It’s a little funny how Bryan and I met. He was a second year medical student at UofL (yes, University of Louisville), and I was a Master’s degree student in the biochemistry department. I like to think of that time as round 1 of graduate school and some of the best science training that I ever received. Sometime in October, I planned my experiments so that I was free at 3:00. You see, that is when the Guiding Light was on, and I didn’t have cable in my apartment. There was a common student lounge that both medical and graduate students shared. One day, I ran down there and switched on the tv before turning on the overhead light. When the glow of the big screen tv came on, I heard a commotion and saw this skinny guy almost fall off of the couch – I specifically remember his hat flying into the air! As you guessed (or already know), it was Bryan! I was happy that he didn’t yell at me for interrupting his sleep. Instead, he hung out and talked with me while I tried to catch up on the story line of Reva Shane and Billy… I kept thinking, this guy can’t seriously be interested in my soap opera.

Fast forward to September 4, 1999 – one of the happiest days of my life.  There are many stand-out moments over the course of a person’s life, but on that day, I was so happy that I suspected somebody of drugging my diet mountain dew.  Mine and Bryan’s wedding day happened 15 years and two days ago.  Sometimes that feels like a lifetime, but at other times it seems like yesterday.  Of course, Bryan and I were merely children in 1999 – let’s see, I was around 15!!!!!  (LOL – right!)

I have been going through some of our old wedding pictures.  It was really fun.  Looking back on the day is like going home, because the pictures are from home and with family and friends.  Not everyone that was there are in the pictures below.  Several of my high school and college buddies came to the wedding and even a few professors from UofL, so it was nice to remember those times and how loved and supported we were (and still are).  It was also nice to remember some of my family that was at the wedding but have since passed.

The summer of 1999 was one of the driest on record, in Kentucky anyway. On our wedding day, the sky was so blue and everything was so pretty and green.  To put it simply everything was perfect.  The lovely weather and scenery seemed like a wedding gift from heaven.

Our wedding was planned in 3 months. It was actually moved forward from October to Labor Day weekend to accommodate schedules.  It seemed like an impossible task, but it all went well.  My cousin Chesney made the wedding programs.  A local florist filled the church with pretty flowers. My Aunt Ruth made the flower girl’s dress and wreaths to adorn the church doors and a gift basket for the wedding programs.  My pastor Bro. Roger officiated the ceremony, my friend’s soon-to-be husband played the piano, mine and Bryan’s cousins sung several songs, and Aunt Joyce did a reading.  My cousins Ann and Tim did videography.  I thought that it was perfect.

 

I am pretty sentimental, and knowing that I was getting married in the same church as Mom and Dad was very nice.  Not only that, getting married in the church that I had grown up in and with my hometown church family also in attendance was really nice.  Those are memories that I wouldn’t have if we had gotten married in Louisville or Lexington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our wedding reception was also a family affair.  The night before the wedding, my aunts and cousins helped Sarah, Mom, Dad, and John decorate the reception area, and Sean was our DJ! We had a turkey style dinner that Mom and Dad payed for someone to prepare, because we had already gotten so much help from the family; however, my Aunt Mary brought some of her dishes that Bryan and I love and “wedding cookies”. My cousin Marcella made a really cool fruit sculptor.  It all was just so very sweet.  Our wedding cake was made by the most popular cake maker in Hyden, Bonnie Couch.  We met with her before the wedding and went through pictures of her past work, which was gorgeous.  I convinced her to make a Martha Stewart cake that I found in a “Weddings” magazine, except I wanted the little flowers on the cake to be pink and yellow instead of white.  She was a little hesitant, “I can do it, but making all of those little flowers is going to be tough.”  I told her that she could make anything and I knew that it would be perfect, and of course, Mrs. Couch didn’t disappoint!  I thought (and still think) that my wedding cake was perfect!  The florist added greenery around it 🙂

 

Bryan was very shy about having a “first dance”.  “I don’t dance, especially if a bunch of people are going to watching us!”

Ugh, I had to remind myself that Bryan’s humble nature was one of his best attributes, but I really wanted to have a first dance.  I told him to pick out the song, since he didn’t want some weird “hippie music”.  He thought that was all that I listened to.  Anyway, he chose “When You Say Nothing At All”, by Keith Whitley.  I thought that was a nice choice, given that it is a sweet song and Keith Whitley was from Sandy Hook, which is basically next door to Bryan’s hometown. Since Bryan was so nervous about dancing, he was off the hook for the rest of the evening, but Dad and I danced to “What A Wonderful World”, by Louis Armstrong.  Being the music fan in our new little family, I wanted music played during the reception.  I made sure that “Rocky Top” by local heroes The Osborne Brothers

was played, and my cousin George Wooton took me for a whirl around the dance floor!  Talk about a dancer!!!!  That was the highlight of the reception for sure!!

 

 

It was a great day.  After we were married and Bryan was doing his residency, one of his colleagues wished me luck “being married to a doctor – hope you guys can make it!”  Well, I excused her backhanded well-wishes because she seemed very drunk at the time – don’t worry, this happened at a resident “mixer” and she wasn’t on duty….  Actually, it is not always easy being married to a physician, but I am not exactly the standard “doctor’s wife”.  Honestly, it’s probably more difficult dealing with me, because I can be a real pill….  But that is life, that is marriage.  Ever second of a lifetime is not total bliss and excitement, so expecting married life to always fabulous is a little unrealistic. On September 4, 1999, I married the most terrific guy on the planet.  The only other person around that worries as much as me, my soulmate, and a true partner to share all of the ups and downs of life.   Lucky me!