Catching Idle Butterflies

The Perfect Wedding

Mavis Moog inspired me to write this from her blog this morning. She discussed how some friends of hers are flying to Malta to get married. She thought marriage was supposed to be two people vowing to spend the rest of their lives together in front of friends and family, and not drag them across the world to do it. Though she wanted to see them take their vows, she can’t afford to fly to Malta for the privilege.

This reminded me of Dave and I’s wedding. We were going to college at the time, and we both agreed a big wedding was a) a waste of money and b) way too stressful. I was more on the ‘b’ side whereas Dave considered the money more important. I remember my best friend’s wedding. By the time the day arrived, she was ready for a divorce before they ever said “I do.” I decided then no big wedding for me. It simply wasn't worth the hassle. Besides, I wanted to put my energy into the marriage, not the wedding, since that's more important.

Neither one of us wanted our parents to spend any money on a wedding either.

So, we decided to get married by the Justice of the Peace in Trinidad, Colorado (where we attended college).

Unfortunately, none of our family lived close, my parents being the closest 250 miles away in Fort Collins.

My parents did decide to come down, but couldn’t promise they’d make it in time for the ceremony as my dad had a meeting with the governor in Denver that morning. My sister, of course, decided work was more important than her younger sister’s wedding. Am I still bitter about that? Really, does it show?

But that’s a vent for a later day.

All we needed for the ceremony was two witnesses. We picked our land lord and our mechanic, because we figured they would be around that day. Most of our friends, fellow students, would most likely be out of town since the semester had ended a week before.

The day arrived and we tried to get a hold of our witnesses. No such luck. Both had forgotten and left town.

Now what? In four hours we needed to be at the courthouse, and not a single witness to verify our vows! We dressed in our “Sunday best” which amounted to nice pants and shirts for the both of us, though Dave did have an old wool blazer of his dad’s to wear. We stepped outside and found a note on our car: “Went fishing. We knocked on your door, but no answer. Come meet us, we’ll be there all day. ~ Bob & Will”

We said not a word as we jumped in our car and took the one hour drive up the hills looking for, we hoped, our new ‘witnesses.’

We found them fishing away in the small stream right where we expected them to be. Were they surprised when we stepped out in our nice clothes!

Without preamble, Dave said, “We’re getting married in . . . three hours and we need two witnesses. Would you be willing to be our witnesses?”

They laughed and said, “Yeah, right! You’re getting married? No way!”

“Seriously. We need to be back in town and at the courthouse in less than three hours.”

Smiles gone, and oddly pale, they looked to me for verification.

“Um,” Will said, “We’re not exactly dressed for a wedding.”

“We don’t care,” I said, “We just need you to be witnesses. Our others fell through.”

They agreed, and we arrived back in town with almost an hour to spare.

So as Dave and I took our vows, Will and Bob stood behind us wearing their fish-gut covered camouflaged pants, hiking boots, worn-out shirts and baseball caps and happily witnessed our marriage.

My parents, luckily did manage to make it on time, which thrilled me to no end.

I couldn’t have asked for a better ceremony. It was quick, easy, and it only cost us $20.