Head Tale

Sure, we have three anniversaries but today happens to be one of them so I thought I’d mention it! 🙂

For those who don’t know how we ended with *three* wedding anniversaries, here’s the story…

First off, due to the red tape and expense of a legal destination wedding at the time, we chose to get legally married in our living room in February 2003, wearing jeans and presided over by Calgary’s cheapest Justice of the Peace – I know because I called them all!  😉

My cousin and his girlfriend, who were both undergoing divorces at the time, stood up with us, and when she heard that, the JP admitted she had been divorced multiple times.  Turns out there was maybe a good reason she was the cheapest in Calgary!  At least that hasn’t been a jinx on our marriage…so far!

A month later, we had a beach wedding in the Mexican Mayan Riviera with a handful of family and friends.  This is the wedding we consider our “real” anniversary even though all we got were a certificate printed out by our wedding coordinator and an officiant who we requested to keep all religion out of the ceremony but who couldn’t help himself at the end when the wind came up and he observed that “God was blowing our wind around the world!” (A phrase which has become a bit of a running joke for Shea and I during an inclement weather.)

Our final “wedding” was basically a reception for all the family and friends who couldn’t make it to Mexico to celebrate with us.  Initially, the plan was to have a mock wedding at the start of the festivities to jokingly share our “Mexico wedding’ with everyone.  But some late arriving guests and others who got shy at the last minute, it meant that plan got scrapped.  So even though there was no wedding – legal, ceremonial or mock – we did have a big boozy reception/party and we still think of this as another “anniversary”.

In those pre-smartphone days, our MC even snuck a bunch of friends into a side room, one-by-one, to video tape messages which we still have to this day.  The one from my brother-in-law is a personal favourite…

The joke is that most men have trouble remembering one anniversary but I’ve set myself up to have to remember three (or made it easier because if I forget one, I can still remember a different one!) 🙂

Anyhow, Happy Anniversary Shea.  It’s been a great, uhm, how many years again? 😉