Yep we did it. Bit the bullet. Tied the knot. Ok you get the point. It was a whirlwind affair. In hindsight, it was everything I ever imagined that the day would be. However leading up to the Day, I was a stressed lady. See the Army decided that an April wedding didn't work for them. At the beginning of January, we got news that future hubby would be deploying this spring. We decided within a week of getting the news that we wanted to get married as soon as possible.
The original plan was the courthouse. My parents were not thrilled about this idea - at all. So after some thought, I decided to "throw together" a wedding in two weeks. Yep a real wedding in two weeks. The first call was to a very dear friend and my wedding coordinator/director. She was all for it. Next on the list were the minister and the photographer. Both were available.I was starting to think that it might work out after all. Now we just needed a venue for the ceremony and reception. Long story short, everything just started falling into place. The church, reception site, family coming into town, I was even able to the wedding dress that I had already bought altered.
The days leading up to the wedding were insanely busy. Tons of phone calls and e-mails were exchanged, plus a few faxes regarding vows.
My family and friends were amazing. Helping out with everything from programs, favors and flowers to make-up. The night before the wedding my brother, dad and mom, and aunt actually set-up an assembly line putting together the programs and favors. I could not have pulled it together without them. In the end, it was the wedding of my dreams. Yes in two weeks we pulled together the wedding of my dreams. Luckily Bonnie (fabulous best friend/director) and I had been planning for months so we had a lot of the ideas already laid out, we just had to execute them.
The interesting thing about planning a quickie wedding is that you realize what aspects of a wedding are important to you and which ones are not. I got my way on a few things that I would not have otherwise. I ended up with a better reception location that was gorgeous. It had the exact feel that I wanted. Everyone was relaxed and after we left everyone staid around and did not want to leave. What more could you want out of your wedding/reception than for people to be enjoying themselves so much that no one wants to leave!
In the end, I learned several valuable lesson. First realize that if something is meant to be,in this case a marriage, it will fall into place. Second what may seem like a bad situation can be turned to good. I was crushed when I found out my husband would be deploying. For many reasons, one being that we would not get the wedding that we had wanted. But with a little imagination and quick planning, we pulled a wedding that was more than we had been able to imagine (with two weeks of planning). The third thing that I learned is timing is everything. I have heard that phrase so many times. However it was not until all the pieces of the wedding started falling into place that I realized how true that statement is.
So there it is, another military bride gets married on the fly. In my case, getting married on the fly didn't mean that I had to throw all those little girl dreams out the window. For once, I was able to have my cake and eat it too!
