Matt and I have been legally married since February 28. Funny thing is, Matt was still overseas when the wedding took place. So my mother stood in for him.
Now, this is the point in my story when most people look at me with a confused expression on their face and ask, "but why?" Well, I'll tell you.
Matt and I knew that we would probably have our church wedding and reception this summer. But marrying into the military is never simple, and of course, lots of paperwork is involved. This paperwork happens to take several weeks, maybe months to process. For example: if Matt and I had gotten civilly married at the same time as our church marriage this summer, I would not have been listed on his orders detailing his change of station to Germany. This would mean that his orders would have to be revised to include me, but by the time that would have been accomplished Matt would have had to have already left for Germany. In other words, I would have had to wait behind for everything to process. Then there's the matter of my stuff. Matt and I would have had to pay out of pocket to ship all of my things and my car. That means "very expensive." All in all, getting married civilly ahead of time meant keeping things much less complicated. I was able to get listed on Matt's orders in time, all of my things were shipped along with his, and the car is on it's way across the pond as we speak.
The civil wedding itself was quite an experience. It was a wedding after all, so we decided to have some fun with it. Mom, Dad, and I got all gussied up and we ordered some beautiful flowers to make the occasion even more special. On a brisk Monday morning, the three of us trooped down to the county courthouse, bouquets in hand, to get married. First, we had to get the marriage license. This was the easy part. All we had to do was fork over $66 (cash only) and fill out some forms. But next came the hard part: finding a judge. The clerk who gave us the license said that we would have to "hunt down" a judge to perform the ceremony (her words, not mine). And hunt we did. Let me explain that the courthouse is two buildings connected by an underground tunnel. We had already gone through the tunnel once to get to the license office. Now, we had to go back through the tunnel to get to where the judges were. Back through the tunnel and up the elevator.
The three of us were quite a sight traipsing through the courthouse. My bouquet was quite a bit larger than Mom's, so it was probably clear to most that I was the bride. But the identity of the groom was definitely unclear to people who saw us. Looking back, I'm probably pretty sure that most people thought Dad, in his dapper suit with boutonniere, was the groom. Or that Mom was the second bride. Or that I was marrying myself. Anyway...
Upstairs, we tried one court room, but it was clear we were not in the right place. A kindly security officer saw that we were lost and came to our aid. After explaining the situation, he directed us to a Judge Tanner on another floor. Back up the elevator to Judge Tanner's office. Upon our arrival Judge Tanner's clerk informed us that the "judges fee" would be $45 (cash only) to perform the ceremony. Within moments, Judge Tanner entered the room and asked, "OK, so which one of you is Matthew?" Mom raised her hand. While this is going on, two security officers were standing outside, unsuccessfully trying to hide their snickering. "Excuse me," said Judge Tanner, "but I have to inform these guys that I am not in fact marrying you two ladies." She poked her head out the door and waved the two men away. Then the ceremony began. It was a basic ceremony with basic vows. When we got to the ring part and the Judge asked if we had rings to exchange, Mom offered up her David Yurmann ring as a substitute. So Mom and I exchanged "the ring" and were pronounced husband and wife. After tears and hugs and few snaps of the camera, it was down the elevator and back through the tunnel again. Now that the ceremony was over, we needed to get certified copies of the certificate ($8 each, and, yes, cash only).
This concluded all of the courthouse business, and it being my wedding day and all, I thought some cake was in order. So we went to Sugarbakers for a light lunch and some really yummy Italian cream cake. It was the perfect ending to Wedding Day Number One. But then I had to go to class later that afternoon...oh well.
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