Small Wedding, Big Post

My brother snapped this shot. Live long and prosper, my friends.

It's closing in on one month since I married my partner of 6 years, Christine.

I had been working on a post to share with readers for weeks and ultimately decided to trash the whole thing. Why? Because there doesn't seem to be a way for me to describe what it felt like to marry the love of my life, surrounded by friends and family, and during one of the most emotional weeks of my life. A blog post just could not do that justice.

So, the long and short of it is that Chris and I were married, legally, in the state of New Mexico and in the eyes of the federal government, on October 12, 2014, at Hyde Memorial State Park in Santa Fe, NM. The setting was beautiful. The weather, not so much. After putting out decorations, food, etc., the skies opened up and rain came down, wetting our chairs and arbor and forcing us to relocate to inside of the lodge that we rented.

No biggie. It worked out just fine.

Family portraits suffered a tad. We weren't able to get a good one with Chris's mom. It was too cold to stay outside for any period of time. So cold it hailed! Look at me, trying not to look like I'm grimacing!

The two of us as newlyweds.

A number of other challenges presented themselves to us that weekend. In no particular order, there was:

• The rain, obviously.
• Running out of setup time. We didn't hang our lanterns or put our favors out on tables. We had to walk our seedlings around out of the box.
• Chris's uncle, aunt, and grandmother were unable to attend due to illness. Grandma actually had to be admitted to the hospital for an infection and after a very long week ended up passing away the following Saturday.
• And Whole Foods, despite saying our catering order would be prepared by 10am, did not have our food prepared when we went to retrieve it at 11:30. In fact, the woman who informed us just said, "no one made it," like this sort of thing happens all the time. I was so mad that I couldn't talk, but my mother took care of it and ended up getting everything for free. Even though when she went to get it the order WAS STILL INCORRECT. Stay classy, WF.

However, the pros outweighed these few cons. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Marshmallow-free crispy treats I whipped up before we left.

Our lemon-raspberry cake created by Tree House Pastry Shop.

My brother and his girlfriend posing at our photo booth.

Richard, my stepfather, instructing everyone on how to do the electric slide.

Me and my dad, shortly after the ceremony.

I couldn't resist being adorable. It's inevitable.

Mom insisted we get a group photo. I thought it was silly, but in the end it looks great.

Ultimately, I found myself very pleased with everything. I am definitely glad we did things the way we did. Some of my favorite moments included:

• My brother's heartfelt speech. He told a story about the first time he spent time with Chris and I. He visited for Christmas and was prepared to give her some sort of talk about not hurting me, but after witnessing the two of us together he realized we were perfect for one another.
• My mother creating Chris and I a romantic table for two, complete with extravagant flower arrangement; and photos of our fur-babies! Such a pleasant and heartwarming surprise.
• After a heated dance-off between younger guests we awarded my grandmother with our wedding dance-off trophy.
• And then grandma apparently felt so full of confidence upon securing her new title that she dragged my reluctant father out for a little dance.

The honeymoon began the very next day. I'll share photos and stories from select portions of that later. Of course, we had grandma in our thoughts 100% of the time. We were fortunate enough to be able to go to her funeral the week after we arrived home. Chris adored her grandmother and once we arrived all of her relatives and her uncle's friends shared stories with us about how disappointed she was to have missed it.

Being in California that weekend felt pretty surreal. We spent so much time with her family during our last visit. It didn't seem right that grandma wasn't there...

Until next time,
With love,
Mrs. and Mrs. Clements