john and i got married under some special circumstances.
we got engaged in february of 2002. we planned on getting married the following spring, but
john’s mom clara was diagnosed with very advanced colon cancer in may of 2002. we decided to do an
impromptu wedding so his mom could be there to witness our nuptials. we had about a day and a half to
get all the logistics ironed out. we only had two other guests at our wedding besides john’s parents; his sister katie and his sister mary, who was visiting from minnesota to help out with their sick mother.
i’m glad we were able to give clara this gift. i know it meant a lot for her to see her “baby” (john’s the youngest of 8.) tie the knot.
clara went to heaven on august 30th, 2002.
by the time our 1 year anniversary came around, we thought instead of doing another wedding, we would just throw a big reception. we were already married and felt we just wanted to get our family and friends together to celebrate.
in july of 2003 we threw a huge reception. we even did our own invitations.
my favorite thing of all was our “guest book.”
we decided to have a couple of polaroid cameras at the entrance and people were asked to take a photo of themselves and then write a message to the bride and groom on special paper we had sitting out.
the photo and the message got dropped in a bag and later we put them all in a book. i love looking back at what people said to us.
i think this means so much more than just a one line note in a guest book. the guests seemed to enjoy participating too.
we have lots to be thankful for and this book shows us all the people we are so blessed to have in our lives.
i’ll leave you salivating over our cheesecake (neither one of us is overly fond of regular cake – so we had these made instead.)
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