Marriage stories (good and bad)

[paperfiend]

Together 13 years, married 11.

Our wedding day, while COLD for the time of year and slightly drizzly, went fine. Our interesting story is that when the maid of honor went to get her car to drive us away (we didn't have our own car), she loaded in our bags... and then locked the keys in the trunk.

A different bridesmaid offered her car and did the driving-away. The photographer drove the MOH to her house (just a mile from the reception) to get the extra key, and our bags were delivered to us slightly later that evening.

[Kittish]

I remember frantically trying to figure out how to make centerpieces for my friend's wedding. She'd gotten the flowers a day or two before the wedding, but the place she got them from (wholesale club, as I recall) didn't have enough to do the centerpieces she'd wanted. So I wound up doing single rose blooms in these bubble bowl looking vases. It was a challenge figuring out how to get the blossoms to stay on the bottom of the vase, of course they wanted to float to the top. I wanted to use a dab of hot glue for each one (then fill with water), but the vases belonged to the church and they said no. I wound up tucking pennies between the petals of each flower so they'd be heavy enough to sink. I think it took 10-20 pennies per flower.


My own wedding was almost ruined (for me at least) by our photographer. As soon as the actual ceremony was over she grabbed me and spent the next hour posing me (and sometimes the groom, but mostly me) around the park we had the ceremony at, with me getting madder and madder the whole time because I wanted to have some cake (the ritual bit the bride and groom shove into each other's faces is the only piece I got), visit with friends and family that had come out, and just gaze adoringly at my shiny new husband. Instead I got dragged all over the place and posed like a mannequin. The pictures came out nice, but still, she could have held off for 15 minutes or so.

[Kheldarson]

Kabe and I met my first few days at college; we'd end up dating the start of my junior year. Apparently some of our friends started betting on how long we last. I think we won that one

My uncle, though, had a hilarious mishap at his wedding. The rehearsal had gone fine, with the pastor splitting the vows up into small bits. At the wedding, however, he went into longer parts to be repeated. So, of course, my well-known cheapskate of an uncle gets tangled up over promising all of his worldly goods and possessions

Too bad it was actually an omen :/

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Did FiL cough up or did you get stuck for it?

Whoops, guess I should have mentioned that. FIL and MIL aren't together, think their divorce was when my wife was in grade school. Mother in law had just gotten married(again, lol, she was on hubby #3) the month before our wedding. A rushed event, as she was a few months pregnant.

Family events are fun, lol. Nothing like explaining to the kids why they have six grandparents.


I wound up paying. Nobody I could have passed it to, other than my parents perhaps, but they had already shelled out enough. Things might have been different if we had had a larger shindig, but we only had 75 at our reception. Bill with a good tip wound up being $1400.



There's another fun wedding factoid pertaining to my family. If you add up the total spent from my wedding, we shelled out about $3500.

My sister in law spent that much on her dress, and then got nailed for another $3500 from the open bar at her wedding.

[sms001]

tucking pennies between the petals of each flower

My own wedding was almost ruined (for me at least) by our photographer.

Ingenious!

Almost had the second incident happen to us. Photog was keen to get pictures by the lake w/ the swans etc. In the distance on the terrace we could see our guests having the nice apps we'd picked out and swilling cocktails. About the third relocation my wife whispered that she wished we were up there. Told her I thought SHE wanted these pics, gathered her up, and approached the woman. She seemed aghast that we'd rather mingle with our friends and family than spend half an hour getting multiple but all-too-similar shots. I told her I thought some candids with our guests would suit us a lot better and off we went.

tl;dr: The photographer is your employee. Get what you want.

FIL and MIL aren't together,

I thought as much from the leaving separately, but thought maybe as one of the "parents of the bride" he might have covered it. Oh well, not too steep, and sounds like it didn't ruin your day, which is all that counts.

[CloserToSane]

I was in my friend's wedding earlier this year, her little one (almost 2 at the time) was meant to walk down the aisle with teen bridesmaid one, nope not happening. Teen bridesmaid two? Nope. Me (Maid of Honour)? yeah sure.
We got two steps in, people awwed and the came the biggest nope I've ever seen from a small one. She toddled back to mummy and granddad and I had to carry her down the aisle.

I'm already tossing around ideas for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary (2016), it's also my aunt and uncle's 35th, and another aunt and uncle's but I don't know how long they'll have been married. I'll say 14 for now. Their anniversaries are on Valentines Day, so I could do the 13th which is the Saturday or the 20th, and see what hearts-n-flowers decor goes on sale.

[Mishi]

Together for 11 years, married for nearly 9.

I have a twist on the "met on the internet" story. My dude met my best friend on the internet, they became close friends and nearly dated. She ended up dating someone else, who formed a band with my dude as the bassist. I came over from the other side of the country for a holiday and spent a week with my best friend.

After returning from a shopping trip, I went into the loungeroom to see my dad who was hanging out with some teenage guy that was mucking about on guitar. I thought nothing of it, bent down to hug Dad and the first my dude saw of me was my butt. Within 5 minutes of being introduced, we argued. 3 weeks later, we were dating long-distance and he moved cross-country 7 months after that. We've been together ever since. Thanks to a controlling mother, our wedding was a mess, so we're having a 10th Anniversary party next year to make up for it. To this day, the lead guitarist still jokes about hating me for stealing 'his' bassist.

[Ree]

When my husband and I were married, the priest was brand new to our area, even though we knew him quite well prior to that, and he was a good friend of my parents.

(Due to the fact that both my parents were very involved in the Diocese, we did know a lot of priests.)

He had come from an area that was predominately seniors, and it seemed as if he was performing a funeral service almost weekly. there, and since he had coe to our parish, he had done mostly funerals, but ours was his first wedding in that church.

No word of a lie, after all the vows and register signing, and we were officially married, the priest was addressing the congregation, and he actually said, "Now that the friends and family have witnessed the funeral...er...the wedding..."

Everyone just cracked up.
Those that knew our quirky sense of humour found it to be just perfect.

Sadly, we didn't get it on the video, as a friend (who was far from professional) was making the video for us and had only brought one 2-hour battery with him.
He stated filming an hour prior to the ceremony and got footage of all our guests arriving, but he ran out of juice partway through the over one hour long ceremony.

We got the man part of the wedding, luckily, but it was just as we were signing the register that he ran out of battery. Too bad, That would have been such a funny thing to watch now and give me a laugh that my husband has passed.

(The same priest, when we brought our daughter to be Christened, instead of asking the parents to come forward, asked the bride and groom to come forward. LOL )

[AnqeiicDemise]

When I had my Quincianera I made my mom sign a contract that I would have my wedding MY way (that is in any event that I would actually get hitched) and that included a NON PUFFY, NON WHITE DRESS OF MY CHOICE.

Five years after that, Manthing comes along. We become friends.

Two years after that, I find myself dating the guy.

Two years later I find myself having to dig up that contract and wave it in my mom's face when she starts going insane with wedding planning (and quite insistent that I wear puffy, white dresses I loathe.. and crappy heels that I cannot wear)

One year after that I'm marrying the love of my life in this cute little courthouse in Hayward, then dancing barefoot in my sister's backyard while guests are eating Chinese take out. At some point I stop, look at Manthing and wonder 'how did we wind up here? I distinctly told you I didn't want to date you years ago.'

He just laughed and said 'Mold on bread, baby. Mold on bread.'

Oh, and the dress? It was a champagne colored slip dress. I wanted black lace but I figured I had to give the woman a bone.

[evilfarmer]

Hubs actually pulled off a total surprise proposal. We are part of the SCA and one of our two major events is in May and aptly named May Tourney. I had volunteered to help run the lists giving the Herald announcer his information on the next match and bringing the List Master the names of those who have won and lost. I was busy almost all of the day.

By lunch Hubs pulled me away to get food and go shopping. After we goofed off for a bit it was time for court. Hubs was asked by the Herald how to pronounce his SCA name since its Russian and what my name was. I didn't think much of anything just thinking Hubs was getting an award. I was paying attention when Hubs got called to the front to our Baroness but wasn't straining to hear. He stands up and I hear my name called..I panicked but rose and approached our Baroness and the King, Queen, Heir, and Princess. I had to kneel when I came froward but Tom pulled me up when she said I could rise and he started reciting poetry from Dante. I then had to close my eyes and not fall over. He didn't really get a chance to ask I just sorta tackled him once I opened my eyes. It took him a bit to kneel so the whole time I'm thinking if he doesn't propose I am going to kill him! Cause at that point I had finally caught on.

The only kinda sad part was I had asked Mom and Dad to come out to the event just to enjoy the day but Mom had to go to see my sister 2 hr hours away and Dad was puttering around the house. So about 100 people saw us get engaged including his parents but mine got called after.

That was 2008 and he still hears about it sometimes ^_^ We have been married since 2010 and have been dating since 2005..no we don't do anything quickly..

[Kaylyn]

I had a bit of a crush on the manager of the local video game store, and went in one day to ask him out. There was another guy working there that I'd spoken to several times and also liked, and I wound up asking HIM out instead (upon finding out the manager was married).

Went out with that guy for a few months. At that point in his life he was extremely shy (something he's grown out of) and had never had a date with anyone before. So around Christmas I found out that, as his first significant other, I had been instrumental in helping him realize he was NOT straight. Sigh.

But in those few months I had met another friend of his, and he helped set us up. I more or less moved in with him after the first date, and after I saved his life by dragging him kicking and screaming to the hospital with what turned out to be early stages of necrotizing fasciitis, he proposed to me and we've been married for five years now.

[Luna Baby]

Hubby and I were introduced by each of our best friends the end of my freshman year/his senior year (1988). He had actually been interested for some time but was too shy to approach me. Within a few short months of him graduating high school he left for the military. We hung in there what we could but were on again/off again that 3rd year or so while he was gone but during my freshman year of college he was discharged and we got back together right away. That was in '91. We moved in together in '92. Woke up one morning and I said to him, "instead of going to work, let's get married today." Seemed like a good idea to me and him. It took 3 trips to 2 courthouses to find a judge available to marry us. No honeymoon, we were too poor for that.

We were set to renew our vows on our 10th anniversary but my grandfather was hospitalized with West Nile for 6 weeks or so, so we put it off. Celebrated our 11th with a renewal ceremony with all of the family at the farm. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding.

We will celebrate our 22 anniversary this year with 2 of the most amazing children ever. One just turned 18 and started is first year of college and the other just turned 14 and started high school. Together 26, married 22.

**side note, we've watched our parents go through multiple marriages-my mother 4, my father 2 (possibly 3), his father at least 2 and his mother at least 2. We said once we say "I do, it's for life."

[mathnerd]

My sister wound up with a much larger wedding than she'd wanted, mostly because she gave into demands by others. My sister and BIL lived in Los Angeles, but the wedding was to be held in Miami because the vast majority of both families lived in Florida. As you can imagine, by the week of the wedding, my sister was rather stressed out.

So, three days before the wedding, the priest at the church where both the wedding and the huge formal reception (huge Catholic church with a very formal reception hall) calls. He has bad news. Both the church building and the reception hall have been condemned by the county building department. Remember this is Miami. In December. Where are earth are you going to find a venue for a formal wedding and reception on three days notice in the prime of holiday party season? I thought my sister was going to implode.

Thankfully, venues were found on short notice. The reception wasn't as pretty as it would have been, as it wound up in the fellowship hall of a different church, which doubled as the cafeteria for the Catholic school housed by said church, but it was still nice.

[fireheart]

Bumping this thread inspired by a recent wedding I went to.

First off, me and my SO Thorgrim. We've been dating for 5 years now and have only started living together for the last 6 months or so.

We also have a "met on the Internet" variant. I was talking with a friend of mine (an ex-Supermarket of Doom friend) who introduced me to his friend via webcam. We got talking and suggested the idea of meeting up. Keeping safe and all that, I suggested a public place and decided on a movie theatre. The movie was a low-budget Aussie "drama", but we decided to give the relationship a go. We met in the city a few more times and after visit #3 or #4, we hired out a backpacker hostel room for the day and I basically lost my virginity there. After that, we did the whole parental meet-and-greet. I told my mum we were dating after about a month of us actually dating. The downside was a 4-hour bus commute (2-hours there, 2-hours back) for day visits at first to see one another, then that turned into overnight stays, which gradually became longer. When I left my Supermarket Job and got my after-school care job, I began staying up at his much more often and for longer periods of time. Now we live together interstate.

And no, he has not popped the question yet. This has been the subject of much ribbing from all of our friends. (I'm starting to keep a tally )

The friend that got us together wound up also meeting his wife through the supermarket we all worked at. She was my boss and he worked in the produce department. He left after a while, but they still came in to shop together and would frequently come through my lane if it wasn't busy Then he joined the army and she moved interstate with him to find a new job. Eventually they saved enough money and time to fly overseas and did a trip to Japan, then to a couple of European cities. In Vienna, he popped the question to her. They got married in our hometown a few weeks ago and are going BACK to Paris (among other things) for their honeymoon.

My cousin got married to her long-time boyfriend (8 years, they were engaged for a year) earlier this year. He went all-out for popping the question (he works as a roadie/theatre tech, she's a baker) by setting up a stage with rose petals, having a romantic song playing and all that sort of stuff. Their wedding invite even had a photo of said proposal on it . Then at the wedding, the groom revealed that he'd gone the old-fashioned route of asking her dad (my uncle) for permission* and shared the story.
See, he and my cousin bought a house together and it was in the process of being built. Half of the family works in construction (dad is a carpenter, uncle is a carpenter or bricklayer not entirely sure which, stepcousin is also somehow involved in that side of things, late cousin was going to be a carpenter) and the family were able to get good deals on DIY stuff (ie roller doors, retaining walls etc.). The groom made up the excuse that he wanted to look at the retaining walls and get some advice as they were planning on putting it in their backyard. So my uncle comes over, they go outside. They were silent for about 20 minutes, until uncle eventually asks groom "You didn't come over to talk about the retaining wall did you?"

*-My family is not THAT old fashioned. The groom was just being polite.

[Blue Ginger]

Not a wedding yet, but my sister's partner has just popped the question. I'm now doing the very happy dance because they have only been together for a couple of weeks shy of 15 years. (They were both 17 when they met.)