With This Ring...I Thee Wed

May 15, 1999
2:30pm

Ten years ago today, I said "I Do".

As I looked back at the pictures, it's hard to believe it's been 10 YEARS!

Frankie asked me to marry him in November of 1997. I knew I'd always wanted a spring wedding with spring flowers (yep I love my flowers) but I knew that 6 months just wasn't enough time to plan the wedding I'd always dreamed of. So we settled on May 1999. This gave me time to plan, time to shop and time to budget and save to have the perfect wedding without going into debt from the start.
They haven't been the easiest 10 years either! They've been full of ups and downs and somehow we've managed to keep from strangling each other...LOL! We've been as low as we could get and we still held on tight and pulled out of it.

This picture is our wedding party. It made me smile but also sad at the same time. I smiled because I put so much hard work into planning our wedding...a year and a half...and it all came together perfect and was one of the prettiest moments of my life. I giggled when I saw how little Kayleigh was. She was only 4 when we got married but so grown up for only being a preschooler.

When I saw Beverly, my matron of honor (in purple), it made me smile too. She is the one that set Frankie and I up on a blind date in November 1996. She gave him my phone number and I wasn't interested in dating after going through a horrible split from my ex. He called that same night and we talked for two hours. Bev kept telling me to just go to dinner with him. I agreed to go out with him and our first date (I'd still never seen him) was to see the Monster Trucks and dinner at Denny's. LOL! I have to laugh when I think about our first date because when he picked me up, he showed up at my house with Brooks & Dunn blastin on the radio in Toyota 4x4 with 39 in tires....his own personal monster truck! Kayleigh was only 2yrs old and the tires were taller than her! I teased him for the longest time and told him I fell in love with his truck before I did him...hahaha! From that date forward, we were always together. On the weekend, he always made time to do things with Kayleigh and I loved watching them grow from strangers to having a father/daughter bond that could never be broken. He ended up adopting her when she was 7 and it just proved to me the kind of Dad he wanted to be.

Looking back at the picture of our wedding party made me sad because standing next to Frankie is his dad, who died from a massive heart attack a year after our wedding. Kacey never had a chance to know who he was.

Our wedding day started out like any other wedding day. The hustle and bustle of getting things together, my hair fixed and making it to the church on time were all part of the morning. I stayed at my Mom's house the night before so Frankie wouldn't see me until I walked down the aisle that day. It was a cloudy morning and I prayed for no rain because I had to walk outside to get to the front of the church. I was getting ready in a back room and I remember asking everyone is Frankie was at the church yet? No one could find him! I knew he was with his best friend, James and I hoped they'd make it BEFORE it was time for me to walk down the aisle...haha! About 20 min before it was time for the wedding to start, I heard someone shout, "He's here!" ....it was time!!

This picture is my Mom, Me, Kayleigh, Frankie and Chuck (my brother).

I struggled with the thought of who would walk me down the aisle. I wasn't on speaking terms with my Dad (the result of a bitter divorce and his new girlfriend) and I'd asked my Grandfather (Mom's dad) if he would do it? He agreed and then not long after, he passed away. I was back to wondering what I would do? Could my Mom do it? Could I walk alone? Could Kayleigh give me away? Nothing seemed to fit just right. We traveled to Maryland for my Grandfather's funeral and during the time afterward, my Nana asked me if there was anything I wanted of his to remember him by? I told her the one thing I wanted she may not give to me. Her response, "You name it!". I told her the only thing I wanted was his wedding band. He was going to walk me down the aisle and I wanted to have his ring to be a part of the ceremony. She took it out of the jewelry box and placed it in my hand, "It's yours". After lots of tears, I worked up the nerve to try it on and as God planned it, it was a perfect fit! Frankie agreed that my Grandfather's ring should be my wedding band and we would get him one similar to it. Ten years later, that ring is still on my finger!

So now I'm still stuck in my dilemma of who would walk me down the aisle? Then out of the blue it hit me! I only have one brother, one sibling and what a perfect person to fill the spot. I asked him if he would do it and he hesitated at first because he didn't want it causing hard feelings with our Dad but he eventually agreed to do it and I'm so glad he did! I remember the one special moment....actually two...that I really felt close to my brother. When the wedding party walked down the aisle, they closed the doors to get ready for my grand entrance. We were standing behind the doors and my dress was all straight and I turned to my brother and he asked me "Are you ready to do this?" and as I replied "Yep!" the music qued and the doors opened. He smiled at me and walked me to my soon to be husband. As we were standing there locked arm in arm, the preacher asked "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?". My brother spoke up and said "Her family and I" and then he turned to me and kissed me on my cheek and went to his place on the front pew. That moment started the first of many tears during my wedding. I'm so thankful we shared that time and I'm blessed to have such a wonderful brother.
This picture was taken once we got to the reception. Our reception was one of the most fun times of my life! We had a DJ, all our friends and family dancing & drinking and it was completely catered. There is only ONE part of my wedding that didn't go as planned.....my wedding cake! To anyone else, they wouldn't know unless I told them that our wedding wasn't perfect. Looking back, the cake was a minor bump but at the time it was a BIG deal! When I saw the cake, it looked like what I had ordered. When we cut into the bottom layer for pictures, the cake looked fine. We had the toast...exchanged the cake with NO mess (I warned him ahead of time)...and then everyone started getting their cake. We got sidetracked and never got any of the cake (except the small piece we exchanged). I walked back over to the table to pick up my wine glass and noticed the 2nd layer was cut already. Then it hit me! Bottom layer....white cake (check) Middle layer....chocolate cake.... (WHAT?!?! It's yellow cake!!!) This was one of the details of planning that I let Frankie choose and he wanted chocolate cake....and there was NONE! Top layer....who knows? It wasn't til our 1st anniversary that we found out the top layer was POUND CAKE!!!! Yukkkkkkkkkkkkk! So yeah, the cake was a disaster but everyone talked about how delicious it was so I tried to let it slide.

The evening wouldn't be complete without some garter shots! The guys had a blast with this one ;)

Our first dance.... "You Had Me From Hello" by Kenny Chesney. The first song wasn't hard to decide. The whole blind date thing came into play and the song was perfect!

Out of the 100+ pictures that were taken at our wedding....this one is my favorite! We took this picture while everyone was dancing and having fun. We snuck out the front door and walked around the parking lot as husband and wife for the first time....no one talking to us....no one following us....just soaking in the memory of what took place just a few hours before. It was another one of those special moments.

And now....ten years later...those memories are still as vivid as they were 10 days after the wedding!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FRANKIE!

I love you!