Two weddings and a health scare

The sunglasses were given to me as a joke from my father-in-law. Little did he know that I would actually wear them. They have appeared in various photos throughout the years.

I love bloggy listy picturey type posts. I think it's a really fun and easy way to see new blogs and learn things about people I've never met. It relieves my inner-nosey-neighbor urge without any awkward moments. Kelly's Korner is a blog I've enjoyed for many months now, and every Friday she has a new topic. I think this is my first time to participate, not just check out everyone else. And since I've been on a blog-fast (or lazy drought), I knew this would be an easy way to stretch my legs.
This Friday's topic is our wedding dresses. When it came time to find my dress, I wasn't sure what would happen. I knew that something super froofy and lacy would not work for me. I also knew I couldn't afford to spend too much. Believe it or not, my dress was $30 on eBay and was so new that it still had the tags on it. No joke!
On their way to my wedding (in the next state), my dad went into the hospital. Literally on the way. My parents stopped at a gas station about 30 minutes from their home because he was in so much pain, and he went by ambulance to the hospital. We weren't sure if we were going to postpone the wedding or not, and it was a stressful several hours while my mom waited to hear what was going on with him and while we waited to hear if she wanted us to come home or not. We finally got the word that, though he was very sick and in a lot of pain, it was not life-threatening. We went ahead with our simple ceremony, my brother lit the unity candle with my mother-in-law, my uncle gave me away (with my dad speaking on the speaker phone of someones cell phone), and we were relieved that everything was OK on the health issue.
The one problem that remained was a photographer. My mom is a photographer and was going to do the pictures for our wedding (as she had for several of my siblings). We were unable to find someone at the last minute and so made do with friends and family using their own cameras. Frankly, at this point, with stress and lack of sleep and excitement and relief and worry and all of that, I was on autopilot. So, while we have pictures and video of the actual day, I was always a little sad that my parents had missed out on my day and that I didn't have any professional pictures of it. Fast forward to our first anniversary. We decided to renew our vows on my parents' front porch. I had always joked with my dad when he built that house that I would just get married on the front porch. We strung some lights, ordered some flowers, pulled the dress out and repeated the ceremony.
And one of the most meaningful parts? We got to have pictures. We were married and renewed at the end of October, and in my hometown there is a park FULL of amazing trees, blazing with color.
A couple of weeks after the renewal ceremony, my husband showed up unexpectedly at my work. He had taken four of our photos and had them printed and framed. Real wedding pictures!
Oh...how long did this little story get? SORRY! haha...without further delay. . .

I can't remember exactly what was going on, some kind of stocking malfunction, I think. One of my favorite pictures though.

This is my favorite picture. It's actually a class project I did in photoshop. The pic started out in color etc. . . but rest assured, it is not too terribly altered because I really do NOT understand photoshop. :)