MARRIAGE...HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?

This is a re-post so I can re-tag my new blogging friends! :-)

I'd like to say that I was tagged for this but I wasn't. I saw Heather P. post about it and decided to ramble on about something nobody cares about just because I love to talk about my husband and myself.... and I think our son's may like to read this in the future. :-)

Beware, you may be tagged at the end of this saga.

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MARRIAGE....HOW'D THAT HAPPEN?

Where did you meet your husband?

I was selling customized license tags in a craft booth at a small town fair. I had rented a little craft booth next to those selling their church crafts and what-not. Jason, a brother of Brian's good friend Roger, came over to flirt with me. I was 19 and he was 15 or sixteen. I told him that he didn't have a chance but he stayed and talked to me until the fair closed. I didn't mind. It was nice to have someone to talk with between people placing their order for a "Mary "heart" Joe" license plate and so on.

Before Jason left he asked if I would be back tomorrow. I said that I had rented the booth for the entire week so I would, indeed be there. I half jokingly asked if he had an older brother. Oddly enough he had four! Apparently he went to his home and told his brothers about his adventure talking with an "older woman" at the fair. His brothers couldn't wait to come to the fair the next day to see what "ugly chick" would have actually let their younger brother sit and talk to her all evening. LOL My Brian happened to be staying the night at their house that evening. He decided he'd get to the fair first.

What was the first thing you said to your husband?
The next day at the fair Jason showed up with a young friend of his from school. We were chit chatting. I had brought a couple of my cousins to sit with me while I worked. All of the sudden I see this dark haired, dark eyed, wide shouldered Italian guy walk by. That moment is stuck in my brain like a picture. He looked over at me and didn't smile or anything he just stopped dead in his tracks and stared into my eyes and I stopped what I was saying to stare at him. After a brief moment of "wow" he started walking toward me, got to my table and stopped. We were still staring at each other. He was stone faced and I was smiling. I broke the silence...

"You've got the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen." (that's the God's honest truth.)

He didn't say anything. He just looked at me. I know now that he was shy and also couldn't believe that his younger friend was actually telling the truth about the girl at the fair and that I wasn't at all "ugly", (in his eyes anyway) Hee hee...

Anyway... I broke the silence yet again and said,

"Has anyone ever told you that?"

He said,"Yes." Looking all together and hot!

Then I said, "So are you 16 like the rest of these guys?"

He said, "No, I'm 19."

Jason and the others didn't skip a beat. Nobody said differently.

What I didn't know then was that he was 17! What a goofball! LOL

He had been through quite a bit in his life, seen a lot and been allowed to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted for the most part so actually he did have a jump on me maturity wise.

He asked me what time I closed the place down. Everyone else either disappeared or we just forgot there were other people around us. I closed my booth down and we went to ride rides at the fair. We've have been together ever since!




Where was the first kiss? first date?
I suppose that night was our first date. After the fair he took me down to the pier at Lexington Harbor. We walked the pier until we reached the little lighthouse. We talked and talked...actually I talked and talked. He was a very quiet person. He kissed me there by the lighthouse...(that's how I usually tell it but I leaned in to kiss him first.) After that he latched on to me and kissed me all the way back to the car. It was fun, romantic and funny at the same time. He was so cute! I was in awe that he liked me at all let alone that we were kissing at the pier. LOL Then a friend of his drove by the car we were sitting on and yelled out, "Hey Brian are you going out for the football team this year?"

I said, "College?"

He said, "High School."

I squinted, "You're not 19?"

"I'm not. I'm 17."

I had NEVER dated anyone younger than me....good thing he lied to me when we first met that day because it didn't matter at that point, I was hooked.

That night was July 18th 1989.

I had been 19 for 1 month, 1 day.

Brian had been 17 for 7 months 4 days.

Where did you get engaged?

Believe it or not, 5 months and 5 days later, on December 23rd, Brian was 18, I was still 19, and my paternal family's Christmas Reunion was being held at a rented Hall.

Each family member had drawn names for gift giving. The names were secret. When it came to my turn to sit in front of the tree in the chair and for my secret "giver" to come up to give me a present I was quite surprised to see Brian walk up. He knelt down beside me in front of about 60 of my relatives and handed me a wrapped gift. It was a shoebox. I have size 12 feet so I thought it was a gag gift. I opened it to find a ring box. I about fell over.

I opened it and he asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes! Then I realized there was something else in the box. I put my hand in there and it was a VERY large pair of white granny underwear!

Why, you ask?...


I had told him previously that, "even though I'm a size 8 now the problem will come when I get married someday. Every woman on my dad's side of the family and my mom's side of the family got fat when they get married. It happened to each and every one of them so I'm worried about getting married because I know I'll get fat!" I didn't say that to be funny I just knew I would get fat...like a fact of life. :-)

When I pulled those underwear out of the box everyone laughed of course. He chuckled, looked at me and said,
"Shelly, I'll love you even when your butt fits into those underwear."

Man, what luck!! :-)

How did the reception go?

We got married 6 months and 7 days after that. June 30th 1990. We hadn't known each other a year.

Truth be told we would have gotten married in January if he weren't still in High School! LOL My parents and grandparents were married within 3 months of a proposal, so it wouldn't have been a big deal. My parents will have their 40th anniversary June 2008 and my grandparents were also happily married until grandpa passed away. My grandma never remarried. They had 15 children all tolled.

Being that the wedding is what counts I'll talk about that first. It was gorgeous. 1 maid of honor, 3 bridesmaids, 2 Jr. Bridesmaids and a flower girl. Matching groomsmen, Jr. groomsmen and ring bearer. A Capella singing, piano accompanied singing, CD accompanied singing. Fun preacher.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the preacher led Brian and the groomsmen to the front of the church from a side door. As the maids walked down the isle their matched groomsman walked to meet them halfway up the isle, led them to a spot in the front of the church, each couple remained locked arm in arm in staggered spots in the front of the church throughout the service except the maid of honor and best man. She stood by me and he stood by Brian as the other couples stayed joined to symbolize unity and remaining together once joined.

Reception:

We chose the small Hall where we were engaged. We had a gorgeous 3 tiered cake with 6 small cakes placed around it and bridges leading to each.

We had a DJ so after dinner we danced, then remained on the floor for the second song as the wedding party were called out and danced with the partners they were "hooked" to during the wedding ceremony. Then there was the throwing of the bouquet, then the garter, then the "putting of the garter on the bouquet catcher." Then we all ate cake. Then there was the father/daughter dance and then Brian and I left.

How was the honeymoon?

We drove to a local hotel for the first night. We counted money from cards and the dollar dance. The next night we drove to Ohio, then to Kentucky. We ended up staying at a very nice hotel in Owensboro Kentucky of all places. We went to a dinner show there. We ate very well, watched a 60's music group, swam and swam and had a blast there just being married and young and free. :-) Hopefully that's how we'll spend our later years of marriage. Driving around wherever we want, having a blast being married, not so young and free.

TAG, YOU'RE IT!!

Kristie

Kristina

Tonya

Amy