A Valentine's Day Story

Jeremy and I originally planned to have our wedding on Valentine's Day. We were that couple who felt as if the entire world should share our love on the day that symbolizes love.

But, just like many other things in life: our wedding didn't quite go down the way we planned and we ended up being married on December 23rd (two days before Christmas and without no more than a week's notice) instead. We were okay with that, and given the choice now we would never have had it any other way.

Because there was very little notice for our wedding, we opted out of inviting anyone except immediate family and had our reception on Valentine's Day instead. It was very low-key: we ordered pizza and ate wedding cake and I made all the decorations myself. It was a great time shared with our family and friends.

Every Valentine's Day I look back on that day and smile, and I still brag that I'm one of few brides that got to wear her wedding dress twice.

But today I want to share a different story with you: the story of our wedding night (bow-chica-bow-wow - not). See that photo above? This photo was taken in the emergency room just hours after we said 'I do'.

My wonderful grandmother, who as many of you know is more like a mother, grandmother, and best friend to me, fell the night we were married (there was about 2 inches of ICE on the ground), busted her head, and had to have stitches almost directly after our wedding ceremony.

The kicker? She sat through our celebratory dinner (pizza, again...do you see a trend here?) acting as if she was totally okay while holding a towel to her forehead. Immediately after we ate, my new husband and I insisted that we take her to the hospital. We were there the rest of the evening, arriving back at her home (and ours for the next few months) in the wee hours of the morning.

We were all exhausted.

I always get tickled thinking of us walking into the emergency room, me in my wedding gown, Jeremy in his tux, both with blood stains. The best part was that a nurse working that night gave us a sprig of real mistletoe that she had shot (apparently this is how it's done?) out of a tree. It still adorns the top of our tree every single Christmas.

I suppose I could get upset about spending our wedding night in the E.R., but to tell you the truth, I actually really loved it. Jeremy and I talked and laughed and joked about how we would tell our children one day about that night. And we did. And do.

Sometimes things don't go as planned, and in the end, you end up with a better memory than you could have ever even imagined.

Happy Valentine's Day, from us to you!