While we were in Spain, Brian and I made our marriage “legit” in the Catholic church. I was hoping that this third wedding would be the “one” since the first two were, in my opinion, ridiculous. Let me explain.
Our first wedding took place twenty-five years ago at a country club. We skipped all of the Catholic prerequisites and opted for a seven minute ceremony. Although for me that seven minutes felt like seven hours after Brian decided to ” lighten” the mood by having the best man present me with a Barbie doll ring instead of the actual wedding band selected. He thought he was funny and I thought it made a mockery of the whole thing. At the time, I wanted to murder him, but without witnesses, of course. Wedding number one was just the tip of the iceberg.
Wedding number two was around our ten year wedding anniversary. I thought it would be fun to renew our vows in Las Vegas at a wedding chapel with Elvis officiating. There might have been an underlying “I am going to seek my revenge” theme while planning it, because in my right mind, Elvis marrying us would not be on my radar. But, as luck would have it, Brian decided the night before the wedding, that since he hadn’t had any alcohol in four years, he most definitely was not an alcoholic. Brian went on a “bender” and once again I was tad pissed. What I didn’t know was that this would be the weekend that would change our lives forever. So, you can say that I owe “rigor mortis” Elvis that officiated a big “thank you”. Next time, I am requesting young, hot Elvis. Who am I kidding? There will not be a next time in Vegas. After that weekend, Brian entered a program of recovery and has been sober for fifteen years.
So, you can imagine that I had a bit of PTSD going into this third and hopefully final wedding. I thought that we would simply stand up after the homily and exchange vows, but no, it was an actual wedding. My amazing friends -new and old – who were on the trip with us, made sure that there were flowers, music, and treated us like royalty. I was overwhelmed and a tad gun shy. It was only natural since both ceremonies were, in my opinion, a sham. But then our priest gave the homily which brought home the reality of the life that we have created. It hasn’t been easy, but we have walked through many challenges. I haven’t murdered him, which has crossed my mind over the years, but the reality is I wouldn’t do well in prison. Our life is pretty amazing. Our kids are exceptional and I am grateful for the all the crap that we had to be endured to get to this point.
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