Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Expect the Unexpected

I can't restart blogging without first telling everyone the best story of our wedding day.

Going into the wedding I had heard many people say that despite the best planning something will go wrong on your wedding day. I believed them but wasn't worried because I would like to think that I was appropriately laid back and could roll with it.

On our wedding morning I was quite emotional and trying to just hold it together-they were good emotions but as a surgery resident I guess I'm not used to dealing with really strong emotions anymore. I got ready at my house with bridesmaids, my parents, Leslie and Sam Petersen, and then our photographer and her entourage. At the time what I didn't know was that Leslie and my dad had seen the limo driver pull up, strip down from the waist up and change into clean clothes in our cul-de-sac. They were horrified but didn't want to tell me. When he walked into the house he wasn't quite what I expected in a limo driver but I didn't care. I was just excited to go see Kerwyn (we were taking pictures beforehand).

So mom, dad, Christy (our photographer) and myself climbed into the limo. I was immediately struck by how hot the inside was since the engine was "running". The limo man also pulled my dad aside to get his credit card from him and clarify that he would take any additional tip that my dad would like to give him (he already had Kerwyn's card). As he started driving I was immediately alarmed by the fact that he went in a very circuitous route to the meeting place down a road riddled with construction in a raunchy part of town. We sputtered down the road with cars honking and restarted the engine several times. Eventually the engine wouldn't restart. I asked the driver what Plan B was. At first he wouldn't respond to me and so I spoke louder. He didn't have a plan because his "company" wasn't answering their phones. We sat in our personal sauna for a few minutes with cars honking before mom noticed the heat rash spreading across my body. At that point I knew I was getting out of the limo. So we climbed out into busy traffic (I wish you could have seen the moment people realized a bride was getting out of the limo). The tone changed as people shouted condolences about our situation. I was laughing as this seemed hilarious. I then realized that we couldn't just sit in the sun baking and the only building nearby was a porn shop.

So mom, dad, myself and the photographer wandered into the porn shop to cool off on my wedding day. We laughed a lot. The workers were very nice and even offered us water if we wanted it. I just needed to go to the bathroom so in my wedding dress mom helped me use one of the nastier bathrooms I've been in in a long time.

I used my parents phone and with the photographer's help we were able to redirect a couple of cars to come pick us up (thanks Tara!).

Had he gone the route that I expected/wanted him to take we would have likely broken down on the interstate so it all worked out wonderfully.

It was a very eventful start to the day. What it did that I am so grateful for was change the entire tone of the day from one of nerves to one of pure joy. It was a hilarious situation that helped us all to relax and just enjoy the day knowing that we had pretty much seen it all at that point (no pun intended). An extra bonus was having our photographer there to capture it all on camera. The pictures are hilarious!

1 comment:

Michelle Wegner said...

You definitely win the prize for the best wedding day story ever. :)