Looks Like We Made It!

 Golda gave me a makeover for our date.

So, fifteen years ago today was our perfect wedding day.  It's hard to know exactly where to start if I'm going to tell the story of our wedding.  Fifth grade?  Senior prom?  The Dear John letter that ended our missionary/college long-distance relationship?  The lunch five years later where Sarah laid it on the line and asked Scott if he would ever date me again?  The day I veered from the path I had chosen to join Scott on the better path?

I think I'll start the spring that I decided I was going to marry Scott.  I moved home to my parents' house to prepare, and to take myself out of the self-imposed role of Party Queen of the violin making school.  I was serious about the Scott thing.  I called the Salt Lake Temple and made a reservation for our wedding.  For Scott's address, I gave my Aunt Tricia's because, well, Scott didn't know about the wedding.  In fact, my intentions had him scared, running the other direction.  While I was purchasing the Martha Stewart Wedding Planner, he was trolling the singles ward for anyone who wasn't me.  Somebody who hadn't let him down before, and who didn't have quite so much power to break his heart, should it come to that.

It was a crazy time, for sure.  Scott going to baseball games with girls named Caroline...me picking out a china pattern.  I can't say I was too concerned, though, because I knew I was right.  There have only been a couple of times when I knew what to do.  One was when I chose to move back to Utah after college for violin making school instead of Chicago or Prague, and one was marrying Scott.  So I just waited for him to come around.

It wasn't until August that we were out in the water at Pineview, wave running, when our friend Brian said, "Why don't you two just get married?"  I said casually, "I already have the temple date set."  Scott looked at me and the color drained right out of his face.  He knew I was serious, and just like that, we were engaged.

Told ya so.

We had a week before I went back to school, and the whole thing was planned by the time the semester started.  I had very specific ideas, but very traditional, too and therefore easy to implement.  And, while my wedding certainly wasn't extravagant, my parents were able to provide what I had in mind, and I am so grateful to them.  The first day after our engagement, I found the perfect wedding dress.  It was on sale, I loved it, and I didn't shop around at all.  Then I ordered the cake from Backer's Bakery, which was right next door to the dress shop, and chose my invitations.  I set up engagement pictures at Busath, where my aunt worked, and chose invitations.  It was easy, because I knew I wanted plain white.  My mom and I met with the two guys I had chosen to do my flowers and I said, "Bright colors.  All of them."  I wore my prom dress in the engagement photos, the one I had worn when I went with Scott.  It was a classic black silk dress with bright bows on the sleeves.  So that was my color scheme.  Black and white, overlayed with bright colors.

My grandmother, Golda, had asked me to get married in the Salt Lake Temple, where she had been married, so that was that.  Scott's parents hosted a beautiful wedding dinner the night before at the Joseph Smith Building.  I wanted the reception to be at my parents' house so I could take my shoes off and relax. I didn't do a fancy hair thing because I wanted to look like me at my wedding.  Laurrie Storey catered it, my brothers and their friends served the food, Trajan's piano teacher played jazz for the music, and we just had a good time.  I was blissfully unaware of the entire Elders' Quorum furiously shoveling sleet out of the gutters in front of the house to prevent flooding, and all the people working with the caterers in the kitchen, and everyone, our parents especially, who probably collapsed at the end of the night from exhaustion.  Scott and I were so happy, and so thrilled with every detail of our day.  When it was time for us to make our grand exit, I just wanted to stay at the party a little bit longer, to enjoy our magnificent wedding day. I didn't want it to end.

Truly, running to our car in the rain, holding hands with Scott, wearing my new Armani suit, was just the beginning of a celebration that has lasted fifteen years and shows no sign of drawing to a close.  It might not always seem like a big party.  We did the exact same thing for our anniversary this year as we did last year, with Scott even wearing the same sweater.  So we're boring.  But beneath our mundane exterior, we are two friends who fell in love as kids, really, and had the good fortune to somehow hang onto a good thing.  I used to listen to Barry Manilow and pine away for Scott, after I was sure I had lost him, during that bleak time between falling in love and following our charted courses.  I showed roommates from France, Spain, Japan, Honduras and Germany how good old American girls mourn the loss of their first love.  I would sob over "In Another World" and "The One That Got Away."  "When the Good Time Come Again" was excruciating:

Hope we both survive the world out there
You'll never know what wind will blow so don't forget I care
And don't forget the way we felt together
Sometimes we have to hold to all the good that's been
Until the good times come again...

Tonight, as I jumped in the car for our big fifteenth anniversary dinner, I sang another Barry Manilow tune, "Looks like we made it!"

Here's another one for you, Scott...
Keep Each Other Warm lyrics
Songwriters: Hill, Andrew; Sinfield, Peter John;

If you're looking for the dream you dreamed of
Open your eyes
If you're looking for the one and only
In your life, oh darling

Reach out your hand, reach out for me
I'll be walking beside you
Through it all
And we'll stand tall

When we're blown by the wind
Torn by the storm
We'll always find the love we need
To keep each other, keep each other warm

Come sail into my arms
The harbor of my heart
And trust that love is all we need
To keep each other, keep each other warm.


Boy, am I glad I ended up in the harbor of your heart, Scott.  I'm glad I don't have to rely on my moonlight memories of you, as wonderful as they are.  I can't smile without you, so don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me.  We made it through the rain on our wedding day and every day since.  Love ya!