durham, Damon Stalvey, Heath Gaines, and James Settles, with my other brothers coming to stand with us after they had finished being ushers.

The ushers were: Brock Durham, Caleb Durham, Ed Barrett, and Jeremy Hofferty

All in all it was a good day for me 10 years ago. I got the beautiful girl and I'm fulfilled what I told Heath after my second date with Roni: "I can see myself with this girl for a really long time." Peace and Love y'all.