Wedded Bliss

July 1, 2007 was a hot and humid day in Charleston, SC, but still cool for the time of year nonetheless. As long as the rain held off it was fine for me. It was, single-handedly the most important day of my life: my wedding. I had none of those pre-wedding jitters everyone speaks of and I slept like a baby the night before, out of pure exhaustion or those glasses of wine at the rehearsal dinner I'm not sure.

The day started off abnormally routinely. My alarm woke me with a start at 7:15 the following morning. I sat up, took a deep breath, knowing it would be the only relaxation of the day, put on my glasses and bounced to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, washed my face and put in my contacts, the routine I start every day with and the routine with which I started my wedding day. I threw on a pair of shorts and a zip-up sweatshirt I ripped off of a friend, and headed down the hall of the hotel to find my sister and bridesmaids, sunglasses in hand. I gathered my sister, two of the girls who had already had their hair done, and my aunt in-law to be, jumped in the car and headed to the salon. About two hours later we were back in the car driving to the hotel to finish getting ready, I was still waiting for those jitters. Sometime on the ride back to the hotel, road hypnosis kicked in and my mind started to wander. I remember thinking, "This is my wedding day." I was calm and everything seemed so normal, so everyday. "I can't let it just pass me by."

Two or so hours after we arrived at the hotel, I was ready to go. Still no jitters. I was in my wedding dress and I had no jitters. "Is something wrong with me?" I thought to myself. My posse of bridesmaids all piled into the elevator and headed to the lobby to wait for the limo. I peered out of the door, heat and humid air hugged me and threatened my hair. There, pulling into the lot, was the limo, the white, stretch Hummer (we ended up with after some confusion). There they were. The jitters had arrived.

Thirteen of us crammed into the door of that Hummer. In with me, came the butterflies, the nerves in the pit of my stomach and those nervous chills. Ten minutes later, we arrived at the church. We gathered our pink and white bouquets of gerber daisies, I pinned orchids on my mom and future mother-in-law and waited. After the bridesmaids' processional was over, it was me, all eyes on me. Those pesky jitters were worse than ever. After that intimidatingly long walk down the aisle, all those nerves were gone. At the end of that walk was my beeming fiance, after I saw him, everything was ok. The ceremony was over with the blink of a eye and off we were to take pictures and receive congratulatory smiles from our friends and family.

The day progressed perfectly, nothing went wrong, it was our dream wedding. No nerves and not even a tear was wept from my eyes the entire day.

We spend two weeks together after the wedding in Charleston and Columbia, SC. On July 14, we drove to Charlotte, NC and salty tears poured down my face as I dropped him at the airport. "No newlywed should feel this way, " I thought. Going from sheer joy to pure melancholy over the course of two weeks was just not right. And off he was, headed back to his duty station a world away and then heading to the oppressive California desert for three months of training. Here I was, married for just two weeks and in South Carolina for three months without my new Hubby. In just five months he was heading to Iraq. We were wasting time.