He asks, she says yes, eventually they both say, “I do,” and the credits roll. This is basically what movies and TV tell us about weddings. But anyone who’s been married or involved in a wedding knows about the months of planning behind that one day.
SLM asked readers for their planning stories and got a variety of tales. Some weddings seemed to plan themselves, while others, despite meticulous planning, had a few wrinkles.
Local teacher of the deaf Ashley Richter recalls, “My husband was allowed to pick out one thing by himself: the limo.” He chose a “one-of-a-kind” luxury Hummer H2, a “nightclub on wheels” that sat 25 to 28 people with extended headroom. That—along with custom paint and wheels, flat-screen TVs, and a fully stocked bar—made it her husband-to-be’s dream.
The day of the wedding, Richter, her husband, and their wedding party exited the church to find themselves rideless. Moments later, their “limo” arrived. This was no mobile nightclub; instead, they found themselves face to face with a school bus that had been painted black—and was billowing black smoke from its tailpipe. Their original vehicle had gotten a flat on the highway and needed to be towed back to the rental company because of its custom wheels, so the company graciously sent them this equally luxurious replacement. “Our photographer joked that it looked like we were going to prison, not a reception!” says Richter. “Later, when we received our wedding photos, our photographer Photoshopped one of the bus pictures to have the phrase ‘Prisoners of Love’ on the side.”
Erin Eckardt is still planning her May wedding, but she already knows one of her favorite memories will be shopping for the dress.
“The first dress I tried fit me perfectly, and I felt like such a princess. I knew it was the dress!” she says. “I came out of the dressing room and my mom took one look at me and said, ‘Oh, Air-e’ [a childhood nickname] and started crying!”
Some things can’t be planned for, though. Bobby’s future father-in-law died suddenly, three weeks prior to the wedding. Despite the heartache caused by this unforeseeable upheaval, Bobby’s wife, Marilyn, still recalls how much her father had dreaded wearing his tuxedo. When the rental was cancelled, she says, she could still hear him calling it his “fruit suit.”
Lyndsie Thurnau’s husband, Stefan, was stationed in California with the Marines during the planning process, so they mostly collaborated through email. But some tasks can’t be done electronically, like taste-testing cakes. A groomsman, Steve, gladly accompanied her.
“We had such a great time tasting different cakes, fillers, and icings, it never crossed our minds to mention that he wasn’t the groom,” says Thurnau. It wasn’t until the staff commented on what a fun couple they were that they realized they should probably explain…
Nature can also be an unpredictable factor. Lexi Mills and her husband, Nate, planned a late-winter wedding to coincide with spring break, since they were both working on college degrees. They also hoped the snow would be on its way out by then. But by Wednesday of their wedding week, schools were cancelled due to 3 feet of snow. By Friday, the town was basically shut down. They called off the rehearsal, but gathered a group at the church to decorate.
That was when they realized they didn’t have a marriage license. Says Mills, “That was the one thing I must have forgotten to check off my list…or maybe I never added it to my list. All I know is that Friday night about 7 p.m. was the first time I heard the words ‘marriage license.’” Luckily, a friend of a friend who was a county clerk agreed to come in Saturday to issue one.
When they finished decorating, they returned to their cars and noticed snow blown back over the road. “All three vehicles got stuck, and of course, no one had a shovel,” remembers Mills. “My dad, Nate, and our guy friends had to dig all the vehicles out by hand and push them.”
On Saturday, they had a beautiful wedding with a great turnout—and for the honeymoon, they went to San Antonio, Texas, where it was 70 degrees and sunny.
Then there are couples who opt out of wedding planning altogether. Stacy Smugala definitely didn’t have a traditional wedding, but “I think how we got there is a funny story,” she says.
She and her husband, Tim, had been dating for five years. They were arguing over something trivial, running errands, when Tim asked if they were ever going to get married. They got a marriage license that day and were married the next morning, on St. Patrick’s Day. They let loved ones know by phone and Facebook.
Now they’ve been married for almost two years, and last summer, their son, Patrick, was born. “If I had it to do over again, I would not,” says Smugala. “This was the best wedding I’ve ever been to; it was just me and my husband.”
Sixth-grade teacher Sarah Jennings is a major Cardinals fan, but she fell in love with an equally fervent Cubs fan, Kevin, and they planned a baseball-themed reception. Favors included custom-etched baseballs and baseball cards with the couple in their respective teams’ jerseys and all of their wedding stats on the back.
A few days before the wedding, they started loading favors into the car to deliver them to the reception hall. Kevin took the tote full of baseballs and walked out the door first. When Sarah heard him shout and curse, she hurried outside. He’d stepped off the front porch and sprained his ankle so badly, he chipped a bone.
They left the emergency room with a set of crutches and concerns that Kevin wouldn’t be able to stand at the altar, much less dance at the reception. But he was determined to go on. He wore his brace under a shoe two sizes too big and participated in everything, including the first dance. A groomsman even gave him piggyback rides around Forest Park for photos.
“By the end of the night, his ankle was incredibly swollen, black and blue,” recalls Sarah. “He didn’t complain one bit. I am one blessed Cardinals fan, who married one amazing Cubs fan!”
Some plans are best kept secret. Karen Campbell and her husband, Greg, planned their wedding for October 2010—with a surprise for family and friends, who thought they were marrying in a private ceremony. “We sent an announcement saying we were getting married in Arizona on 10–16 and also announcing a ‘dinner-party reception’ on 10–22,” she says.
The “reception” was to be held on The Chase Park Plaza’s Starlight Room terrace. Drapes over the windows and doors kept guests from seeing inside as they arrived. When the time came, the curtain was raised, and guests saw the couple standing at the altar, waiting to be wed.
“Our guests were in absolute shock,” says Campbell. “It was amazing. We and our guests still can’t believe we pulled it off!”
