100 degrees and tourists taking pictures. That basically sums up my wedding. Well, except for the vows, dress, beautiful waterfalls and cloudless day. Those are just minor things right? hehe. We traveled down from Pittsburgh to my parents house, an hour south, on Wednesday evening after my doctors appt. I decided to tell them about the wedding that night, because I needed them to help me get a stain out of Jay's silk tie. They were excited and my daddy kept joking with us that we still have time to change our mind. I get my sense of humor from him! On Thursday we drove about 4 hours down to D.C. and we were to meet up with my brother and sister for dinner and then I prepared a letter that I was going to read to them concluding with asking them to be at the wedding. However, my brother made other plans, because I didn't tell him to keep the night free. So, we drove to my brothers house in Baltimore first and I improved my letter asking him to give me away. He was super ecstatic. We aren't a mushygushy family, but he surprised me and hugged me and told me he loved me and thought it was so cool. We then left there and drove back to Alexandria, Va and I improved the letter to my sister asking her to hold the rings and help me get ready. I think she went more scatter-brained, because the first thing she said after I had to convince her we were getting married, was that she had nothing to wear. The stores were closed by this point, so she was planning her shopping trip for the morning of the wedding. It became very interesting on Friday, the day of the wedding. Jay and I got up early and went to the courthouse together to get our license. On the way there, my brother called and asked about Jay's suit, his color, etc. We were confused, because he had said he was going to just wear what he had. We find out that he just went out and he is buying a brand-new suit because it is such a special occasion. That really cemented it that my brother was so excited about the wedding and it made me get more excited about the day. Then, we get in the courthouse and while we are waiting there for our officiant to show up to sign the license a rush of about 30 people come in needing paperwork. I asked one of them what was going on and we find out that within an hour, 35 divorces had been finalized and they were waiting for their paperwork. It was crazy being surrounded in divorced people and Jay and I joked that it was a great sign for us. The license process went fine. On the way home, I called my mum to see how Gracie was and she had told me my sister had called her while she was dress shopping to brag about being at the wedding and what a surprise it was. Also on the way home, we stopped in a local grocery store to see what their flowers looked like, because I wasn't going to spend a crapload of money on the wedding. I found a beautiful bouquet of roses that looked like fire, so I bought them for $6. I ended up cutting one out and Jay put it in his lapel. I was proud of the bargain shopping. Also on the way home, he finally called his parents to tell them we were getting married. I'm not quite sure if his mum is too happy about it. We will just have to wait and see. Anyways, he drops me off at my sisters, then drives to my brothers to pick him up. We all got ready and met them at the FDR Memorial in D.C. at around 330pm. Jay was already standing at the waterfalls and my brother came out to the opening so he could walk me in. The ceremony was very sweet and nice and short. Just the way we wanted it. Our officiant was great, because we didn't want a ceremony that was all prim and proper, that's just not who we are. There was joking going on the whole time and I actually stopped the ceremony two or three times for 'sweat breaks', because it was so hot we were all sweating. I noticed after the cermony that quite a number of tourists had stopped, sat down, and watched the ceremony. Some of them were actually taking pictures of us! That was very strange. Later they'll be showing friends their album, "Oh, yeah, we saw a couple of strangers get married at this memorial, we don't know them, but we have pictures!"  That's just weird. A few times we had to stop because Mr. George Bush decided to fly through in his helecopter three or four times very low and very loudly. I joke now at work that the President tried to ruin my wedding. It was very laughable.

All in all, I think some of the best things were the fact that I did wear my combat boots and my sister gave me blue-striped knee socks with Boo-Boo Bear on them. I was comfortable. I got to wear a necklace that my daddy gave my mum. Everyone looked so nice all dressed up and they seemed like they had a great time. My brother afterwards told me our wedding was his dream wedding and it was nice to feel like someone thought it was a great idea. I got free dessert at the restaurant we went to afterwards in Fairfax. My sister did my hair and took the time to make sure I wasn't showing any bald patches, which super-duper excited me, though she did have to sew me into the dress because of my weight loss which the docs still can't figure out. And now, after years of being with him, living in different cities, having Gracie, and going through everything together, I can officially say that I am his wife and he is my husband. It took a while to get here, but boy was it a trip!!