As of yesterday, we're officially married!
We pretty much considered this ceremony our 'ceremony of cohabitation" as a proper wedding is still up the road a ways, but we made the most of it. We had a 1PM appointment at the county clerk's office so we were up bright and early. The night before we'd tried on all of our ceremony gear of choice, and on a whim I had my Mom just throw my wet hair up in some old perm curlers she had on hand. Flash forward to the morning of the ceremony and Andy's suit was covered in cat hair since he'd left it over a chair and when I pulled the rollers out, my reflection suggested I was heading out to a "Retro 70s Afro Hair Competition' rather than a wedding!
While Andy was digging around to find the lint roller, I was spraying my hair with water trying to relax the poodle curls. Lots of rushing around until we were off to the clerk's office about 20 minutes away. I didn't think to put on my 3inch thick heeled sandals on AFTER I'd driven us to the court house, I was having trouble compensating for the added height. I wound up going either 25MPH or 60MPH with no in between, with my knees almost up to my chest as I drove, hehe.
We arrived at the clerk's office a little early so we sought refuge in a designated smoking area. We sought refuge because, while there has hardly been a lick of rain in Florida for ages now, it decided to rain all day that day. So there we were ambling around in our finery under a droopy broken umbrella we'd grabbed at the last minute. I was desperate for a ciggie but not wanting to get any ash or burns on my dress, so I stood by an ash tray bent over like I was waiting for a rectal exam, holding the cigarette an entire arm's length away from myself. Andy, meanwhile, was trying to get his tie right and rolling himself with lint roller. Almost everyone that walked by us wished us congratulations. There were people honking horns and giving the thumbs up which was so unexpected, but so nice.
We got into the clerk's office right on time, and the secretary took our info and payment. She informed us that we didn't actually have to wait for the certified copies of the marriage certificate, contrary to the county's information website. She was able to give us copies right on the spot, with the 'showy marriage certificate suitable for framing' slated to arrive later. That made us happy since we can file the AOS papers even sooner than expected. She ushered us back into what she called 'The Wedding Room' and told us to wait.
Ah, the wedding room! It was basically a file storage room with a dusty "Michael's Craft Store $19.95 Special Wedding Arch' thrown in for the occasion, hehe. The arch had plastic swans with their eyes half rubbed off from wear, and the flowers urns were falling apart. There was also what Andy called 'The Nuptial County Records File Cabinet" and the "Nuptial Microfilm Machine" which made the scene that much more romantic, hehe. We really loved it though!
The secretary appeared again, but with the addition of a blue gown which resembled the ones you'd wear for a graduation, she became our officiator. Earlier we'd requested the ceremony to be non-denominational since we're Atheists, which I think was rather unusual for them. She stumbled a bit on the stuff she read out. "We're gathered here in....this company" or "Holy....um...matrimony". She gave up I think, because she repeated "Holy" many times anyway, hehe. It was so weird because the moment we took each other's hands to make the vows, it really was like being instantly transported to some other planet. I suppose it's like that for most everyone isn't it? You just see the other person and there's no one else in the world, the officiators voice was so far off really. I didn't cry though! Just got a lump in my throat.
The secretary/officiator asked if we'd like her to take some pictures but she was rather intimidated by Andy's big digital camera. She did that thing where she touched it like it would explode, hehe. She tried her hardest but she wound up only pressing the button hard enough for it to create focus points but not actually release the shutter. We didn't let her know though, we just thanked her kindly, hehe. While we waited for her to make the copies, we took some pictures ourselves. We were so keyed up it was hard to think of what poses might be nice but we managed. Half of them are nice poses and half of them are us hamming it up and releasing tension through funny faces.
The whole thing took under a half hour! Then we were off to locate the place we'd picked out to take some more photos with nicer scenery. This area doesn't have much in the way of parks, they tend to just be expanses of game fields with a walking track or two. We wanted to find something nearby that would make a nicer backdrop so we had searched Google maps for locations. Most of them were your average playing field parks, but we found a nature preserve. I was expecting a rustic place with the big wooden signs, lots of pretty trails, picnic tables, etc. That's not exactly what we found...
I followed the directions and they took us deep into isolated parts of the county. Long roads with rusting trailers in the woods and scattered farms here and there but not much else. For as long as I've lived here, I'd never seen the area we found ourselves in. The sky was so gray from the rain, and it was TOO quiet, barely a car on the road besides ours. We arrived on the road where the entrance was supposedly located, but there were no signs or anything, we just passed this tiny parking lot with only 5-6 parking spots and a red reflector covered gate behind it. Andy was like 'That was it!". I was like 'No way, that can't be f***kin it!". He's like "It was, go back and see". So I turned around and pulled into this tiny parking lot, there were no signs, no information, NOTHING.
Andy was all smiles though, and got out of the car with no hesitation to look around. I was like "Dude! We're gonna get eaten by f***ing BEARS!!". In the usual way of things, I was having a panic moment while Andy just commented cooly and dryly. He's like "There aren't any bears out there". I was like 'How do YOU KNOW?". He thought for a moment and was like "I didn't invite any to the reception". While Andy insisted that the info online decreed it was open to the public, I insisted that it couldn't be right.
I finally got out of the car and ambled my way in the sand in 3inch heels into clearing/ditch that was near the parking lot, with lots of trees in the background. I didn't know where else we'd go so I decided we'd 'Shoot pics and run", hehe. So there we were, out in the middle of nowhere dressed up in wedding finery taking wedding photos in a ditch. I walked through a patch of sandspur plants which got stuck in the hem of my dress, and Andy was walking through a patch of stinkweed without even realizing. You wouldn't know it from some of the pictures though, which came out rather nice in the end. I couldn't get bears off my mind though. That is, until, we honestly started hearing dog howling in the distance.
This area has had some problems with packs of feral dogs, so I'm assuming that was most likely what it was. With my imagination though, I was picturing hordes of vicious coyotes or wolves that were starving coming to get us. Even Andy's calm faded a little as the howls seemed to be getting closer. It was then we decided to haul ### back to the car and get the hell out of there. Still, at the end of the day, it rather suited us. The space cadet twins, with Andy's motto being "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time", hehe. We looked on the bright side. How many people have wedding photos taken in a scary isolated nature preserve with howls in the background? We do! hehe.
After that we just went where the wind took us. We'd originally had reservations to have dinner at a nice steakhouse in Tampa, but I wasn't up to the hour & a half drive so we wound up at a local Red Lobster, hehe. We'll have the nice celebratory dinner next week, and after some appointments we have to keep in the next couple of weeks, we're going to head to Savannah Georgia for a getaway.
So that's the [long-###] story of our first wedding or 'ceremony of cohabitation' as we're calling it. I tried to upload some of the pictures on the VJ gallery but I can't figure it out for the life of me. If anyone wants to see the pictures, they are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleladyzilla/
I set aside a special album with all the pictures, all my others are there as well.
Right now we're still just exhausted, and clinking our rings together like "Ha, you're my HUSBAND! I'm your WIFE, ha!".
It's a good feeling
Sorry this post went on a little long, it's just the writer in me. Just wanted to share & again thank everyone on this site as I am not sure this event would have taken place so well without all the help we've received here.
Good luck with the "proper" wedding and adjusting status (isn't it fun to have a husband?!)
There's only one of me on Flickr; maybe it was one of my Flickr contacts?