It's Like Rain on Your Wedding Day!

It is early morning on March 7th 2008. My eyelashes flutter open and I instantly remember that today is the day that will change my life forever. It is my wedding day. My bridesmaids, Mom, brothers, nieces, Aunts, cousins and I are staying in a beautiful old house on the Neuse River in downtown New Bern, North Carolina. I instantly run over to the window to see the weather...rainy and windy. It is so foggy that I can't see anything past a few feet. Twelve hours earlier at our rehearsal it was picture perfect weather. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful 70 degrees. Today? Well, it could not be any more opposite. I knew ahead of time that my wedding day would not go off without a hitch! I mean, weddings always scream for disaster..and my wedding?! Well, need I say more?

Let's rewind back to December 17th 2006. My boyfriend Daniel and I had just finished up another semester of college. My favorite author is Nicholas Sparks. While we were in college, Daniel always used to surprise me with Sparks' newest book. Well, somehow Daniel found one book that I had not read yet. It is called "A Bend in the Road." The book is set in the beautiful town of New Bern, North Carolina. The way Sparks described the beautiful waterfront town with all of its historical charm made me wonder if a place like this really existed. I remembered telling Daniel that I wanted to go to New Bern. He always thought it was funny the way that I pronounced New Bern. I'm a yankee and I put the emphasis on the second syllable so it sounds more like a question. He is from North Carolina and he puts the emphasis on the first syllable and then runs it all together (try it..you will know what I mean).  Well, December 17th was the day that he was finally taking me to New Bern! It was freakishly warm for December. It was sunny and over 70 degrees. New Bern was exactly as I had pictured it.



We strolled down the beautiful historic streets of New Bern



We visited the birthplace of Pepsi




We toured a beautiful old church






We walked hand in hand down the beautiful waterfront



And then at sunset while we were in a beautiful white gazebo..Daniel got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife...and make him the happiest man in the whole world..

and...I said...









YES!!!

Let's fastforward to my wedding day. I am looking out the window thinking about all of the months and months of planning and preparing that have led up to this day. The plan was to become man and wife at the very gazebo where he asked me to become his wife. It is t minus 9 hours from the ceremony and it is pouring buckets with tornado-like weather. I can handle the light rain or even the heavy rain...but the wind?! Really?!  I am sitting here thinking," Rain, or no rain, I am still getting married today!"


It is now 1 hour from the ceremony...I am trying to have a good attitude about the rain thing..so I am focusing on getting myself ready..except that my makeup is not here!! All of my makeup that I have ordered for the wedding was in my mailbox..an hour away in Goldsboro!! Luckily, 15 minutes before the cermony started my in laws are able to get it to me..just in the nick of time! Phewww!!




I had the perfect view of the gazebo from the room where I got ready..

It is now time for me to go downstairs with my dad...he will be singing "I loved her first" after he gives me away. I am pretty sure he is more nervous than I am on the elevator ride down..

The peak of the storm hits just as I am about to walk down the aisle. I can hear the rain and the wind howling. I look out the window and it is as dark as night outside. I am starting to get a little bit nervous...

It has always been my dream to walk down the aisle to the beautiful sound of a violinist playing the Wedding March. Just as the doors open..I hear the violinist playing. But what he is playing..is NOT beautiful! The best way for me to describe the sound would be to compare it to a dying cat and then multiply it by ten. I am standing here waiting for him to take the queue and start the Wedding March..and I wait...and I wait..and then I feel a push from my wedding coordiantor. (If only I could turn around to see the nasty looks Miss Paula is now shooting my violinist). Seriously, how many girls do you know that have not walked down the aisle to the Wedding March?!  He actually wore a black shirt with blue pants and black Crocs..to a wedding!!! His music "samples" on his website were very misleading(as in he wasn't the one playing those samples). I took violin lessons for a few years in elementary school and I am pretty sure that I could play better than him!!

The pouring rain, howling wind, and screeching violin suddenly fall silent. I have spotted the man of my dreams waiting for me at the end of the long aisle. Every sound and every person disappears into the background and he is all that I can see. Suddenly everything that has gone wrong today is forgotten and all that matters is that I get to him...

The rest of the ceremony goes off without a hitch...well if we don't count my $180 hem that ripped out on the way up the stairs..


My brother Joe and my father-in-law perform the ceremony and my brother finally announces us as husband and wife..



We then ride off into the sunset(or would you call it a cloudset?) in our Cinderella carriage

 Today is August 15th 2011. I have been married for 3 years and 5 months. As I look out the window I cannot help but think of my wedding day. It is rainy and dreary. Right now I am listening to my Ipod and the song "To Make You Feel My Love" is playing and I am thinking about when it was sung on our wedding day... "When the rain is blowing in your face and the whole world is on your case...I could offer you a warm embrace to make you feel my love."

Some people say that rain on your wedding day means good luck..I think they are right.

"I could make you happy make your dreams come true.. nothing that I wouldn't do..go to the ends of the earth for you...to make you feel my love."



The NITRO

It was May 2004 and my graduating class (all 5 of us) went to Six Flags NJ for our senior trip. Now, most people would be elated to go to a theme park for their senior trip. Me? not so much! I would have been much happier to do anything ELSE but go to a theme park. My mission for this trip was just to simply survive. Now, don't get me wrong..I love a good thrill as much as the next thrill seeker BUT I can't help but wonder what all could go wrong. For those of you who are scoffing me right now...you obviously know NOTHING about me!


It was an overcast day in May and I was doing what I do best at a theme park...bench hopping. I sat at every bench in front of every big roller coaster at the park watching my classmates excitedly wait in line.I kept thinking some other scaredy-cat would join me on the bench and we could chat over an icecream cone about our hatred for theme parks and roller coasters, but no..it was just me! Even the kids half my age didn't even blink when they saw the massive roller coasters they were about to ride.My classmates were all laughing and joking when they got off of the rides and I made a pact with myself that I would ride one roller coaster before the day was over. I actually enjoy riding roller coasters contrary to what you might think reading this. I just can't help but think that I will be a statistic in the small group of roller coaster fatalities...


It was toward the end of the day and there were 2 roller coasters left to ride before we called it a day. The Nitro and the new Superman ride. I decided to put on my big girl panties and ride the Nitro. I was so over my classmates calling me a baby! I nervously waited in line...my stomach in knots! I just wanted to get it over with! Finally it was my turn. My friend Sonya, her brother(who happened to be our teacher) and I sat down ..and then it hit me..." I could die on this ride!!!" I jumped up to run away and my other 2 classmates(i won't call them friends) Skippy and Joel grabbed me as I was running down the line full of people! They drug me back, one of them actually sat on me while the other one put the harness down on me just as he jumped off my lap!!! A few seconds later..we took off!! Skippy, Joel, and Sarah were waiting for the next ride. Skippy and Joel looked quite smug as they waved goodbye to us!

It was the climb of death! It felt like it took forever as we slowly chugged to the top...233 feet to be exact!!! As we reached the top I felt the coaster go backwards a few feet and then click..click...stop. It simply stopped in mid-air!! I asked my teacher who had rode it before,"is this normal?!!!" to which he replied,"No!!"  That is when the panic hit me. I started hearing people behind me having panic attacks. We waited for 20 minutes!! At this point it was starting to rain and we were so high I cold barely see anything through the fog. All I could think was," If I ever live through this I am going to kill Joel and Skippy!!!"


After about 20 minutes, we saw someone walking up the million plus stairs to the top of the drop where we were. He said something "had gone wrong". All I could think was, " No! you don't say?! I am hanging here suspended 233 feet in the air for the past 20 minutes and everything is just peachy?!"  I still remember begging him to let me go back down the steps with him..I just wanted off of that ride NOW!  He told me I had to finish the ride! Another 10 minutes passed and the ride carried on...I had visions of our coaster flying off of the track and plummeting to my death! When the ride was FINALLY over our coaster came whipping through and Skip and Joel were laughing and Sarah looked like a nervous wreck! 


This could ONLY happen to me! Of all of the rides my classmates rode the whole day..I decide to face my fears and ride the Nitro and then it gets stuck! Why didn't it happen to Skip, Joel, and Sarah? I will tell you why..because I WASN'T ON THAT RIDE!