3.4 My Country Style Matrimony

It is the day that every girl imagines, her WEDDING day! It is one's most memorable day by being the most beautiful day, yet possibly the most expensive day of one’s life. While most weddings appear grand and luxurious, let me tell you about a wedding day that took place on a small dairy farm in Gilman, Wisconsin. It was small and simple, yet it had elegance with a camouflage redneck side.

 August 12, 2017, the wife-to-be was little old me. I have always dreamed about marrying my fiancée Douglas for years. My mother and bridesmaids helped me with my camouflage wedding dress while my younger cousin Bailey did my cosmetics. Once we were all prettied up, my dad loaded us into his homemade country shuttle he built from two trailers. To others it may appear redneck, but to me, it was perfect! My dad recently bought a small Pre-K school bus to remodel and turn it into his future refrigeration business van. With the extra seats from that old bus, my dad bolted them to an old ATV trailer and pulled them with an ATV. Two shuttles were made and driven by my dad and Uncle Brian. The wedding was going to take place down by my parent's campsite that was hidden in the woods and sits right off the banks of the Yellow River. On the dirt path within the woods, eight tiki lamps greeted us till we got to wedding site. The wedding site that our families and Douglas decorated was gorgeous. My soon to be mother-in-law Joy and her boyfriend Johnny made the rustic wooden benches from an old oak tree that use to sit in their yard. Each bench had sunflowers placed on the ends that matched our wedding parties bouquets and boutonnieres . The sunflowers came from my mom's sunflower garden that she had planted behind the house. The front had a rustic wooden arch and table.  Everything was perfect and the sun was shining bright.  I could hear the humming of the river aside of us while we walked down to the lower campsite. We went inside a tent that was placed to hide us so others cannot see us until the big moment.

Crowds were gathering to gather around. I could hear the mumbling of people from the upper hill. Suddenly the music started to play, and our wedding singer started to sing Tim Mcgraw's song "It's Your Love". From that moment on, one by one my bridesmaids started to disappear on me.  I was suddenly starting to get nervous. Normally I don't like being the center of attention. My parents came and informed me it was our turn. I had both my parents walk me down the aisle. I got to the upper hill and people suddenly started stood up when they saw my presence. I never have been so nervous in my life. When I saw my husband, I kept my eyes on him and it helped me not focus on the others. When I joined him at the alter, his  joyful tears made me feel loved and welcomed. My parents held out my arms and gave them to Douglas at the altar. Before my parents sat down, Douglas tapped on my dad's shoulder and gave him a 25 oz can of Bud-Light beer. In the past, my dad informed Douglas that for him to give me away, he was owed a big can of Bud Light since that was my worth. Everyone laughed at the beer exchange. Once we all settled from that recent humorous moment, we stood their gazing in each other’s eyes while waiting for the singer to finish his song. I wiped one of his tears from his eyes and we just kept smiling at each other, appreciating the moment. It was all going perfect until we suddenly heard someone from the audience scream "DUSTY!" Dustin is Douglas's younger brother who was part of the groomsmen party. While we were standing still waiting for the song to finish, Dusty fainted either due to stress, heat, or possibly partying the night before. We all froze while he fainted. The singer kept singing but we all were concerned about what we should do. Thankfully, Dustin came to right away after fainting and we carried on the ceremony. The ceremony was about forty-five minutes long. We lit our wedding candles, said our vows, and finished the ceremony by doing a Native American wedding vase. After the pictures were done, Doug and I hopped into his Jeep Comanche truck that was decorated by his two sisters. 

We headed down to the Gilman Public Park for the reception. After our grand feast, we cut our birch-style wedding cake that looks like it was being pulled down by a Jeep Comanche toy truck. As the sun got to a certain position, Doug and I left the crowd to say our own personal vows that we wrote each other on a bridge. After we said our vows, we grabbed our couples lock and key. We placed the lock on the bridge and threw both of our keys in the Yellow River. We joined the others back at the park and lit off a few fireworks. Later to find out that the fireworks made my brother's girlfriend Rubi and her mom Victoria, jump underneath a table. They were originally from a bad neighborhood in Milwaukee and when they heard the shooting, they ducked for cover.  I felt bad after hearing about their scare, so we decided to finish the night with sky lanterns. Douglas and I had a red heart lantern, our parent’s lanterns were white, and our wedding parties were gold. Everyone's lantern lifted into the sky except Douglas's parents. It was sad yet humorous since they were currently going through the stages of a divorce and when their lantern fell back to the earth, my mother-in-law Joy yelled "This lantern is just like my marriage, crashed!!"  We all did a small laugh in shock of her response. 

It was hard to believe how fast the day went. I remember waking up that day all excited and nervous, to 10 P.M, and Douglas and I were sitting on a park bench wondering where the time went. Other than Dusty fainting and Joy's response, our wedding was a beautiful day full of fun, laughter, and love. Here's to many more years of happiness, our life as one has just begun.