Getting Married Once or Twice, Part Three

When I left off, Mr. Kettle and I got our wedding license in a county other than the one we were supposed to get married in on our wedding day.

We had one more meeting each with our two officiants. At this meeting, we let them know of our intentions to get married early. They were both a bit taken aback, but in support of us doing it as long as it wasn't some faux-elope attempt on our part. When we said we wanted our parents and immediate families involved, their relief was palpable.

Once we had a day picked out, a wedding license, and the cooperation of our officiants, we told our parents. My parents were not okay with it at first. They didn't advise against it, but their displeasure was obvious. If you had shelled out thousands of dollars for someone's wedding, you'd be pretty upset that they chose to have a different wedding too.

Mr. Kettle's parents were more okay with it, but their general response to him is usually okay. If he thinks it's a good idea, they do too, generally. My parents weren't thrilled, but they were on board. All that was left was inviting our siblings, my grandmother, a couple of close family friends, and a musician to play the organ.

I told Mr. Kettle I wanted 12-20 people there. Including us, there ended up being exactly 20. It was very intimate and private and special. We just wore whatever and my maid of honor got us flowers on the way over for the day.

We had a simple ceremony. Vows, exchanging rings, communion, and a lot of tears. When I get around to re-capping the ceremony on Saturday, you'll see it was such a different atmosphere.

After the ceremony, everyone looked so happy. My parents were wiping away tears and so were his parents. It felt so rigth to me to be getting married with just those people. There were a lot of family and friends who weren't there that Wednesday who were there on Saturday, but I was okay.

I looked forward to Saturday after that. All I'd wanted Saturday to be was a big party and a celebration with a lot of people we care about. Now that's all it was in my head. No more 600 eye nightmares. Just looking forward to wearing a beautiful dress and eating some fantastic food.

Our first of two wedding days.

There is an extra benefit to getting married earlier. We chose our wedding day because of it's proximity to Mardi Gras. I wanted our anniversary to fall before Mardi Gras every year. By moving it up 3 days, we will have that now. Since Mardi Gras is an important holiday to us as a couple, I'm pretty psyched by this development.

Okay, before I start my recaps, I'll finish with the DIY projects I completed before going into my guest-list funk.

Did you chosen wedding day change for any reason?