10 years ago...

On January 2, 1999, my dear husband and I got married here in our college town. Soon after the family and friends arrived the day before the wedding, a very large snowstorm occurred. It's recorded:


JANUARY 1999 WAS ONE OF THE SNOWIEST JANUARYS AND SNOWIEST MONTHS ON RECORD IN SOUTHEAST LOWER MICHIGAN.
A THIRD OF THIS SNOW OCCURRED ON JANUARY 2ND AND 3RD WHEN A STRONG WINTER STORM MOVED THROUGH MID MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND WESTERN GREAT LAKES. WIDESPREAD HEAVY SNOW BEGAN IN SOUTHEAST LOWER MICHIGAN LATE DURING THE MORNING OF JANUARY 2ND AND CONTINUED INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF JANUARY 3RD. 10.6 " FELL THAT DAY.



One of our college professors who lived in the country, began shoveling early morning to be able to get out of his driveway so he could make it for the 3 o'clock wedding.

Being the bride, I wasn't told many of these stories until much later. Here are some of the occurrences that had happened that day:

~My husband's tux didn't make it in time. The truck transporting the tuxes got stuck in the blizzard. So that morning, the tux shop was frantically trying to piece some clothes together for him to wear. (I never noticed, though, so they did a great job!).

~Our photographer never made it to the wedding. She was caught in the 30-40 car pile up that occurred that day on the freeway. Thankfully she was not hurt. There were some people who had their cameras with them at the wedding. So we were able to get some photographs. Notice our better-than-nothing double exposed photograph below (Not quite the digital age yet...).

~We were just thankful that Pastor Henry had made it through the storm so he could marry us. I thought it was simply wonderful with the swirling snow all around us while the candles were glowing warmly inside.

~The church and the reception hall (which had been my college dorm), were only one block apart from each other. However, there was so much snow, people had to be shuttled back and forth.

~After the reception, it was impossible to get back to the church to change. So we jumped in the car with the wedding dress and all and headed out of town. When we arrived to the bed and breakfast we were staying that evening, my husband threw me over his shoulder to carry me through the snow banks to get to the door.

~Needing to leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m. the next morning, we slept on the airport floor along with the many other people whose flights were delayed. 12 hours later, our flight was only one of two who left that day. Later we found out that the people we sat next to in the airport leaving for Las Vegas were delayed one week! It was quite an experience to leave a blizzardy Detroit and arrive in the tropics of St. Kitts.

~Meanwhile, our friend from college and best man was trying to deliver the wedding gifts to the house we were renting in the country. He slid into the ditch and got stuck so the gifts were loaded to a different car. We had to smile when we opened up the frozen wedding cake a year later looking like it had been dropped a few times!

~One month later, we received a call from the tux headquarters saying they found our wedding certificate in one of the tuxes pockets! That's where that was! Too many responsibilities for the best man in the middle of a blizzard.

Although we were oblivious to the world on that particular day, looking back I realize how much of a sacrifice it was for all our dear family and friends to be a part of that special day with us.

This was just the beginning of our many adventures life would bring to us as a couple.

Happy 10th Anniversary, My Love.