The Five Year Smile

On this day five years ago, I got married. So did my wife. (It's funny how it works that way.) It was one of the five happiest days of my life. Also on that list: the day my girl was born; the day my boy was born; the day the Vikings won the Super Bowl; and that one day in elementary school when they served tapioca pudding AND pizza for lunch on the SAME DAY!

(Okay, so the school lunch thing was a joke, and the Vikings winning the Super Bowl was a delusion. However, the wedding, and the two babies ACTUALLY DID HAPPEN!!! I know this because every morning when I wake up, I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.) (I have a lot of welts.)

There are a lot of things I remember about that day. It was cold. (I mean, really, what kind of idiots get married in the middle of January on one of the coldest days of the year?) (Answer: two idiots who were so much in love that they didn't want to wait until spring.)

The wedding itself was a quiet little ceremony at the Mount Timpanogas LDS Temple. As is my penchant, I got to the temple more than a half an hour early. As is her wont, Amber was about a half an hour late. I'm glad she was. At the time, I wasn't. As I watched wedding guests arrive early, including an aunt who is notoriously late for everything, and my bride still had not arrived, I started to get a little upset with her for being late.

And then, I saw her. Any anger I had immediately evaporated. She was so beautiful. The smile on her face was beyond radiant, beyond any way for me to describe. I've never seen the look of perfect happiness on anyone's face the way it was on Amber's face at that moment.

I know that "people" say it's bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony. Well, those "people" couldn't be more wrong. To this day, if I'm down or in need of a smile, I just think back to Amber's face at that moment. Her smile and happiness are always with me.

The ceremony itself went off without a hitch, except for my brother (four years older than me) being mistaken for my father, and my mother being mistaken for my grandma. Afterwards we went outside to get some pictures taken in front of the temple. They turned out okay, but it's really hard to smile when your face is frozen. (Did I mention it was cold?)

We had a couple of hours to kill between when we left the temple and when we had to be at the reception. What did we do with that time? No, not what you think. We took my car through the car wash. (Because of the snow and cold, my car was filthy, and I worried that if either of us brushed up against it we would get Amber's dress or my tux all dirty.)

We then realized we were hungry. We brainstormed for a minute, then went through the drive-thru at Wendy's and got some chicken nuggets. We decided on chicken nuggets as the food we were least likely to spill on ourselves. (I ate my nuggets without sauce. If not, I WOULD have had honey mustard on my tuxedo, and nobody wants that.) (Except, maybe, for the people at the dry cleaners.)

Four days before the wedding we found out the reception hall we had rented had double booked. They were very good to fix their problem, and they arranged for us to have our reception at the old county courthouse. It turned out to be a wonderful and beautiful place to have a wedding reception. The tile floor was very slick, and I think it helped my dancing that evening because it made my feet move in ways that they otherwise couldn't, wouldn't or shouldn't. (Yes, I was a dancing machine!)

When it came time to cut the wedding cake (an amazing three-tier cheesecake made by my niece), I broke the knife off in the cake. (Sometimes having the strength of ten men has its disadvantages.) (Yes, I DO have the strength of ten men. Ten very weak and feeble men, but ten men nonetheless.)

It was a wonderful and amazing day! A lot of things have happened in the five years since we got married. Two new little people have entered my life, and they've taught me to smile in ways I never knew I could. (Of course, they've also enabled me to change more poopy diapers than I ever thought possible.) (Seriously, that's a lot of poop.)

I never imagined I could be this happy. (Ouch. I just pinched myself again.)

Yes, on this day five years ago I got married. So did my wife. And I've still got the smile on my face to prove it.