our little weekend getaway (marcia)

Life just never slows down does it? I’ve been trying to post something for a very long time. But I have a good excuse…I got married!

So here’s the big news…Clue and I sort of ran off and, well, eloped. We had the SLC Temple scheduled along with a reception and the whole wedding works. My dream of a small, simple wedding was quickly vanishing. So we called up the Oakland Temple, set an appointment and had a very small group – just immediate family and a couple of others there with us. To us, it was the PERFECT way to get married.

First, I have to tell you my favorite wedding story...and it's not even about us! Since we live in Utah and flew to CA just the day before we got married, the first thing on our agenda was to go get a marriage license. We drove straight from the airport to the County Building. While we were waiting for our number to be called, a man approached Clue and said in somewhat broken English, “Excuse me, my girlfriend and I are getting married today and our friend was supposed to come be our witness, but he hasn’t shown up. Would you be our witness?” Clue’s first thought was this would be good wedding karma for us so he told the man he’d be happy to be their witness.

They were a very nice couple. He was from Poland and she was from the Philippines and they had a darling little 3 year old daughter. They were SO grateful that we were taking time from our busy schedule (we really didn’t have anything else scheduled that day except going to FENTON’s ice cream that afternoon – anybody ever been there? I love their black and tan sundae!).

So after about an hour, the county lady called our little wedding party and soon they were standing in front of this decorated screen that would make Martha cringe, their little daughter running around the room and Clue standing there holding their rings and witnessing as best he could. A little side note, this couple was little. The guy was probably 5’5”, his bride was shorter than him, and Clue is tall – very tall. And he was wearing shorts, running shoes and a polo shirt. That couple must have thought I was so very happy for them, but the reality was I couldn’t start grinning at the hilarity of it all. I have a photo on my camera of Clue with the newlyweds. I’d post it, but that would sorta defeat the anonymity thing.

In the end, it was a very sweet experience. The newlyweds were very grateful and actually quite emotional when they thanked us. They offered to take us to lunch and we politely declined and wished them well.

The next day we got married! And the previous day’s wedding karma worked. To me, it was the perfect day. In the morning, my dad gave us Father’s Blessings and it was such a tender experience.

My favorite quote of the day came from my mom. We were in the bride's room getting dressed for the sealing and I was all dressed and ready to go. The temple worker turned to my mom and told my mom that this was the point where she could tell me any words of wisdom or other sage advice. I think my mom is losing her hearing a bit because she just said, "ok, let's go!" and started walking out of the bridal room. The temple worker turned to me, smiled and said, "I don't think she heard me." I laughed, called my mom back into the room and said, "Mom, you're supposed to give me some motherly words of wisdom." My mom, in her characteristic charm just smiled and said, "just go through with it!" and then again, started walking out the door. That's my mom. She's a classic.

Walking into the sealing room felt surreal, but I was very calm about the whole thing. My dad had blessed me with a calmness and that blessing was realized. The sweetest man sealed us. Like I said, it was a small, intimate group and he stood very close to us, leaned over, looked us straight in the eyes and spoke so sweetly and sincerely to us. I was surprisingly composed – I thought I was going to be an emotional mess. Clue was very emotional and that was very touching.

After the long photo session, we headed back to my mom and dad’s house and ate with our small wedding party. A few more family members were there, younger cousins, etc but it was still less than 20 people and it was so relaxed and perfect! The only instructions I gave to everyone was to bring comfortable clothes to change into and no one was to cook – we ordered Chinese Take-out and feasted and even napped. My mom and aunt had us play a “ White Elephant Wedding” game with all of the White Elephant gifts being a bunch of my stuff I’ve left at my parents over the years – stuff like old rollerblades, an old Van Halen concert t-shirt, etc. It was a bit unnerving as I watched people unwrap a present that I knew was intended to embarrass me.

Later in the evening, Clue and I drove to San Francisco and spent a weekend honeymoon in the City – it was a perfect weekend. Unfortunately, we only had a weekend as I had a business trip the next week. But we’re going to Peru to our little orphanage in November and hopefully Maui later on. We kept our Utah reception on the original wedding date…which is this Friday. It will be nice to be able to relax and spend time with friends and family that are flying in for this weekend instead of being exhausted from the wedding day and then rushing off to a honeymoon.

I told Kris that I still have stuff to write so maybe I’ll do a few more postings. Clue is absolutely amazing and I LOVE being married to him. That’s not to say we haven’t had to adjust to married life. I have some funny stories to share if my husband will let me…