Mucky Declarations

part 3 Upon awaking at 9am, so as to not miss Holiday Inn's new amazing free breakfast, I realised that this was the day that I was going to marry the love of my life. All of us guys got up and got ready, seeing my family with passing glances. I felt horrible for not being able to spend more time with them. After being as dolled up as you can get minus a tuxedo, we made our way to the church... which was locked. The wedding was at 2, and we were there at 11am, but forgot to get the key from anyone. Val's family never runs on time, so deep down, I wasn't that surprised. Our photographer arrived shortly, getting the infamous "before" pic shown on my website. I was eventually instructed to sit in the front seat of the car with my groomsmen blocking all possible views, lest the bride drive up unannounced, and have us see each other accidentally. People finally arrived, letting us in. We got all tuxed up by about noon, and had all of our guy pictures taken. The next hour or so was, as I'm sure most husbands have known, the longest time of my life. I was confined to the downstairs reception area, where our changing room was, with a passing greeting to guests that ventured down. People seemed to take some sort of a sick pleasure in reminding me of the time: "Only an hour and a half until you're married," "Fourty five more minutes of freedom, Chris," "Thirty more minutes, and you'll get to see her," "Hey, can I steal some of those mints, or are they just for the reception?" All the while I was thinking quite loudly, "I know...I know!...I KNOW!!!...No, you can't have any mints." The entire ordeal was a blur. We were finally waiting on one friend of our family that got lost trying to find the little country church. Two o'clock came and went, as I gave the okay to wait a few more minutes. Finally, the Dewalls arrived, and the ceremony commenced. There were only two things wrong with the ceremony. The first was the cutting short of a very cool guitar version of Canon in D while my sister lit the candles, thus making the pastor and I a bit late for our entrance at the front of the church. The second was also musically related, as another piece of music by the same artist was cut short as we were lighting our unity candle. The CD player operator cut off Bach's prelude of his unaccomplanied cello suites at a fermata, leaving a sort of "shave and a haircut.........(no resolution)" feel to the piece. Drove me, and probably my dad, nuts. But other than that, all was well. The pastor seemed to talk forever in his opening of the ceremonies. The love chapter in Corinthians was read, as well as another verse of scripture that I can't remember presently. Then rings, with a small 'repeat after me' reading that was fairly typical. Then came vows, the part that I deemed the pinnacle of the service. I shakily and softly read from the piece of paper that I had scribbled a few days earlier:

Hey Gorgeous, We've come a long way, and it's kinda hard to believe this day is here. There are times when it seemed like it would be forever, but it's finally here. It's been surprisingly hard to put into words all I want to say here today. I hope that more than any words I would write, that my life has been and will continue to be the true testimony of how much I love you, and how I intend to treat you for the rest of our lives. It seems strange and almost inappropriate to condense all of that into a page of text, but here is my feeble attempt anyway. We've talked several times about how love is a choice, and that's true. But love is also a gift, and there are many things that I hope to give you as an expression of my love: - I promise to give you my time. How could we have gotten to where we are now without the time we've spent together? I pray that God will take that time, and give us a better relationship as we grow together. - I promise to gife you my devotion. Second only to God, I will give you first priority in my life over my job, my hobbies, and my friends. I will love you , cherish you, and submit to you for the rest of my life. - Lastly, I promise to give you my hand, so that we can walk, live, and pray together. I will regard you dearly as my best friend, my confidant, my equal, and my companion for wherever life may take us. I promise to stand my your side through anything. All of these things I promise to you today, and I hope that in years to come, my life will show more than these words that Valerie Kay Day, I love you.

Next came the unity candle, where one of the cooler parts of some wedding services I've seen takes place. Lighting the candle doesn't take ten seconds, so the couple typically has a few seconds to talk to each other out of earshot of the audience. We both liked this, and purposely incorporated it into the ceremony. This, however, was where the second song was cut short, as well as our time to talk. We went with the flow, however, and were soon presented as Mr. and Mrs. Chris and Valerie Doss. The next few hours were tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment. I know that a wedding is supposed to be a sharing of the union with friends and family, but after the ceremony, I wanted nothing more than to be with my wife. This was especially frustrating, knowing that we had at the very least an hour and a half drive ahead of us before this could happen. But festivities commenced anyways. We had our pictures taken, and I realised even more what a beautiful woman that I had been blessed with. I didn't realise how long this took, as time is not something that acts normally to a newlywed, and we ended up keeping our guests waiting for a good hour and a half before we arrived downstairs to cut the cake and all that rot. We got to talk with a few old friends and new family, and be congratulated all around. We were both very antsy to leave, and got to soon enough. I could tell that all the kooky little mishaps that plague Val's family were going to come into play when we attempted to depart to her sister's house to get changed, and found that we had forgotten any clothes to change into. After changing, we returned to the church to find Val's car shoe polished, canned, and interiorly decorated with various contraceptive devices. Her family has an interesting sense of humor, and greatly cherished the look on her face, as I had already seen the display. Our backseat was packed with our gifts, and after a few minutes for a brief lunch/dinner and a bit of time with our families, we departed. And since then, life has been good, as Val and I have many times looked over and told each other. We are still living out of boxes a bit, but that will change. So with this final edition of the wedding description, here's to many more happy memories, and joyous posts about married life.