Farewells and Churchbells

We got hitched. Sorry to be gone so long, but F and I have been all sorts of busy. We got married, said goodbye to my friends and family, drove cross-country, lived at a motel 6 and (finally) moved into a little cottage on the Potomac. That's us (F's dad in the background) having our first post-nuptial smooch. It was SO perfect. Easy, small, gaudy, pink, vintage-y, family and California. Oh, and the REAL dress wasn't any of the dresses that I mentioned in other posts. At the last minute (3 days before??) I finally realized that, sadly, I was not going to lose 20 pounds and fit into my actual vintage wedding dress, so I bought a brand-spankin' new one. That is not a great picture of it, because you can't see that it is actually tea-length and has a semi-full skirt. Alas, it had a vintage-cut, but was not the real deal and not the right fabric or my Juliet cap, so I broke down and wore a veil.

My sisters were gorgeous in their pink dresses; that was the only thing that I got right the first time. We made our own bouquets and they turned out 100 times better than typical florist bouquets. No chintzy fillers - all gorgeous, full, pink roses in a variety of shades. F had a pink rose boutonniere that looked so lovely next to his white dinner jacket. It was my dream wedding - must say.

F surprised me ad I surprised him - for my ring (if you recall) he gave me a 30s cushion cut engagement ring that belonged to his father's mother and on the day, he but a slender, platinum band next to it. (The inscription from his grandfather to his grandmother still on the inside. When it was time to get F's ring (I took him with me) he wished that I had something to hand down to hm as well, something with a little history. But alas - the "My Family Name" family coffers contained no such item, so I had to "make due". All I had was my mother's wedding right that was given to her by my father. But it was yellow gold and obviously a woman's, and obviously VERY 70s (they got hitched in Vegas in the mid 70s). So I took the tiny diamond out of my mother's ring and had it embedded into the INSIDE of F's platinum band from Tiffany. So, he knew he was getting the ring, but had no idea that it had a surprise inside. I also gave him a Swiss Army watch that I mentioned before. I was fairly nervous about that one because I've never seen him wear a watch, but this is a nice one, so I thought he'd like it and I was right. Plus, he is always asking me what time it is, which drives me insane.

Well - F had a little surprise for me! On our wedding night he handed me by OWN Tiffany-blue ring box and inside was a perfect, little diamond eternity band. Very elegant. So I got exactly what I wanted - and I think he did too.

The day after the wedding our families headed back to their respective homes and we checked into a mineral springs resort and spa in central California. We spend the next 24 hours nude in a mineral spring hot tub. It was fabulous.

Then we hit the road - CA - MD in 5 days. With two cats. Not so much. We arrived and checked into the Motel 6, optimistically thinking that it wouldn't be too hard to rent something. 2 weeks later, we finally got a place. And I will never be checking back into the motel 6 again - as long as we both shall live. Now we live in a little cottage by the river and I'll tell you all about it - next time.