Thursday, May 19, 2011

10 years ago I put on a white dress and I said I do but not I will obey!

May 19, 2001

Ah yes a mushy post...
It is my 10th wedding anniversary!
I cannot believe it has been 10 years already. 
May 19, 2001 I put on a white dress and I said I do but I refuse to say the traditional "I will obey."  Yes I am a rebel.  No not really just did not like the word obey.   (Obey was OK with my dad until I was hmmm 12?!)

When we decided that I would be the one moving (from Quebec to California) we agreed that we would get married in Quebec since I was making the ultimate sacrifice of leaving everything and everyone behind  for us to have a life together. 
Well it did not go as we planned.  We forgot about a little detail called INS
Getting married in Quebec meant that Bill would come back to the US without me after our wedding.  I would have had to wait in Quebec 6-9 months before getting my conditional green card.  We also would have had to do the interviews in Canada, when applying for a green card through marriage there are interviews with the INS. Fun fun fun.
So because of that we decided to get married in the US.  I was very disappointed because it meant less people from Canada would be able to come to the wedding.

I wanted a simple wedding.  My dress was simple, I bought it off the rack for $99 and it did not need any touch up!! My MIL was VERY disappointed with me I think, she had planned a whole week of wedding dress shopping and I was not having it.  My dress was the 2nd one I tried on.
We had a small wedding, about 50 guests.  We got married in a small wooden chapel.  I had no wedding party, just a maid of honor for me and a best man for Bill.  My maid of honor was my dearest and oldest friend and she came all the way from Quebec even though she was 8 months pregnant!   I had friends who came from Canada, England and the Caribbean Islands. I was so happy to have them here with me for this important day.

It was a lovely day, only one thing went wrong: the photographer we hired did not show upI remember getting ready with my mom and I kept looking at the time wondering when he would show up for the pre-wedding pictures.  I would send my mom every 3 minutes to go look for him and nothing.  Finally the time came and I had to walked down the aisle and still no photographer!  5 minutes later I heard click-click-click.  I turned and I saw a guy taking pictures who was not the guy we had hired!  This turned out to be a mini fiasco and let's just say it did not end well for the guy we hired and our pictures are not great and we got some of our money back...boo hoo hoo.

We did have a lovely time.  We had a great Australian DJ! Not sure I ate any of the food that we had!!! My friends who could not come to the wedding made a video for me and that made me cry.  This is me dancing with my dad:

We went to Maui for our honeymoon.  I loved it!  We did all kinds of fun stuff there.  The best one was to go on the top of Haleakala, an active volcano, to watch the sunrise and bike down the volcano on the way back! It was the coolest experience!  This is us on the top of the volcano, it was VERY cold. 



So after 10 years I am happy to report that we are still together and happy!  We have 2 great kids.  I still have a huge accent, Bill still does not speak French and I still miss my homeland as much as I did 10 years ago.

A friend of mine told me that I should try my dress on to see if it still fits.  She said in most case, it will not fit and be too small especially if the bride had kids.  
So I did try it on and she was right it does not fit.  See:




It is a little big!!!! :)

26 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Emz said...

A little?! It's a whole freaking lot big, my dear.
$99 off the rack.
I
Love
This.
But the MIL.....ok you know how I feel about that already.
Kinda the same way I feel about the INS. ;)

Love this post.
Love my Canadian runner in exile.

Michael said...

Happy Anniversary!! Wow, I'm pretty sure I could fit into my wedding dress, but it wouldn't be that big.

Jim and I spent our Honeymoon in Maui too and we also did the crater/bike ride. I thought it was one of the top 10 coolest things I've ever done and he hated EVERY SINGLE second of it.

Have a wonderful day!

Jennifer Spadafora said...

Happy Anniversary!!!!

We had a small intimate wedding, and I found my wedding dress at Macy's for $149!!! Don't you love a bargain!? One day I will make my way to Hawaii.....one day.

Unknown said...

Happy Anniversary! 10 years, I think you get something special for this one, like another ring???

It's my anniversary today too. Just 4 years though...

Jen Feeny said...

Loved this post! Congrats on 10 years and for being too skinny to wear that dress! :)

Kittee said...

Happy Anniversary..

A friend gave me a wedding dress, and it was perfect...

No honeymoon for us... Maui would be awesome

Cari Mugz said...

HAPPY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY....
AND... May there be MANY more years to come :)

A Prelude To... said...

Happy Anniversary!! What a great wedding - it sounded JUST perfect!!

Love that the wedding dress is now too big! You're doing things right :D

Laura said...

Congrats on TEN and a wayyyy too big dress!!

Molly said...

Happy Anniversary!!

Pam @ herbieontherun.com said...

Happy 10th anniversary! :D

BabyWeightMyFatAss said...

Happy Anniversary!! How cool about your dress! I didn't say obey either!

juanitagf said...

My mom made my wedding dress. I loved it and it was so inexpensive! Hubs and I joke about the Obey part of the vows. He claims I said it, but I have video to prove it was not part of our vows. I refused to have it there!

Jill said...

A too big wedding dress is the best anniversary present EVER! Congrats on your 10 years!!! :)

Anne said...

Joyeuse Anniversaire à vous deux! Sounds a bit like my wedding. Cheap dress, small wedding, no obey, only a flower girl (my little sister), my mom did my hair and no honeymoon. Maui sounds perfect. Maybe one day :)

You look beautiful!

Kate Geisen said...

Happy anniversary! What a great weekend that was! :) My dress would at least fit, but no way would it be that big on me. I was the thinnest I'd been since mid-high school when we married.

What a shame that the whole immigration thing spoiled your Quebec wedding plans, but things seem to have worked out awfully well for the two of you. :)

RockStarTri said...

H.A. Could you imagine how your life has changed? Here's to the next decades!

Zaneta @ Runner's Luck said...

ok... so i thought i posted a comment and when you told me it was 10 yrs on twitter I came back to read it again (love everything wedding related right now) lol... guess i didn't post a comment lol...

anywho.... CONGRATULATIONS!! :D

LOVE that you got your dress right off the rack!! and it's cute!! AND look at you tryin on your dress!! You look GREAT!!! Congrats on the 10 years... may you have MANY more to come! :)

(can't wait til I can say it's my 10 year anniversary!! 10 years from 37 days from now! haha)

Christine said...

Happy Anniversary and you look better than 10 years ago! :) Love the small wedding :)

Jess @ Blonde Ponytail said...

I'm a day late but want to wish you the happiest anniversary!

You are just as gorgeous and absolutely swimming in that dress!!!!

XLMIC said...

I am late on this, but I hope your tenth anniversary still felt as special as the day you first fell in love :)

Wishing you many, many more years of happiness together!

Unknown said...

Happy Anniversary!!!! Love the fact that your wedding dress is a tent... yo go gurly!!!!

Unknown said...

Happy belated anniversary! :)

Black Knight said...

Happy anniversary. I know I am late, please forgive me.

Chris K said...

Cool post. Bill is one lucky guy. And, oh yeah, moving to Orange County is such a HUGE sacrifice. Kidding. I know it is. The fact that your dress is too big now is so rad. I give you more congratulations for that than the marriage :-)