Six Years Ago....

...I became this:

....when Tony and I tied the knot :) I sometimes tell folks that's the reason I married Tony, to prove once and for all that I am, indeed, Wonder Woman (the lunch box was a shower gift from my SIL Beth....I still have it....somewhere!). That being said, when people ask me if I'm a Carter, I always tell them yes, I am...but I'm a Carter by choice. And I'd do it again, even if I didn't become Linda Carter!

It's so hard to believe it's been six years -- it seems like forever (in a GOOD way!) and yet it seems like just yesterday. I don't remember much of the wedding itself other than wearing extremely unsensible shoes and wondering HOW LONG was Pastor Luke going to go on???? He told us he had three pages for the sermon, but that wasn't counting his ad libs and rabbit trails....not that I usually minded when listening to him, but those frivolous shoes made me think only of "don't fall over, don't fall over, don't fall over!" Listening back on our wedding ceremony, I must admit Pastor Luke had a wonderful message and Pastor Russ did a great job with the vows. My brother Ron and my then-new father-in-law had lovely solos, while my dad did a short greeting (after Tony welcomed everyone) and my then-new brother-in-law read some of our favorite Bible passages (Psalm 103 and I Corinthians 13).

That said, God blessed us with a lovely day outside, too. The temperatures were agreeable, considering it was still March in Minnesota. We had some of our favorite friends and family witnessing this blessed event, including friends from California who I wasn't even expecting as well as family who recently moved here from Argentina, family from New Jersey, from Ohio (of course), and Tony's siblings from Guatemala, Ethiopia (at the time), and Indonesia (at the time -- and we weren't expecting them...that's another story that follows later in this post). Even Tony's brother from Spokane and his family made a last minute decision to come and join the festivities!

It's been a wonderful six years...we've had some ups (two additions to our family, getting to know each others likes and dislikes...yes, that's a up!) and downs (minor health problems, miscarriage of twins), and I know we'll have more ups and downs as the years go on. But something my father said at the reception stuck with me and has been proving true -- "You may think you love each other now, but one day you'll look back and realize this is nothing compared to the love that will continue to grow and develop over the years." (or words to that effect)

Following is some more of the original email I sent to friends and family shortly after the wedding....

The wedding was beautiful and went off pretty much without any problems. Well, except that we lost the vows. Tony and I thought someone was taking care of them for us; we're still not sure what happened, but while our parents were being seated, it was discovered that "oops, we don't know where the vows are!" (we know now what happened but won't tell you in order to protect the not so innocent....) All the groomsmen set about searching the church while our guests were patiently seated listening to "Largo" play about five too many times (although Jane Wolff did a beautiful job on the organ!) before our wedding coordinator finally found the vows. After that, the six "flower kids" started in and did a great job! Well, sort of. We forgot to tell my niece Hannah to drop flower petals, and as the "older" girls went in, Anna and Olivia started dropping petals...and Hannah started picking them up. We got her straightened out, and off she went down the aisle dropping her petals....until she had enough and decided to empty the basket by turning it upside down then exiting out the back (I think that was about two pews into her walk!). Turns out she was just extremely tired. As soon as she reached her daddy, she was sound asleep. By the time I reached the front, my legs were aching. For any single gals reading this...take my advice. Do NOT wear 4-inch heels during your wedding! I don't remember much about the wedding except for thinking "please hurry up...I'm hot and sweaty, my legs are killing me, and I'm really scared my legs are going to give out and I'm going to topple over!" I think Pastor Luke thought I was nervous because he cracked a few jokes and made some comments about "making sure this won't be too long" to which I added a fervent "Amen!"

Our reception was fun, starting with a wonderful slide show of old pictures and funny captions that my Uncle Ralph put together. His daughter Liz, my matron-of-honor, was seated next to me and often commented "that's not the caption I suggested!" Thank you, Uncle Ralph...it made me really nervous wondering just WHAT her suggested captions were after seeing some of yours! We cut the cake without incident, had some great speeches, everything was emceed by Tony's brother Mark, who did a wonderful job. Towards the end, though, the reception was crashed by a gorilla in a plaid suit jacket who ran round dancing to "I Did It My Way." The gorilla then disappeared (or so we thought) and we gathered up the single ladies (well, most of them...LaMae, Marjean, and a few of the wiser ladies wouldn't join the younger singles) -- Tony's niece Tessa proudly caught the...rubber chicken! When I finally threw the bouquet, another niece, Carrie, was the recipient. Since she's only 14 (I think?), I'm sure her parents are hoping and praying that "tradition" of being the next to marry does not occur! Tony's brother, Jon, who caught the garter, did comment that it doesn't work, since he's caught the garter in the past.

We were then ready to make our exit, only to find the caddy missing....a few minutes later it was driven up...by the gorilla! He opened the door for me and balloons started falling out of the car. I'm still not sure how Dwight, Jon, and Dorothy Crook managed to get so many balloons (with drawn on pigs, cows, rabbits, etc.) into the car. After getting me and my huge dress in the car, the gorilla closed the door...then started heading for the driver's side before Tony could get there...thankfully, Tony made off with me before the gorilla did. (By the way, did anyone notice that Tony's friend Mark Magnuson, one of our ushers, was mysteriously missing during most of the reception until well after we left? Hm....wonder where he "disappeared" to!) We also noticed later that there was a family of small pigs fastened to the roof of the car. Thank you, David, for not putting the real thing on top, as Tony did for you at your wedding! We spent the first night of our honeymoon at a small bed-and-breakfast about ten miles away...and ran into a few couples from church when we went out for supper. So much for staying out of sight! We spent the next few days on the North Shore in Minnesota at a cabin just north of Lutsen before returning home and starting to settle into our place. Rita has taken up the story from there....