Ten years Later. Ten things I remember.

A lot happens in ten years but every year when this day - August 26th -  comes around I spend a few minutes thinking about that day, about us when it was only us. About how it all started.


1. Our first phone call. We chatted for fifteen minutes and then Tim hung up. I couldn't figure out why Tim hadn't suggested a date; it seemed like we'd had a fun conversation. My friend Heather who had given him my number laughed when I told her and said Tim was a very proper Southern gentleman and I should expect his phone call in the next few days.


2. Our first date at Ago restaurant. At the end of the date Tim told me how much he had enjoyed meeting me and could he call me again. Wow. I was impressed. He had me right there. When I told my sister I'd had a great blind date she said: "So tell me about my future brother-in-law."


3. Our third date. Hiking. A great date.


4. Flowers. A lot of flowers. A Toblerone chocolate cake on my birthday. A potted plant and A LOT of dirt fell on the birthday cake I made for Tim. I didn't tell him until after he'd eaten it and told me it was the best birthday cake he'd ever eaten.


5. Three days of giggling and laughing in Cabo.


6. The ceremony was my favorite part of the whole day. I wasn't expecting that. Even today that's what I love remembering the most. Everything about it.
Tim's childhood friend, a minister, started the ceremony with: "Today we are here to celebrate the marriage of Anne and Tim." I can hear her voice.
My father walked me down the aisle and then forgot to stand up and say, "we do" when the minister asked who was giving me away, leaving my mother to stand up alone and declare: "I do."
The two of us saying our vows in clear, confident voices. I surprised myself. I was expecting my voice to be shaky.
Tim had a hard time getting the ring on my finger. We laughed.
Walking - no floating - back up the aisle at the end of the ceremony. One of the most wonderful moments of the whole day.


7. And then disaster. My sisters and girlfriends couldn't figure out how to get the wedding dress bustle up. Three people were fiddling around under my dress and no one could figure it out. Finally, we called the store where I had bought it and turned out they mistakenly put a different bustle system in than originally planned. Thanks a lot.


8. Ten minutes before the dinner was supposed to start the wedding cake had not arrived. But when they told me I didn't care. This was my wedding day nothing else really mattered (at least once the bustle was up!)  By the time we sat down to dinner the cake had arrived and it couldn't have been more perfect.


9. The dances. We laughed throughout our entire dance. It was terrible. We were terrible dancers.
My father and I were supposed to do the foxtrot but I had no idea what he was doing. He swept me around the dance floor, grinning giddily, while I laughed and kept repeating: "This is NOT the foxtrot they taught me at Arthur Murray's!"
My sister and a friend performed a jive. This helped everyone forget our bad dances and get out on the dance floor.


10. At one in the morning when everything was over we realized we had forgotten to arrange a way to get to the hotel so we walked through the warm summer air along Bloor Street to our hotel. Much more fun then taking a taxi.


Happy Anniversary T.