In less than a month, my husband and I will be celebrating our 13th anniversary. Thirteen might be an unlucky number but I feel fortunate that we have beaten the odds and have weathered the stormy times and come out victorious. I look back at our wedding and reception and smile contentedly. It was a magical day.
Most married couples have at least one moment from either their wedding or reception that is memorable for all the wrong reasons. Whether it is something small like an uncooperative flower girl or something more sizable like thunderstorms during an outdoor ceremony, the reality is that it never goes flawlessly. In fact, despite my fastidious planning, I knew that most likely something was going to go wrong and was determined to not become a Bridezilla in the process.
I must admit that I was almost disappointed that it all went without fault on our mildly sunny spring day. As our ushers rolled out the aisle runner, the string broke, which forced them to kick it down the aisle in a less-than-elegant fashion. At our reception we were greeted by our DJ before we made our official grand entrance urging us to immediately proceed to our cake to cut it before it toppled over. Unfortunately, it wasn’t looking quite as sturdy as the Tower of Pisa and no one was convinced it would hold up another 60 or 90 minutes. Still, as far as wedding ‘mishaps’ those are almost non-issues and I almost felt like something was wrong because nothing went wrong. Yes, I was almost disappointed.
But then we went on our honeymoon. Apparently, I spoke too soon.
The story began a few months before The Big Day. I volunteered regularly for a friend named Alice who had founded a pet rescue and adoption service. Mentioning our honeymoon plans of a cruise departing from Puerto Rico, she asked us a favor. She and her husband often traveled by cruise to various places, such as Puerto Rico and multiple Caribbean islands to rescue, spay/neuter and adopt cats and kittens from the region. (For anyone who has traveled those regions, homeless animals are plentiful). Alice asked us to allow her organization to tag approximately 20 cat/dog carriers of various sizes as check-in luggage for our flight. At the airport, a representative would be there to whisk the carriers away to the appropriate destination. They would handle the whole process and we would never been involved. With some trepidation, and as a favor to my mom who was also actively involved in their mission, we agreed.
As promised, everything went without hitch that very early Sunday morning before our flight. Truly, we were none-the-wiser that any extra luggage was checked in and we boarded our cruise line, relieved that our relaxing honeymoon was about to begin.
Until we came to our cozy cabin room and found 20 dog carriers piled high next to our luggage outside of our door. I was mortified.
Knowing that the ship was due to leave the dock in about 2 hours, we were panicked. Actually, I was panicked and my new husband was angry. From the beginning, he had more reservations about doing this ‘favor’.
Our ship purser was no Gopher from “The Love Boat”. While they tried to remain sympathetic to our cause, they also knew that this was not their problem and we were going to have to find a solution–which meant it had to be out of the hallway by the time the ship left the dock.
Fortunately, I was able to reach Alice by ship-to-shore phone lines. After she recovered from her fits of laughter she rectified the situation. In the end, the porters were able to get the dog crates back off the ship, meeting with the animal rescue group representatives.
So much for nothing going wrong. At the time, it seemed disastrous. Even though it is fun to hear “Mr. and Mrs. Krueger” for the first time, it is not fun to hear it over the intercom system of a cruise ship multiple times the first two hours of your honeymoon. Now? OK, I can talk about it, write about it–even laugh about it. And can honestly say I had that “memorable moment” (that is supposed to bring you good luck in your marriage anyway!)
And, it’s definitely one in a million.
What are YOUR memorable moments in matrimony?
Most married couples have at least one moment from either their wedding or reception that is memorable for all the wrong reasons. Whether it is something small like an uncooperative flower girl or something more sizable like thunderstorms during an outdoor ceremony, the reality is that it never goes flawlessly. In fact, despite my fastidious planning, I knew that most likely something was going to go wrong and was determined to not become a Bridezilla in the process.
I must admit that I was almost disappointed that it all went without fault on our mildly sunny spring day. As our ushers rolled out the aisle runner, the string broke, which forced them to kick it down the aisle in a less-than-elegant fashion. At our reception we were greeted by our DJ before we made our official grand entrance urging us to immediately proceed to our cake to cut it before it toppled over. Unfortunately, it wasn’t looking quite as sturdy as the Tower of Pisa and no one was convinced it would hold up another 60 or 90 minutes. Still, as far as wedding ‘mishaps’ those are almost non-issues and I almost felt like something was wrong because nothing went wrong. Yes, I was almost disappointed.
But then we went on our honeymoon. Apparently, I spoke too soon.
The story began a few months before The Big Day. I volunteered regularly for a friend named Alice who had founded a pet rescue and adoption service. Mentioning our honeymoon plans of a cruise departing from Puerto Rico, she asked us a favor. She and her husband often traveled by cruise to various places, such as Puerto Rico and multiple Caribbean islands to rescue, spay/neuter and adopt cats and kittens from the region. (For anyone who has traveled those regions, homeless animals are plentiful). Alice asked us to allow her organization to tag approximately 20 cat/dog carriers of various sizes as check-in luggage for our flight. At the airport, a representative would be there to whisk the carriers away to the appropriate destination. They would handle the whole process and we would never been involved. With some trepidation, and as a favor to my mom who was also actively involved in their mission, we agreed.
As promised, everything went without hitch that very early Sunday morning before our flight. Truly, we were none-the-wiser that any extra luggage was checked in and we boarded our cruise line, relieved that our relaxing honeymoon was about to begin.
Until we came to our cozy cabin room and found 20 dog carriers piled high next to our luggage outside of our door. I was mortified.
Knowing that the ship was due to leave the dock in about 2 hours, we were panicked. Actually, I was panicked and my new husband was angry. From the beginning, he had more reservations about doing this ‘favor’.
Our ship purser was no Gopher from “The Love Boat”. While they tried to remain sympathetic to our cause, they also knew that this was not their problem and we were going to have to find a solution–which meant it had to be out of the hallway by the time the ship left the dock.
Fortunately, I was able to reach Alice by ship-to-shore phone lines. After she recovered from her fits of laughter she rectified the situation. In the end, the porters were able to get the dog crates back off the ship, meeting with the animal rescue group representatives.
So much for nothing going wrong. At the time, it seemed disastrous. Even though it is fun to hear “Mr. and Mrs. Krueger” for the first time, it is not fun to hear it over the intercom system of a cruise ship multiple times the first two hours of your honeymoon. Now? OK, I can talk about it, write about it–even laugh about it. And can honestly say I had that “memorable moment” (that is supposed to bring you good luck in your marriage anyway!)
And, it’s definitely one in a million.
What are YOUR memorable moments in matrimony?
I love stories like this...
ReplyDeleteAdrienne
That's great! Congratulations on 13 years of marriage. Sam and I will be celebrating 23 next month. My story goes like this. Since we were the typical poor honeymooners, we opted for the Eureka Springs, AR - Branson, MO package. We had a brochure of our room in Eureka Springs... it was devine. A large room with a king size bed, fire place and a jacuzzi large enough for 10 people. Apparently the brochure lied. When we arrived at our room, Sam went in to the bathroom and called me in. The jacuzzi was nothing more than a glorified bathtub with jets. It was barely large enough for me to fit in. Sam, being 6'4"... well, you get the picture. We still laugh about it.
ReplyDeletePaula