My good friend Jennifer Snapshot tagged me for a Marriage Meme. She wrote her version here, and it was really fun to read and catch up on her life before I met her.

For my version, I'm going to bring back memories of our engagement and our wedding day. After we were engaged, we planned a wedding in less than six months. I highly recommend short engagements - it was a whirlwind of fun, laughter and sweet, sweet memories.

1. On April 24th, 1994, Phil asked me to marry him in front of my parents and my best friend, Laurie. And Laurie video-taped the entire proposal... she was a sneaky one like that. The video proposal still cracks me up whenever we watch it. Not because I was so shocked that he was asking me in front of my parents. I knew that it was coming soon, but really had no idea that he would do it in front of my parents with my best friend recording the entire thing. What was funny, though, was that he first asked my dad for my hand in marriage, and my dad's answer to him was... "Don't ask me, it's up to her (pointing to me). " Such tender words for such a tender moment.

2. Even at 30 years old, I was an old-fashioned kind of girl. The lease on the apartment I was renting with my best friend Laurie ran out just a month or so before the wedding. Instead of just moving all my things to Phil's, I moved it all back home and spent the last six weeks before our wedding living with my parents. It was a really fun time as we were still making plans for the wedding day and they helped out so much. We had all the wedding gifts delivered to their house and we piled them up on the pool table in the rec room. Every day a new gift would come and we would display it on the pool table. I felt like I was living the movie "Father of the Bride."

3. We had a "theme" rehearsal. Since we are such great fans of our local football team, we decided to have our rehearsal, as well as the dinner, be casual and fun. We knew the Big Day was going to have us in our finest, so we wanted to just enjoy the night before and have a comfortable and relaxing dinner. Our wedding coordinator had bbq catered in to our apartment clubhouse and everyone wore their Chiefs garb. Every. single. person from the pastor down to my Grandma and Granddad wore Chiefs t-shirts, sweatshirts... it was such great fun.

4. I gave my wedding gift to Phil at our rehearsal dinner. Since it was such a unique gift, I felt it only fitting that everyone could see it. A couple months prior to our wedding, I wrote a letter to Derrick Thomas - his favorite Chiefs player at the time - and asked him to sign an authentic #58 Chiefs jersey for him in honor of our wedding day. Through a friend of a friend of a friend, the jersey and letter were given to Mr. Thomas and he sent it back not only with his autograph on the number 8, but he also wrote on the number 5 "Happy Wedding Day Phil and Lori". The gift was a complete surprise to Phil and he shared several tears of joy with everyone at the dinner. We also then displayed it at the reception and everyone loved it.


5. Family was in abundance at our wedding. As I have talked about here, Phil brought to the marriage a former family that I love as much as my own. They all attended the wedding and all were ushered to the row just behind his father... they were his family.

6. The music at our wedding was so beautiful. The highlight of our wedding music was when my little brother Brad (who was just a senior in high school) played Kenny G's The Wedding Song on his saxophone. It was a CD that Phil and I played all the time in his car... we loved this song. And Brad played it beautifully.

7. We wrote our own vows, but did not rehearse them to each other as we wanted to keep this part of our wedding sacred. He was the first to recite his vows, and his words to me brought tears to my eyes, as well as the entire congregation. At the end of his vows, he promised to be my husband, my best friend, and my teammate. This word brought everyone to laughter in the congregation with his reference to football. I was then full of emotion - both laughing and crying at the same time. Wnen it was my turn to recite my vows, I drew a complete blank. I remembered parts of my vows, but basically "winged it" when it came to reciting the ones that I had written down. As soon as I finished, I looked into his eyes and whispered "those weren't my vows." And you can see me mouthing those words on our video tape. It too is a very tender moment... all on videotape!

8. We honeymooned in South Carolina at Kiawah Island. We love this beautiful place and have been back to visit twice. We plan on going back again soon - hopefully for our 15th anniversary.

This was a lot of fun, so I now tag anyone who would like to do this. It brings back such wonderful memories of one of our happiest days. Please let me know if you plan on taking part as I would love to read about your memories in marriage.