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. I could not believe the day was finally here! We had to wait for being married due to past events like Douglas's cancer and attending college. With big smiles on their faces, my mother and bridesmaids helped me get into my camouflage wedding dress. After I got into my dress, my younger cousin Bailey did my cosmetics. Once we were all prettied up, my dad loaded us into the country shuttle that he built from two ATV 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 the old bus, my dad bolted them to an old ATV trailer and pulled it with an ATV. Two shuttles were made and driven by my dad and uncle Brian. Our 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 warmly greeted us till we got to the 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. Each bench had a sunny colored sunflower placed on the ends that matched our wedding party's 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 and warm. I could hear the peaceful humming of the river aside from 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 quickly starting to gather around. I could hear the excited mumbling of people from the upper hill. Suddenly the soft 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 do not like being the center of attention. My parents eagerly came up to me and informed me it was our turn to go next. With tears in their eyes, my parents walked me down the aisle. I started shaking while trying to find my breath. It got worse when I got to the upper hill and people suddenly started to stand up when they saw my presence. I never have been so nervous in my life. When I saw Douglas, I just kept my eyes on him and it helped me not focus on the others. He looked so handsome in his white camouflage vest. When I joined him at the altar, 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. My dad's face lit up so fast when he saw that beer can. In the past, my dad informed Douglas that for him to give me away, he was owed a big can of Bud Light since he believed that was my worth. Everyone laughed at the beer exchange. Once we all settled from that recent humorous moment, we stood there gazing into each other’s eyes. While we were waiting for the singer to finish his song, I wiped one of Doug's joyful tears from his eyes. We just stood there and kept smiling at each other, appreciating the moment.
It was all going perfect until we suddenly heard someone from the audience quickly scream "DUSTY!" Dustin is Douglas's younger brother who was one of Doug's groomsmen. While we were all waiting for the song to finish, Dusty suddenly 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 about Dusty. Thankfully, Dustin woke up right after fainting and we carried on with our ceremony. The ceremony was about forty-five minutes long. We lit our wedding candles, said our vows, and finished 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 tree-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 vows that we wrote to each other on a bridge overlooking the Yellow River. We were both too shy to say it in front of everyone during our wedding. I decided to read my vows first. I was so nervous to read what I wrote that my voice and body was started trembling again. With tears in my eyes, I told him how he changed my life for the better by making me stronger. After I was done, with a happy smile on his face, he told me how I changed his life for the better by helping him become a more successful person. After we said our vows, we grabbed our couple's lock and key. We placed the lock on the bridge and threw both of our keys in the Yellow River to hide our hearts from the world.
We joined the others back at the park and lit off a few fireworks to celebrate the night. Later to find out that the fireworks made my brother's girlfriend Rubi and her mom Victoria, jump underneath a table in terror. They were originally from a bad neighborhood in Milwaukee and when they heard the shooting, they ducked for cover thinking it was gunshots. 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 eagerly 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. After the reception, I waited for Doug in my parents' camper to have our first nightly fun as one. I guess Doug had too much fun in my cousin's camper instead, and later I ended up passing out on the floor in my wedding dress trying to stay up and wait for him. Here's to many more years of happiness, laughter, and love. Our life as one has just begun.
