Mark drove me over to the club after all our pictures
were taken. The first thing I saw when we entered the banquet room was,
my cake was already taken apart! I was really upset, as we had not had a chance to take a picture of the cake, and we had not been able
to cut
the cake! When I got close to the cake, I noticed that the back side was
damaged! My mom and I had seen it earlier that morning and everything had
been fine! I went over to the young man who was working there and asked
him what happened. He said he was just standing there admiring the cake
when all of a sudden it fell over all by itself and that he caught it in
time! I knew that wasn't true, because the cake had a metal pole up the
center, and it couldn't have just fallen over as it was very sturdy! I
was really upset. so my mom went and got the manager, and with her help,
they put that cake back together, turned it around so the damage did not
really show, and the reception went on as was planned!
Mark and I cut the cake and served it to each other, and
no we did not shove it into each other's face! That was one thing I refused
to have done at my wedding. I think it is so dis-respectful to the other
person. We did not raise a toast to each other, as I was really set against
even looking like we had alcohol. And to top it off, even with the lack
of alcohol, the dentist who had put up such a fuss, was at the reception.
At the end he came up to me and said that he had the best time at the reception,
and realized alchol did not need to be at a party to have a great time!
He will never know just how good those words made me feel!
We decided to open the wedding gifts at the reception!
I did not know that many people opted to open them later, or have them
opened by someone else to display. I don't know if the people got bored
while we opened the mound of gifts, but I am sure some of them did! I was
astounded at the gifts we received! There were more than I could have ever
hoped for. We got many repeats, which I was able to take to the base exchange
and trade them in for an Oster Kitchen Center! It was just wonderful! We
were so blessed by the support of all my co-workers and Mark's!
This is the list of gifts we received: 3 different sets
of towels, set of sheets, set of ceramic kitchen canisters, cook book,
5 toasters (hehe), 3 can openers (hehe) $25.00 gift certificate at Noritake,
Rolling Pin with a note attached saying it was to keep Mark in line (hehe),
4 piece pyrex bowl set, crock pot, 8 sets of corning ware (hehe), 3 sets
of glassware, 3 sets of silverware, Tupperware grater/bowl set, folding
cake tray, 2 cutlery sets, 11 piece serving set and $455! So you can see
we had a lot of extra gifts we couldn't use, so we traded them in on things
we could use! We were blessed! The money we recived went to pay off the
furniture we had put on layaway. We had a beautiful living room set and
bedroom set waiting for when we could move on base, which would be about
a month and a half away. Until then it would stay in layaway while we stayed
in that tiny 2 room apartment off base!
After the reception, Mark and I got to stay in a suite
in a large hotel on the beach for two days I cannot remember the name of
it, maybe it will come to me one day! hehe We had friends who got us the
room at a great discount, and it was wonderful! After that, we went to our
little two room apartment to await base housing, which we got about a month
and a half later. Thus began our newly married life together as husband
and wife.
It has now been twenty years since the wedding, and Mark
and I have the best relationship, and love each other more than ever. We
both have been 100% faithful to each other, God has blessed us over and
over, always meeting our needs, and we have been faithful to God through
it all! We hope you enjoyed our story, I know I had fun going back through
the years to remember all Mark and I did to get to that wedding day! May
God bless us with many more sets of 20 years together!