11th Wedding Anniversary 

Eleven years ago today I was nice and warm waking up in a cheap hotel room in New Orleans. We had just flown in the day before, leaving extremely cold weather behind.

We had a couple delays on the way which meant we missed most of the offices where we could get our marriage licence. This was a problem as we were getting married the very next day. The rules had just recently changed, but only for the New Orleans Parish, that you didn’t have to wait 72 hours after getting your license before you could get married. The only office still open was way out in the country and it was closing soon as well. They hadn’t heard of the rule change and didn’t want to give us the license.

During this time I was second guessing our crazy plan run away all by ourselves and getting married with little time and far away from our comfort zone. We’re we going to have to take our Honeymoon gift cruise not being married?

We actually left the office and we’re walking back to our waiting cab when an employee banged on the window and told us to come back in. She said the worst that could happen would be they wouldn’t marry us tomorrow, but she didn’t want to be the reason that stopped it in case the rule did change. So thankfully we were able to leave with our license and now to head to our hotel for the night.

We woke up to a beautiful day and helped each other get ready in the hotel room. I was pretty much completely ready but Jen was not yet in her dress. Now it was time to head down to the banks of the Mississippi River and hop on the river boat where it’s captain would marry us.

With the boats wedding planner and photographer as our witnesses the foggy morning made for a beautiful back drop, but all I was seeing was Jen walking up to the main deck towards me.

Most of the ceremony I don’t recall, but I’ll be able to picture how radiant Jen looked and recall the overwhelming happiness I felt until the day I die. Oh and I’ll always remember her trying to place my ring in the wrong hand too.

Our wedding was a fun adventure just like the past eleven years have been. I’m looking forward to building so many more memories with my wife and best friend for many more years to come.

Wedding Day – Then