This year will mark our 11th wedding anniversary. Noa was gone (deployed) last year for the big 1-0, so this year we are marking the occasion by taking a little getaway. The location is still a mystery as I type this, but by the time you read this post, we'll be at our destination. We'll be taking Ruby with us, since she still isn't sleeping through the night and is still primarily breastfed. I'm looking forward to whatever Noa has planned. And, of course, I'll be blogging about it afterwards.
For this year's anniversary post, I thought it'd be fun to share some lesser known wedding facts - 11 facts for each year of marriage - from our big day. First, let me set the stage: It was 2001. I had only graduated college a few weeks prior to the wedding. Noa took the first part of his medical boards one week before our wedding day. It was pretty crazy, especially since I didn't see much of him in that month before the wedding since he was studying all. the. time.
I had only been to a couple of weddings before mine and most I couldn't even remember. I mostly followed tradition and we had to keep the budget pretty modest since we didn't have a lot of money at the time, since I had yet to find a job and Noa was in school.
So, to keep costs down, I had my wedding dress made by a family friend (Wedding Fun Fact #1). She made a bust of my torso using duct tape and a t-shirt! The dress pattern was based off of a dress I had tried on at a bridal shop and the details were kept to a minimum. I really wanted it simple. It ended up costing around $100, which worked for our simple budget. I still have the dress, sealed in a box.
WFF #2: Our rehearsal dinner had a luau theme and was held at Noa's parent's home, which was festively decorated. It was a fun night, although I remember there being a lot of mosquitoes. Someone, probably Noa's dad, said that keeping a dryer sheet near you keeps the bugs at bay. So, almost everyone was sporting a dryer sheet that night. We're a classy bunch. What can I say?
WFF #3: We had an uneven wedding party. It was mostly made of family on the girls' side and Noa's friend's on the guy's side. But, one of the groomsmen couldn't attend the wedding due to a military deployment. Lame excuse, if you ask me.
Kidding, of course.
WFF #4: We couldn't afford a limo, so our friends fancied up a white minivan to take us to the reception. Our "driver" even dressed up and provided a basket of food and bubbly in the back.
WFF #5: There wasn't too much family drama in the planning...except when it came to the first dance. My mom and I disagreed over the song that Noa and I had chosen as our first dance. The live version of "Ice Cream" by Sarah McLachlan was anything but traditional, but it was totally and completely us. We loved every minute of dancing to that song and in the end, I think my mom agreed.
WFF #6: Speaking of music, we had a rockin' DJ. He may have had a thick New England accent, often referring to my new husband as "No-er" a few times, but he picked some great tunes and kept people dancing. I would definitely pick him if I had to do the wedding all over again. One of the best wedding DJs I've heard to this day.
WFF #7: My hair was done by my dad's stylist. Yes, my dad has a stylist. At least he did back then. He took me to get my hair done by her the morning of the wedding (isn't that sweet?). When we got in the car after my hair was finished, the radio came on with the lyrics, "going to the chapel and we're gonna get mar-ar-ar-ied..."
I took that as a sign that it was meant to be.
WFF #8: We didn't have digital photos. This was right around the time that photography was just getting into digital formatting. Since we had a family friend do our photos (another budget friendly decision), we don't have digital images, except those I've scanned. One of these days, I'm going to take the negatives to get transferred to a disk. Just last year we had our wedding VIDEO (a VHS tape) converted to a DVD. These things make me feel old.
WFF #9: We have a section of our wedding video where another couple is dancing for the camera for an entire song.
WFF #10: Most affordable (and available) venue in the area with the largest dance floor: the local senior center. Yep, you just read that right. In fact, when I was checking it out with my mom, the seniors where having line dancing class on said dance floor.
You just can't make this stuff up, people.
And lastly, WFF #11: Alcohol was in short supply, but not on purpose. Since we had to provide all the food and drinks for the reception venue, we decided to put bottles of wine out on the tables in lieu of a bar. There was enough for each table to have two bottles of wine. Unfortunately, the second set never made it out to the tables, so each table only ended up with one bottle of wine. The wedding wine was enjoyed for many months afterwards!
We've come a long way since then and I'm so thankful for the 11 years that we've been through this adventure together. Here's to many, many more!
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