Yes, I realize it's corny...

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."  (Ephesians 5:31 NKJV)



I met my husband Jay in kindergarten.  I can remember thinking of him as a friend by fourth grade.  In sixth grade, our teacher, Ed Orrell, had us write on a piece of paper who we thought we'd marry and put it in an envelope...yep, I put Jay's name down.  I don't know who he put down, he's probably afraid to tell me!  I think by our freshman year, we decided to try being girlfriend and boyfriend...then decided it was kinda weird....then decided it wasn't.  I think we have been together ever since...yes, I realize it's corny. 

We got married at age 20.  I know people probably assumed I was pregnant as we had only been engaged three months...but why wait?  We didn't have a fancy wedding, we just threw together whatever we could afford.  Thankfully, either we didn't care that we weren't spending ridiculous amounts of money or it wasn't as big of a deal as it is now.  My mother-in-law made my dress (which I dearly loved) and my bridesmaid's dresses.  We made all the flowers.  We did have our invitations printed up professionally and the napkins for the reception, but I think that was just about the only thing we "hired out."  Jay's Uncle Doug took the pictures; afterwards he gave us the rolls of film and we had them developed at Wal-Mart for $36.  My Aunt Mary performed the ceremony and we were the very first wedding in our new church...in fact, instead of bird seed, grass seed was pelted at us as we left the church (that is hard to pick out of your hair) because we needed grass to grow!!!  I remember setting chairs up because we ran out of room in the church pews.  Our presbyterial meetings were going on in other parts of the church, and they came to watch too!

Our reception was at my parent's house and was a very casual event.  I think my dad traded some painting work for the hog and we asked the ladies of our church (the CPW) to serve the food.  Oh, wait, how could I forget one of the most exciting parts?  We had a "Lee Cake" for our wedding cake.  A Lee Cake was and is the most delicious cake on this planet.  (I could write a whole post on that subject alone.)  Our old church tent was set up in the yard and thinking of that alone makes me laugh.  That thing was in shambles, but we threw it up for shade.  Who cares, it was August and we needed shade.  Croquet was set up on the west side of mom and dad's house and I believe there were straw bales for people to sit on.

I have no idea if people had a good time or not, I was busy.  It was a very simple ordeal.   (Seems like weddings have gotten so out of hand.  The focus has been taken off the new life beginning together and redirected at all the fancy stuff.  Maybe that's part of the problem today.)  When I look back at the wedding pictures, we look like children.  I can't believe we were 20 years old.  It's so hard to believe that was 16 years ago.  We were childhood friends, high school sweethearts and Homecoming king and queen.  He's been my best friend most of my life, and yes, I realize it's corny...