by Teri Tolliver

Created on: March 06, 2009

As of March 4,2009 we have been married 21 years, and we both remember every detail of that day, like it was yesterday. After a short engagement of six months, we took the plunge and have never looked back. Short of a couple funny incidents on the big day, everything went rather smoothly.

The day before our wedding I went to the lady's house who had finished some last minute alterations to my gown. After trying on the gown I gave my approval of her handiwork. She placed the gown into the garment bag and hung it on the door while I quickly changed back into my clothes. This took maybe all of 15 minutes. Needless to say my to do list which was half a mile long kept playing over and over in my mind as I rushed out the door with my gown in hand. I mentally marked pick up gown off my list. As the day slipped into night I somehow managed to get everything done on my list except the actual wedding itself.

I actually did get a decent amount of sleep although I don't know how that was possible. Between the excitement and sheer panic that I had forgotten something I couldn't tell you when I finally did fall asleep. With the morning came a sense of feeling refreshed. Well at least until it came time to start getting ready. After hair and makeup was done I slipped into my gown . "Okay, now can you hand me my veil?" I asked my soon to be sister in law. "Um...Uh..." she muttered nervously looking in the bag and around the room. " Uh...I don't...see...it." she confessed almost in tears. MY VEIL WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! The seamstress had not put it in the bag with the gown and it was probably back at her house but she was going on vacation that morning for two weeks. So I sucked it up and plucked a few baby's breath from my beautiful bouquet and pinned them in my hair. Oh well, I thought, I'm sure I'll laugh about this years from now.

My soon to be husband was having a crisis of his very own right about the same time. He does not care too much for being in the spotlight and felt that his nerves were about to get the best of him. So he asked his mom for something to settle his stomach. Well she thought she gave him a nausea pill but it was a nerve pill. So about halfway through the vows it hit him and he started slurring his words, swaying back and forth and nearly passed out. Once we made it through the ceremony, he headed for the back door of the church. I didn't know about the pill. I thought he was a runaway groom, as did probably most of our guests. After a few minutes he came back inside and explained everything in detail. To this day he swears he still gets a little queasy when he watches our wedding video, because he can't believe he actually slurred " awfully red head wife " during our vows.

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