The Wedding Weekend

The wedding was amazing. Although the time was far, far too short - every minute of it was worth it. Even the catastrophic way in which the weekend ended...

Everything went perfectly with my flights to Des Moines. I made it safely onto the hotel shuttle and Prince Charming (with his infinitely useful hotel experience) ensured my early check-in to our room so that I could get myself family/friends/wedding ready. I took my time getting ready, since I had over 2 hours to do it. While I was still in the process, PC was able to sneak away for a few minutes to come see me, which was wonderful. He then had to run back over to where the wedding party was for photos and I kept getting ready. The plan was for him to come back over to the hotel after pictures to meet up with me and his family, make the introductions and walk us over to the church.

Just before noon (the ceremony started at 1), PC called to tell me that his dad, stepmom, and sisters (one step, one half) were outside the hotel and wondering if they could come up to our room to brush teeth and freshen up after their drive over from Dubuque. Not wanting to be rude, but horrifyingly nervous of meeting the fam by myself and with little warning, I asked him to have them give me 10 minutes to finish getting ready and then they were welcome to come use the room. Despite my reservations and nervousness, Prince Charming's family was really great. His stepmom was extremely friendly and welcoming and it made the whole thing much more comfortable than it could have been. We all ended up walking over to the church together and I sat between his dad and stepmom during the ceremony. It was, just like everything else between PC and I, surprisingly easy.

The ceremony was gorgeous, though it was a Catholic ceremony, so it was a little too formal and structured for me. The bride was absolutely gorgeous and Prince Charming was breath-taking in his tux. There was a long gap in between the ceremony and the reception, during which I tried to take a nap and then PC and I got to spend a bit of alone-time together. I hadn't really considered how hard it would be to be the date of the Best Man, but there was a pretty large demand on his time - which of course I was cool with - it was his best friend's wedding after all. But once the reception got swinging, we had the greatest time. I sat with his family at a table, because PC was seated at the wedding party table for the beginning of the festivities. I actually had a lot of fun with them. I won over his stepsister (who is 20 or 21) by complimenting her shoes and we got along really well. I made good conversation with his dad and stepmom and just really enjoyed myself. Once PC's formal duties were over, we were finally able to really spend some time together.

We had a blast. I loved being in his world: meeting his family, his friends, seeing him in his element. And here's the kicker: I caught the bouquet. Yep, that's right. I totally caught the bouquet. Prince Charming and I had actually talked about it a little - he was hoping that I would catch it, but I told him that I was not going to embarrass myself and fight for it. I dragged PC's stepsister up with me and we stood demurely in the back. The bride through the freaking thing right to me. She launched it backward toward the crowd of single girls (it was a huge reception, so there had to have been at least 30 or 40 girls up there) and it just flew right toward me. I reached up and grabbed it and just stared at it - I was so shocked! But I was totally pleased too. As completely dorky as it sounds - I really think that things (actually, we both think this) with Prince Charming were meant to be, and it's things like this that just back-up that belief.

For the rest of the night we socialized and had a little wine and danced (I am a notoriously bad dancer, but somehow magically, I can dance with Prince Charming. It's inexplicable.). We had an amazing time. The night went too fast, as did the following morning, when we slept in and then ordered room service and ate it in bed. We had lunch with his family and then we went to the airport together. My plane was supposed to leave about half an hour before his, and we both cried when we said goodbye. Every time we see each other, it gets more amazing. And every time we have to say goodbye it gets harder. Every day that we're apart gets harder. I never knew that I could love anyone so much.

It was after I boarded my plane that everything went to hell. At the time that we were supposed to take off, we got word from the pilot that there was too much traffic in Chicago, my connection city, and that we were delayed. We ended up sitting on the runway in Des Moines for an hour and a half - long enough for me to miss my connection to Baltimore. They couldn't get me out until 2pm the next day, so I spent the night in a cheesy airport hotel and had to miss work on Monday. I was exhausted and stressed and there was just nothing I could do about it.

I finally got back to Baltimore after 6pm on Monday night. My journey home had put a bit of a tarnish on the sparkle of the wonderful time that I had with Prince Charming, but at least I had made it back in one piece. And I knew that no matter how hard the next two weeks (my final two weeks in Baltimore) were going to be, they would pass and then on August 2 I would be with PC again - in Montana, for 10 whole days.

Lyrics of the Day

"Way down below there's a half a million people, somewhere there's a church with a big tall steeple. Inside the church, there's an altar filled with flowers, wedding bells are ringin' and they should've been ours." Johnny Rivers Mountain of Love

Wedding Bells

This weekend there will be wedding bells.

Of course I'm not that crazy! They won't be my wedding bells. This weekend I'm meeting Prince Charming in Des Moines, Iowa for his best friend's wedding. PC is the Best Man, and you better believe that I'm salivating at the thought of him in a tux. I'm so antsy and impatient to see PC after this nearly four-week separation that this week has been crawling by. I'm not even sure if it's crawling - it's more like I'm shoving it along as it digs in its heels.

I've never had a date at a wedding before. Someone to dance with at the reception and get teary-eyed with during the vows. It's such a romantic idea, I just can't wait.

Until that moment that I finally see my Prince Charming again, I feel like I'm merely biding my time. The job that brought me to Baltimore has gotten increasingly wearying and although I still have fun with my friends that work here with me, I'm literally counting days and hours until the wedding and then again until I'll be on a plane back to Montana for my vacation. Oh! And did I mention that I'm meeting family this weekend?! Saturday I'll be meeting PC's dad and stepmom, and possibly his half sister (though I'm not sure she'll be there). I'm nervous and excited and all I can hope is that I make a good first impression. Family is of immense importance to me and I couldn't live with his family not approving of me. Of course, PC assures me that everyone he's ever known will absolutely love me. I sure hope that he's right!

Lyrics of the Day

"Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married. Gee I really love you and we're gonna get married. Going to the chapel of love." The Dixie Cups Chapel of Love

Doubting Thomas

As I said in my previous post, I sometimes feel like I need to justify my relationship because it has been such a short time. And Government Peon drove that point home in her comment on my post. I know that's how these stories usually work out. I do. (And I definitely don't begrudge GP for sharing, it's really the most common outcome of something like this.) I know that I sound naive and starry-eyed and that half (at the least) of my audience has got to be waiting for this to crash and burn. But it won't.

When I was growing up, The Sister and I used to go down the street to visit some neighbors of ours all the time. They were an old couple (in their early 70's at the time I think) and the wife made dolls and they never had any grandchildren so they fed us cookies and doted on us. They had been married for 30-some-odd years and were still wildly in love with each other. The best part of the story was that the husband proposed to his wife within a couple weeks of their meeting and they were married within three months of knowing each other. And they made each other happy for as long as they were together.

If all of this was taking place 50 years ago and Prince Charming asked me to marry him tomorrow, everyone would breathe a collective sigh of relief that I wasn't going to end up the sad, pathetic spinster of the family. But it's just not socially acceptable anymore to marry someone so quickly after meeting them. The standards by which relationships are measured have reached such a strange paradox in our society - it's a wonder that anyone gets married at all anymore. One the one hand: you don't want to settle, so you're always supposed to be looking for the "better" mate (more attractive, more compatible, more intelligent, wealthier). On the other hand, even if you find the "better" mate, if you're not perfectly happy all the time, you can just go ahead and flush the whole thing down the toilet, because why work at anything at all?

That's not how I feel about marriage, and it's not how Prince Charming feels about it either. I think what's important is that you find someone that you can love and that makes you happy and then you just make that decision to be together and to make it work. It won't always be peaches and cream and hearts and teddy bears. It won't always be easy, but there will always be love and there will always be a reason to keep going.

Now I know that I've stepped up on my soapbox, but I guess that it's hard for me to be honest with people about where I'm headed with Prince Charming for this very reason: I feel as if I need to defend what I feel and what I know in my heart. And I will defend it for as long as I need to, because it's worth defending. But years down the road, people will be able to look at Prince Charming and I and tell our story as an example of one of those times when everything that should have gone wrong went right.

Lyrics of the Day

"Give me an answer, fill in a form: mine forever more. Will you still need me? Will you still feed me when I'm sixty-four?" The Beatles When I'm Sixty-Four

The Truth of It All

Pardon my absence, I just don't know where the time goes these days. Not sitting in front of the computer at work makes it much more difficult to keep up with blogging the way that I should.

When I said that weekend in Los Angeles was monumental, I wasn't just talking about the fact that Prince Charming and I said, "I love you." There was more to it than that. I hinted at it when I mentioned the comment he made to his friend about marrying me. That seemed like an off-hand sort of comment at the time , but the truth of it is...

We really are going to get married. And have babies. Starting tomorrow.

Okay, I'm kidding about the tomorrow part, but only about that. Obviously Prince Charming and I realize that we still have more getting-to-know-you stuff to do, and we do think that we should live together before we get married - but at this point we just know that we want to spend the rest of our lives together.

Does that sound as huge to you guys as it does to me?

Part of me feels like I need to justify the relationship; explain how it is that we can be so sure about a relationship that is still so new and one that has taken place almost exclusively over the phone. But the other part of me just knows, just loves Prince Charming so much that nothing anyone could think or say could ever matter. It seems most crazy to me (well, to both of us really) that today is our three-month anniversary. It feels like we've been together longer, in a good way. At this point, we're talking for hours every day. We wake each other up in the morning and tell each other goodnight as we go to bed. Sometimes I'm going to bed as he's just going to work and he's going to bed as I'm getting ready in the morning, but that won't have to be the case for much longer. In three weeks I'll be leaving Baltimore for a much-needed three week vacation in Montana. And PC is coming to stay with me for 10 days - which is longer than we've ever spent together at one time. But every minute that we have spent together has just made our feelings stronger, has just made us want to spend even more time together. I have no idea how it could have happened like this, but I found The One. As strange as this is to say on what's supposed to be a dating blog - I'll never date again. I've meet the man of my dreams and the man that I'm supposed to marry and I've never been happier. I've never felt this way about anyone in my entire life and I've never been loved like this. It's the most amazing thing in the entire world.

Lyrics of the Day

"You said you found her and you would make her your bride, stand by her till you die. And your tender eyes, they'll glisten with pride and your smile so satisfied." Maria Taylor Hitched!