Just Married

I woke up next to my wife this morning.

For most people, today probably hasn't started off any differently than any other Sunday.  In practical terms it hasn't really hasn't been an atypical Sunday for me so far either, but there is one vitally important difference.  Last Sunday I wasn't a husband.  Last Sunday I didn't wake up next to my beautiful wife.

I know it's early and I'm probably rambling.  It's six o'clock and I haven't even had my coffee yet, but I decided to post something now because I figure the next few days will be too hectic for me to get a chance to do much of anything on the computer, and I really wanted to tell you a little about the wedding.  I think I can post a few pictures here, but for anyone who wants to see all of our wedding photos you can follow this link, or you can see our wedding scrapbook here.

This is Sapphire's favourite picture:

 And here is Sini's favourite one:

Sini is still sleeping.  I had to be careful getting out of bed so that I wouldn't disturb her.  I really didn't want to leave the room, though, so now I'm sitting here on the floor with my laptop and I've got my ear buds in so that I'm the only one who can hear the little synthesized voice of my screen-reading software.  I don't think anyone else in the house is awake yet.  It's kind of strange, because I'm generally not an early riser.  Half the people in the house are usually up before me.

So, where should I start?  I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole thing and I'm not even sure how to begin telling you about our big day yesterday.  The weather was perfect and everyone we invited was able to come.  We had a few minor mishaps but no major disasters.  My mother was even on her best behaviour.  Oh, and Pax fulfilled his best man role amazingly well.  His speech was really good.  It was funny on purpose and not because of any cultural misunderstanding or language-related problems.   Everyone laughed when they were supposed to, and they laughed with Pax and not at him.  He really did say nice things about Sini and he said nice things about me, too.  His amusing story wasn't all that embarrassing.  The only slightly awkward part came right at the end of his speech when he announced that he hoped Sini and I would have lots and lots of children because he'd like some more brothers and sisters to play with, and that he hoped we would start working on that right away.   Afterward, people kept coming up to us and saying how cute they think Pax is and how pleased they were that we included him in our wedding in such an important way.  There were also lots of jokes about us getting started on Pax's future siblings, to which we tried to respond with good humour.

The only real difficulty we had yesterday was convincing Pax to wear his shoes.  He didn't like the dress shoes we'd bought for him because he said they pinched his toes.  Believe me, I felt his pain.  My wedding shoes were none too gentle on my feet either but, unlike Pax, I managed to make it through the entire day with mine on.  I have to say, I was pretty happy when all the festivities were over and I was able to take them off.

As it turned out, Pax didn't make it through the day with his shoes.  I didn't find out until after the ceremony that Pax was barefoot through the entire thing.  If you see pictures in our album of him with no shoes on, here's the explanation.   We let him play outside just before the wedding actually started, as long as he promised not to get his good clothes dirty.   By some miracle he did stay clean, but what he didn't do was hang onto his shoes.

Oh, before I forget, here's another of Sini's favourite pictures.  I wish I could've seen this.  While we were getting ready, Sini's veil mysteriously went missing.  My dad happened to look out the window and saw Pax playing outside with it.   He went out and got it, but not before snapping a picture with his phone.  Actually, he took several pictures.  Pax was having a great time and apparently Dad thought it was funny, so you'll probably see more than one photo of Pax with the veil in our album.

But, I was telling you about Pax's shoes.  Sini was the one who finally noticed they were missing.  Pax was standing next to me in the receiving line.  Sini, of course, was at my other side.  At one point, Sini kind of leaned across me and said in a stage whisper, "Pax Viridis, where are your shoes?"

This question was met by dead silence for several seconds.  Finally, I heard, "They better at playing hide-and-seek than me."

"What?" I said, and was interrupted from saying anything further for a minute while I shook hands with some of our guests and accepted their congratulations.

"I played hide-and-seek with my shoes," Pax whispered. "I think they won."

"We'll talk about it later," I whispered back. 

Later, Pax confessed that he'd taken his shoes off and stashed them under one of the shrubs in the yard, but then he got busy playing with Cassie and the kids of some friends we'd invited to the wedding.  He forgot under which bush he'd hidden his shoes, and despite help from the other kids, he was unable to locate them.   After the reception and the dance were over, Dad went out to look for Pax's shoes, but he couldn't find them either.  We figure someone else liked them better than Pax did and took them home.  Needless to say, Pax is less than devastated by their loss.

Other than Pax's little misadventure with his footwear, though, everything else went off beautifully.   Sini and I decided that we wanted to compose our own vows.  The traditional ones just didn't seem appropriate for us.  I don't practice any religion, and although Sini does follow Erisan spirituality to some degree, it doesn't really line up with any of the classic Christian religions of Earth.   Besides, making up our own vows seemed more meaningful and personal to us.  I thought I'd be nervous trying to remember what I'd planned to say, but I was fine.  

My only real moment of anxiety was when it was time for me to put the ring on Sini's finger.  I was stupidly afraid I was going to drop it.   Afterward, Sini told me that she worried about the same thing when it was her turn to place the ring on my hand.   I'm happy to say that both of us are now wearing gold bands, neither of which were dropped.

My co-workers from the store and their buddies did a fabulous job with the music for our dance.  I had a lot of confidence in them to begin with, but my opinion of them went up several levels on the awesome-o-meter after yesterday.   Most of the music was instrumental, but Eddie did an amazing cover of Phil Collins' song 'You'll Be In My Heart' for us.  It's one of our favourite songs.  

One of the most remarkable things that happened yesterday was that Rommie apologized to us for repeatedly voicing her doubt that we could put together our wedding in less than two months.  She said she thought our wedding was lovely and that everything was very well done.   Sini and I are really proud of that, but we're also really proud of everyone who helped us make our day perfect and memorable.  We couldn't have done it without our roommates and friends.

We got lots of really nice gifts, and some of my relatives sent us money, which will help to pay the bills associated with the wedding.  Getting married is expensive, but I'd never suggest the cost should discourage anyone.  It's totally worth it.   We'll probably start working on our thank you cards for everyone tomorrow. 

I'm not sure what else to say, so I think I'll end this post here.   Maybe I'll get back in bed.  It's way too early for me to be up on a Sunday morning anyway, and I think a little snuggling with my wife might be in order.