Easy Peasy Pizza Party..
So, 2 weeks to get the wedding planned….Just us, the kids and the Justice of the Peace. Should be easy enough…..
We were keeping things low profile. I talked to the JP (Justice of the Peace) in town. She was available for the ceremony on the date we chose. I asked her not to say anything to anyone since we haven’t told anyone yet. I filed for the marriage license. So far, so good. I called Jody to let her know and she was “over the moon” about it (that’s really what she said). She started asking about the date, the time, the location….I had to stop her and tell her it was just going to be us, the kids and the JP. Keeping it simple. I could feel the disappointment through the phone. She said she understood. I asked her if she wanted to go shopping with me to get my wedding outfit and look at rings. Terry & I agreed there was no need for an engagement ring but I did want a wedding ring. Terry didn’t want a ring so I got to pick what I wanted. We chose a day after work to meet and look at rings. I let Terry know that Jody & I were going to look at rings. I was pretty sure what I knew what I wanted. The next day Terry called me and asked if I wanted to meet him in town for dinner? I said that would be nice. So, after work I drove into town and met him at the parking area. He said he wanted to walk down and look at some boots at the local shoe store. Sounded good, needed to stretch my legs after working all day anyway. We were headed down to the shoe store and suddenly he wanted to cross to the other side of the street to “look at something”. OK, like I said previously, there is no direct route from point “A” to point “B” with my husband. We crossed over and continued walking down. We walked a little ways before we turned into the jewelry store. I guess I should have known something was up when he asked me to go to dinner during the week. I am sure if I could’ve seen him when he called me about dinner he would have had that sheepish look again. He told me he should be the one to take me shopping for a ring. He knew the owner of the store and had been doing business there for years. He introduced me and I told him what I thought I wanted. He showed me what he had and said if I didn’t see what I wanted I could order it. I was thinking I wanted a two tone band with gold & white gold, nothing elaborate. While I was looking I saw a thin gold band with small diamonds set into it. It caught my eye. I looked at it and put it back several times. Nothing else really spoke to me. I was hesitant, it was kind of expensive. Terry looked at me and said, “Don’t look at the price. If this is what you want, it’s what you should get”. I replied that it was what I wanted. It was simple, yet elegant (at least I thought so). The jeweler advised we would need to get the ring sized to fit my finger. I asked if I could try the ring on. When I put it on it fit perfectly. Well dang! I guess I was meant to have that ring. That was settled. Terry did the paper work and we went to dinner.
Jody and I went shopping for an outfit for me (I wasn’t doing a wedding dress). It was fun and we had lunch. Things were moving along. Terry finally told his friend, Scott, that we were getting married. He wanted to know when & where. I guess Scott didn’t want to hear about “just us, the kids and the JP”. Terry caved. So our very small, simple wedding started to grow. Well, of course I told Jody that they could come as well. That was it. It was no longer under control. It just continued growing. I called my close friends and family and let them know. I told them I knew it was short notice and if they had plans it was fine, but they were welcome to come. I was surprised how many cancelled their plans and came out. Now Terry, being Terry he didn’t tell all of his friends and family that we were getting married. He told them it was a pizza party for Andi while she was home. His niece was in town with her daughters so they were invited to the “pizza party”. He told his sister the same thing. She wasn’t going to make it so I told her what was really happening. I didn’t want her to miss it because she thought it was just a “pizza party”. Our simple wedding went from no guests to like 25 in a matter of days. Well, at least we were still doing it at our house, nothing fancy and we really were having pizza.
The day arrived. We were not having a regular wedding party, no maid of honor or best man. We did decide to include our dogs. I mean they were members of our family. My dog, Zoey, was the Flower Girl and Terry’s dog, Maty, was the Ring Bearer. We were getting married outside under our Cottonwood tree. No formal anything. It was nice. People were starting to arrive (some still thought it was a pizza party). We hung out and visited for a while. Terry was wearing a tuxedo T-shirt (he thought it would be funny for those who knew it was a wedding), kind of a typical Terry thing. He did change before the ceremony. We were dressing casual, but he didn’t want to be that casual for the ceremony. So the JP arrived and things were getting under way. I was in the house with Jody and Zoey. Terry, Maty and the JP went out to the spot under the tree. People shifted over to that area. I came out with Zoey by my side. She literally had the bouquet of flowers in her mouth and her head held high as we walked out to the tree (it was like she knew this was an important task). While I was walking I heard Terry’s grandniece ask, “Is this a wedding?” Her mother replied, “No, it’s a pizza party.” To which her daughter pointed to Zoey and I and said, “Look, it is a wedding!” I still chuckle when I think about that. We met at the tree and Zoey gave me the flowers. We proceeded with the ceremony. When it came to the time for the ring Terry and Maty turned towards the rear of the property. Earlier he had placed a training bumper out there with the ring tied to it. He gave Maty the command and she ran across the yard, picked up the training bumper and brought it right back to him (she was the ring bearer after all). Everyone thought Zoey carrying the flowers was cool; Maty getting the ring really blew them away. The ceremony was simple and quick. I think people were more taken by the dogs then by our wedding. We had pizza ordered and it showed up shortly after that. Everyone hung out. We played games, ate pizza and drank. We had a fire later. Jody brought not 1 “wedding cake”, but 3. So we cut wedding cakes by the fire and everyone ate some. All in all, it turned out to be a good day for a wedding. Even though it ended up bigger than we planned and it wasn’t quite so “Easy Peasy” everything went well. I was starting my treatments in a couple weeks and the good vibes from this would carry over well into that. Check out the photo page for pictures from the wedding. The last picture is actually a video of part of part of the wedding, you can see Maty bring Terry the ring......
