Finale

Fourteen months and one week later, my eyes popped open and I sat straight up in bed with one thought: I’m getting married today. I smiled to myself. Then came another sudden and pressing thought: Oh God, I’m gonna throw up.

I jumped to my feet and slumped over the toilet while the wonderful lasagna from our rehearsal dinner made an unexpected and unpleasant encore appearance. My dad came down the hall and peeked into the room. Being the loving, compassionate father that he is, he took one look and yelled, “Fran, she’s puking!” before breaking into hysterical laughter. “Like mother, like daughter.” I heard as he drifted back down the hall. Yep. Apparently, I inherited my mom’s wedding-day-hurling-gene. What can I say? I was a bundle of nerves.

I don’t remember many details about the ceremony. The music was nice. The bridal party was lovely. Tim sang to me. I do remember telling him that if he noticed me looking over his shoulder as he sang, it wasn’t because I was secretly in love with his best man. It was just because I was fighting the urge to cry and needed a distraction.

Probably the most moving part of the ceremony was when Tim and I sang together. “One Hand, One Heart” was the prayer song in the mock wedding scene from West Side Story; the scene that I couldn’t get through without crying because I could see our wedding day so vividly in my mind’s eye. No other song could have been more perfect.

“Make of our hands, one hand.
Make of our hearts, one heart
Make of our vows, one last vow
Only death will part us now.”

I guess you could say we had come full circle; a struggling stage romance that flew in the face of everyone’s expectations.

So, there you have it. Just a couple of clueless teenagers dazzled by firelight; college kids held fast by divine chords of love; and now –older, much, much older but still growing deeper in like, deeper in love, and deeper in yeah, that other “l” word, everyday.

Greater love stories have been told but…this one is all ours.

Oh, the honeymoon?! You didn’t really expect me to share everything now, did you? Hmmmm. ;-)