Honeymoon: Day 5

It was our last full day of our honeymoon in St. Lucia, and Nate was still hurting from his sunburn. When we got up Sunday morning, we didn’t even put on swimming suits.

Instead, I grabbed my camera - whose battery I had charged - and we set out to take some photos. I attempted to capture fishing swimming, which didn’t work out too well, and I also tried to chase down a hummingbird, which also failed. However, I found some successful shots that I think document the beauty of the peninsula we stayed on.

We then changed for our second snorkeling trip. On the first bout, we kind of rushed through and got back to the boat quicker than we needed to. This time, we wanted to take our time and really see all that the ocean floor offered.

We started off seeing some of the same fish; blues, yellows and black filled our view. I thought it was appropriate that we saw one fish that was black and yellow, perfect for two Iowa Hawkeye fans like us. Nate also pointed out a couple of large sand dollars, something we hadn’t seen the first time around.

After a while of swimming, Nate pulled me over to a spot we had just swam past. He pointed at the snorkeling guide who was swimming by himself but had motioned for Nate to come take a look at a fish.

The guide dove down to the ocean floor and stuck his hand underneath a rock, coaxing a large blob of a yellow fish to swim out. I still don’t know what kind of fish it was though.

Seeing a cool fish like that, which we wouldn’t have noticed by ourselves, we kind of decided to stick with the guide. He eventually pointed down again, and Nate started to get excited.

All I could see was a rock.

Nate poked his head out of the water, removed his snorkel and told me that there was a lion fish underneath a rock. Excited, I put my face back in the water. It took me a minute, but I finally saw the white and orange-striped fish poke its head out.

It was definitely worth it going snorkeling for a second time.

That evening, we went back to the Italian restaurant, and it was just as delicious the second time. However, we ordered a panna cotta for dessert, and after one bite of what seemed like vanilla Jell-o, we got up and left.

In the lobby, a talented group was playing music, and we spotted some of our friends. We sat down to chat, and a woman came up to me and Nate to ask how old we were.

“You look so young,” she said.

Apparently she and her husband had a bet about how old we were, and we joked that we should have exaggerated about our ages.

When the music stopped, we decided to stay up late with our friends and hit the “club” at the resort. A DJ was playing music, and I started to sweat as we danced to the “Wobble, Wobble,” the “Cupid Shuffle” and some other fun dances.

Oh, what a wonderful vacation it was.

Honeymoon: Day 4, day of relaxation

I woke up on Saturday morning to Nate laying on his side.

He couldn't really lay on his back the whole night, because the vibrant red sunburn on his back was a little too painful.

Before we left for vacation, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some sunscreen. My ginger husband knew that he would need some strong protection as we would be near the equator, so he purchased some waterproof SPF 85.

I got some SPF 15. I barely used it.

Friday on St. Lucia, Nate was having too much fun and didn't reapply his SPF 85 quite as often as he had the previous day. So he ended up with the only kind of tan he usually gets, a red one.

For that reason, we donned our Hawkeye shirts to represent Iowa on game day, and headed down to breakfast at the Italian restaurant we had gone to the night before. Nate had breakfast burritos, and I continued my seafood binge with salmon eggs benedict. Then we found some shade to relax in to give Nate's skin a break.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the shade and in the pool. We had a sandy beach dinner as well.

Some of the couples that we made friends with were constantly coming and going from the resort. They talked about how they spent $1,500 on extra excursions around the island - from snorkeling elsewhere to riding four-wheelers to zip lining. It sounded like fun, but every time they came back they talked about the long trips and how exhausted they were.

On the other hand, Nate and I didn't spend any extra money and we were at peace and relaxed. We wanted our vacation to be a vacation and loved that we never had to worry about what time it was so we could meet a schedule. We just enjoyed some time off.

Honeymoon: Day 3

We stalked Josephine's Cafe, waiting until it opened at 11 a.m. as our stomachs were growling.

It was 11:05 a.m., but the workers weren't quite ready as they were on island time.

Finally, I went back in for a second time and asked the employees chatting around one of the tables if they were open, and they let us in.

Nate ordered a seafood wood-fire oven pizza, and I decided to try the seafood crepe, since I wanted to branch out a little on vacation.

Branch out, I did.

About in the middle of my crepe, a little purple octopus rolled out and onto the white dish in front of me.

I wasn't sure what to do.

I rolled it over with my fork as my shoulders tensed together a bit, and it's little black eyes looked at me.

"Nate, there's an octopus. I'm not sure if I can eat this."

I cut it in half, thinking that might be better than popping the thing in whole. But I still wasn't sure if I could eat something with its tentacles showing.

"Will you eat one first?" I asked my husband.

I dug around deeper into the crepe and found another one, which he grabbed and popped into his mouth. Bolstering myself off his courage, I stuck my fork in the dense creature and ate it, its legs feeling odd on my tongue. However, Nate was proud of me for trying something that I hadn't before.

Nate has a big thing about people who won't branch out. He doesn't care if I don't like what I try - for instance, the conch we ate on Key Largo - but he just wants me to test stuff out. He has gotten me to try a lot of new things in our relationship, and I usually enjoy them.

After lunch, Nate and I went down to the water sports hut and picked up some flippers for the snorkeling excursion we signed up for.

On the boat, we put on the bright yellow jackets that would help boats to not run over us. We cleaned out the goggles and snorkels with disinfectant, and then we jumped into the clear water and swam around to see the wildlife.

Nate and I held hands as we swam, pointing out blue fish, striped ones, barracudas, coral and sea anemones. Perhaps my favorite part was just doing something so exotic hand-in-hand with my new husband.

After the snorkeling trip was over and our faces had nice goggle imprints on them, we went back to the water sports hut and asked to take out a hobby craft. A worker hopped on with us and taught us how to steer, speed up and slow down. Then he took us back to shore, jumped off and let us go.

Nate took the reins at the helm and I just relaxed as we whooshed across the blue bay, the giant Sandals sail waving above us and the sun shining down on us. All I felt was peace.

After two trips across the bay and back, we got out and met up with the friends we had met earlier in the week at the pool. We swam around, and then they ended up leaving for another Sandals resort on the island to eat dinner, but we went up to our room to get ready for the reservation we had at the Italian restaurant at our resort.

The restaurant closed at 9 p.m. and our reservation was for 8:45 p.m. But that didn't stop us from ordering four courses of food, at which our server didn't look happy. We promised her that we eat fast, and she laughed when we polished off the seafood fritter appetizer in about 30 seconds.

The zuppa soup was absolutely delectable, and then I had my first lamb chops.

Wow.

Nate had some seafood pasta, but I have to say my lamb chops might have been the best thing I ate all vacation.

Dessert was tiramisu, and then we spent a little time on our balcony before going to sleep.

Another successful, relaxing day on St. Lucia ended.

Honeymoon: Day 2

We woke up on the first full day of our honeymoon to the same beautiful weather as the day before.

Really, I woke up about 8:30 a.m., ready to get on with the vacation. I laid there for about a half hour, thinking how I should probably let my husband sleep. However, I couldn't find the remote, and the TV was stuck on some movie in Chinese. Pretty soon I couldn't take it, and I nudged Nate to wake him up.

We went to the only restaurant at the resort that we knew served breakfast and found it to be a buffet. I tried some tropical fruits and learned that I really like starfruit and some kind of citrus fruit that I still don't know what it was.

We went to the water sports hut and made sure to sign up for snorkeling the next day, and then we donned some bright yellow life jackets and stepped into a matching double kayak.

I had on my wide-brimmed woven sun hat, that I got for $5 at one of the summer flea markets at home, and used the ugly strap under my chin to make sure that it didn't blow off in the bay.

The water was so gorgeous. The color went from turquoise to a deep blue when it grew deeper, and it was quite warm. We could see the Piton mountains all around us and in the distance Castries looked pretty with all the different colored roofs of the buildings, a different sight than the city is up close.

When we took the boat in, we grabbed some drinks and waded into the ocean. I had my eye on one of these rings that floated with a trampoline-like material in the center, so you could float without being submerged. The moment people left them, someone else crawled in, so I stalked one until it was empty.

Nate and I floated in it, just enjoying the bright sun contrasting with the cool water. I don't even know how to describe how peaceful and relaxing that moment was. I thought I could do that for the rest of vacation.

However, pretty soon it was lunch time. We grabbed some nachos and fresh-caught tuna at the beach restaurant and then went to change.

That afternoon we had planned to go to the park that was just off the side of our resort, at the edge of the peninsula we were situated on.

We put on our walking shoes and sweats, packed my camera, some bug spray, sunscreen and a couple bottles of St. Lucian water and set out.

"I'm glad I have a wife that will go hiking with me," Nate said, and I also liked that we were doing something a little bit different than the regular resort activities.

We walked by the Atlantic Ocean on the west side of the island, passing by a number of local people who were on lunch break or parked by the water just to enjoy the view. We talked about a large rock in the distance that was white, coming to the conclusion that the white was actually just a deep layer of bird poop as we saw seagulls flying around it.

We got to the park entrance and saw that it had an admission fee of $5 U.S., so we turned around and went back to the room. Only on the resort for a day, we had already gotten to everything being included and hadn't brought money with us.

We then walked full circle and paid our admission fee to the park.

The peninsula was once the home of the British Fort Rodney, used as a look-out point as the British tried to keep the island of St. Lucia from being taken over by the French. Buildings in the park were in ruins, but it was interesting to see where people lived and worked and ate.

We then hiked up to one peak, sweating profusely in the hot sun and stagnant, humid air. On top of the fort, I pulled out my Rebel XL camera and realized the battery was dead after travel. So much for that, so Nate pulled out his iPhone and took some gorgeous pictures as we overlooked our resort and the expansive ocean. You could even see Martinique island about 40 miles away, just a shadow in the distance.

Then we headed to the twin peak on the other side of the peninsula, climbing a less worn path. I'll admit, I almost didn't make it. The heat got to me, and I thought I was going to throw up when we finally reached the top. Even up there though, the breeze didn't come and rescue me. I just kept telling myself that it was for Nate, and I wanted to be the kind of wife that would always follow her husband to the ends of the Earth, or the top of the local peaks anyway.

I fell asleep almost the moment we got back to our air-conditioned room, and then we dressed up for the night.

Setting out for dinner, I was a little upset finding out that everything was closed except for a Caribbean buffet at the restaurant we ate at that morning. I didn't want another buffet, so I pouted a little but we went anyway.

It turned out to be delicious. This was the night that they celebrated the St. Lucian heritage, and we ate local food like grilled fish, jerk chicken, sushi, fry bread and other delicious stuff. In the background, a steel drum band played some amazing music.

We saw some local culture in the dancing, and I even joined in when they invited audience members to come up.

Then we hit the hay, after a beautiful second day of our honeymoon.

Honeymoon: Day 1

This is a picture of the view that Nate and I had of the Atlantic from our honeymoon suite.

We got to the Sandals Grande resort in St. Lucia and were welcomed by professional concierges who brought our paperwork to us as we sat on comfy couches and enjoyed our first complimentary beverages at the all-inclusive resort.

Another employee then showed us to our room, coming in to give us the scoop on everything.

Nate and I were really hungry, and no restaurants opened up for dinner service until 6:30 p.m., so instead we went to the English pub that opened up earlier.

We spotted Bangers and Mash on the menu and were curious. Since our waiter was obviously really from Britain, his accent gave him away, we asked him what it was.

"If I tell you, you won't want to order it," he said.

Nate asked him for some suggestions, and he asked us if we had ever had marinated chicken wings.

Nate answered him kindly, but I laughed on the inside. We're from the U.S., yeah, I think we've had chicken wings before.

However, we soon realized why he asked us that. Apparently he thought I was Italian, not American. Actually, I was asked twice during the trip if I was from Italy. Maybe I'm more exotic-looking than I realize! Haha.

Nate ended up ordering the Bangers and Mash - which turned out to be sausage on top of mashed potatoes, with onion gravy - and I got the authentic fish and chips, with mashed peas to dip the fries into. It was all absolutely delicious.

The best part for me - we got up and left without having to pay a bill. It was so amazing!

We went next door to the billiards room, but all the tables were full. A large table sat on one side with different balls than we were used to. It was a British game called Snooker, but we had no idea how to play.

Instead, we went out in the hall and started playing on a pool table out there. We ended up meeting some couples out there and started talking, Nate connecting with a guy named Derek over hunting.

Before we headed back to our room, Nate and I saw that someone was in the billiards room playing snooker. We asked them if we could watch them play to learn the rules, and they passed down what they had learned from the British people working inside the pub.

Since we didn't get to the resort until 4 p.m., that was about all the energy we could expend that day. So we headed up to relax on the balcony in our room, the waves of the Atlantic Ocean softly crashing just a couple hundred feet away.

The first views of St. Lucia

Our first view of St. Lucia was over the gigantic gray wing of a 737.

The dark green island's mountains, the Pitons, rolled into the deep blue ocean. The colors became even brighter as the plane descended and landed on the one small runway at Hewanorra Airport. We actually had to turn around and taxi back to the gate, which wasn't even a gate as I got my first taste of deplaning right onto the jetway.

The air in St. Lucia was humid and warm, which is amazing, but a little uncomfortable when you're in jeans.

We went through customs, which was surprisingly easy, considering we had no idea what to expect since we've never left the country before.

Staying at a Sandals resort, workers immediately found us, grabbed our bags and took us into a bright room filled with comfortable furniture to wait for our shuttle to the Grande resort 41 miles from the airport.

It ended up that the shuttle only sat eight, and there were 10 people waiting to go to the Grande. So a worker called us over to an unmarked car, a taxi we assumed. He told us to get inside.

I didn't think about it until later in the trip, but apparently Nate became nervous right away, fearing that were being kidnapped, because we had left the group with a driver that literally could have taken us anywhere that he wanted. We had no idea where the resort was, but leave it up to my husband to make sure to note every single police officer that he saw along the way in case something did happen.

Well, stuff did happen along the way, but it wasn't us being kidnapped.

When we got in the car, the St. Lucian man started to give us a little information about the place. I could only pick out about every third word even though he said, "Our language is English, with some broken French." A Caribbean form of English, it definitely was.

He talked about the bananas and coconuts grown on the island, "Very, very nice." He talked about the rum made there, "Very, very nice." He talked about a lot of different things that were "Very, very nice."

The trip wasn't really what I expected. We zoomed around on the wrong side of the road - at least the wrong side in the U.S. - at about 60 miles per hour on curvy roads that should have had a speed limit of 30. We passed people with cars coming right at us. We shot past people walking right on the side of the road. We went around curves on one lane roads and next to steep cliffs that had no guard rails.

A few minutes into the drive, Nate grabbed my hand and held it tight. We didn't move or let go for quite some time.

What impacted me most about this island though was seeing the villages that people lived in.

I guess going to a Sandals resort, I figured that St. Lucia was a wealthy island with magestic, ocean-front homes with large terraces.

It wasn't.

I saw a couple of gas stations, some roadside "restaurants" and plenty of places to stop and get a Piton beer.

The homes looked like shacks, and when we entered the capital of Castries, I was amazed at how people lived. It looked like the poor sections of Brazil that you see where people create homes out of scraps of wood and metal. Some people even had business signs for these places, making a living however they could. I only saw two small churches there as well. I wondered if God had reached this community much.

One home really struck me though. It was a skinny, two-story wood house with no siding or paint. There were not even windows.

However, in the holes where windows should be were white lace curtains, and bright white linens blew in the breeze on a clothesline outside.

I guess when I think about people who live in shacks like I was seeing, I figured these people would be poor and smelly. However, in this home, people obviously took pride in taking care of whatever they had, keeping it clean, even if it wasn't much.

I don't know if those people would want to live in the U.S. or even if they see anything weird about the way that they live. More power to them, I thought. If they are happy with a simple life like that, then I hope they live it to the fullest.

So we're going to St. Lucia, huh?

I had no idea where we were going on our honeymoon.

Nate had it all planned and somehow had managed to keep it a secret, even though a lot of our friends knew where we were going.

I knew we had a layover in Miami the first night, so I figured the Caribbean. However, I was also told that I should pack a long-sleeve shirt and a stocking cap to go along with the shorts I had packed.

A stocking cap and shorts? Really, Nate?

Side note: I did find out later that Nate took the hat out right after I put it in.

We arrived in Miami the Tuesday after our wedding, and picked up our rental car - a bright orange Dodge Challenger.

A revving engine and freeways, and Nate was a happy man.

We drove down to Key Largo to check into the hotel Nate had booked for that night, and then we spent some time driving around. We even stopped at a restaurant that had been featured on the Food Network. Since it was called the Conch House, we tried their specialty, conch.

Not a fan.

Instead of driving all the way down to Key West, we decided to head back to our resort and relax a little bit. Some reggae music and a hammock overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, we were quite content.

The mosquitoes started biting as the sun set though, so we headed in to have some dinner at the resort's restaurant.

After some salmon for me and lobster ravioli for Nate, we headed back to our room.

I chatted about how I needed to remember to call the credit card company in the morning to tell them we were leaving the country.

"Yeah, call and tell them we're going to St. Lucia," Nate said, not really thinking.

"So we're going to St. Lucia, huh?"

Oops.

I was impressed that he didn't let it slip until the night before though!

Next up: The reception

I had one request for our wedding reception - that people dance!

I had several reasons for that desire. First, I love to dance, and I wanted to dance and have fun at our wedding reception. Second, receptions die really fast when people aren’t dancing. Third, I have friends who also love to dance, and I knew that our reception would be a failure without it.

Thankfully, we had Nate’s cousins (mine too now, I guess) DJ the reception, and they put a ton of forethought into the playlist.

When we got to the reception, kind of late due to our pictures, we hurriedly ate, cut the cake and gave speeches so that the party wouldn’t die.

I shouldn’t have been concerned.

After our first dance, father-daughter dance and mother-son song, the music started bumping. Little kids were the first ones on the dance floor, but pretty soon our friends took over. The dollar dance just egged them on, and one thing I’ll never forget is the fact that some of my friends danced with me, and Nate’s male friends danced with him. It was odd, but enjoyable.

The dance floor was full the entire night, and I only left to get glasses of water every now and then. Nate had a cigar, but even took a break from that to come back in to dance to “Thriller,” a must-have for his family. My family must-have was a polka song that actually recruited a full dance floor.

At one point, I went to sit by my family, who were resting at a table. I didn’t want to neglect them so I sat down for a second. Looking at the dance floor, 80 percent of the movers and shakers were male.

“Have you ever been to a wedding where there are more guys than girls on the dance floor?” I asked my mom.

“No,” she said.

There were plenty of guys out there having a blast, and we knew there would be.

From throwing the bouquet to tossing the garter to getting Rick-rolled by Nate’s work friends, our reception was an evening to remember.

And we've already been told that we need to renew our vows pretty soon so that people can have another party.

Side note:
We almost got the reception even later than we did. When the bridal party was standing on the stairs leading into the reception hall, a drunk guy approached us and actually started walking up the stairs with us.
“Are you liberal?” he asked.
Nate and I kind of just looked at him like, “What are you doing here?”
“Are you liberal?” he slurred again.
“No,” Nate said.
“Come on man, be liberal,” the drunk said, oh so convincingly.
Nate turned to me.
“Is he part of your family?”
“No.”
“This is our wedding, beat it,” Nate turned to the drunk, full on angry now.
We had planned to walk into our reception in handcuffs, just for fun. But Nate was ready to use them for a different purpose then.
“Beat it or I’m going to use these handcuffs on you,” Nate told the guy.
“Come on, be liberal,” the drunk said again, slowly backing down a stair at a time.
A couple more threats, and he ended up at the bottom of the stairs, still pleading with us to turn liberal as we walked into our reception.
He actually made it inside later than night until a friend’s mom told him to leave, and she and my mom glared him out the door.

Part III: The Ceremony

"Don't you dare kiss me."

I was standing in the foyer of the church with my hand tucked in the crook of my dad's arm before he walked me down the aisle, and this is what he said.

At the rehearsal, we had practiced me giving my dad a kiss and a hug before he handed me off to Nate at our wedding ceremony. Now, my dad was telling me not to kiss him, because he didn't think he would hold the tears in.

"Can I at least hug you?" I said, laughing slightly. I thought he was cute.

"You can hug me later," he said.

Then the song inside the sanctuary switched to a piano version of "Better Together," by Jack Johnson.

Two of our ushers and good friends opened the glass doors, and I walked inside as the people stood in their rows.

I looked at Nate at the end of the aisle, a moment I have dreamed about for a long time. He was perfectly handsome, standing tall at the end of the aisle in his black tux with white shirt, tie and vest. A smile graced his face, but he looked a little tense. he told me later he got nervous just before the ceremony started, realizing how big a moment this was.

I looked at the people smiling and taking pictures as I walked to meet my prince charming. At the end of the aisle, my dad and I stopped, still arm in arm. The music faded away, and the pastor asked "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"

"Her mother and I," my dad said.

He didn't really even look at me but gave Nate a hug and handed me over to him.

Nate took my hand, but as we approached the stairs up to the stage, I had to take it back to hold up my dress. It wasn't quite smooth, because we hadn't practiced with a long dress that I was trying to not trip over in my turquoise lace shoes.

At the top, I grabbed Nate's hand again, and the ceremony started.

It was kind of a whirl. The pastor speaking. The scripture readers - my best friends from college - reading a verse and my eyes starting to tear as my friend Emily made eye contact with me while she read. Nate and I turning toward each other and exchanging vows, then rings.

I don't think most people knew what happened when we exchanged rings. Nate got mine on easily. However, he has knuckles that are larger than the bottom of his fingers. His ring fit his finger but was quite tight to get on over his knuckle. I put it on halfway but stopped.

"Nope, that's as far as it's going."

Nate then stuck his hand in his pocket to keep the ring from slipping off, but it wasn't what he was supposed to do.

"Hold her hand man," the pastor told him.

"I don't want to lose the ring," Nate said quietly, pulling his hand out of his pocket with his ring finger crooked. I grabbed his hand and held the ring on until the musicians made their way on stage. As we walked to the back to light the unity candle, Nate shimmied the ring the rest of the way on.

We picked up the turquoise candles that had been lit before the ceremony by our mothers, and then we walked back to center stage and joined hands as our parents made their way up to us.

An intimate moment ensued as our parents, all still together, circled us and prayed for us. Nate lowered his head to rest on mine, which was very sweet. However, my feet weren't in a good position and the extra bit of weight was throwing me off balance. I slid my feet into a new position trying to concentrate on what our parents were saying and "I Can't Wait" being sung in the background.

I had kept myself from crying throughout the ceremony. However, when Nate and I faced each other and the pastor pronounced us man and wife, I stared into his eyes.

The blue-green eyes that stared back at me were ones that I have looked at for more than eight years. They're ones that I will look into for the rest of my life, Lord willing. They are beautiful eyes, full of love and full of strength and full of courage. They are the eyes of the man that I can't help but love.

As the pastor pronounced us husband and wife, the tears slowly filled my eyes. I tried to smile but could feel my face tighten as the tears came. I was just oh so happy.

Then our pastor said, "You may kiss your bride."

Nate gave me a huge kiss as people in the audience hooped and hollered and cheered and applauded.

Then the new Mr. and Mrs. walked down the aisle together, the first of many steps we will make arm in arm.

Wedding Day part II

The days leading up to our wedding, I sent out a complete schedule with hour-by-hour directions for the entire bridal party.

Well, the day didn't quite turn out according to the schedule.

Decorating at the church went perfectly, and it actually went much quicker than anticipated. My bridesmaid Kathleen and I headed out to our hair appointments, discovering along the way that one of the reception venue's signs - which I was expecting to use to direct people - had been taken down.

Thanks so much to my best friends who bought some poster board and created signs for me as I sat at the hair salon!

Then I ended up not even starting my hair appointment until after I thought it would be done.

Thanks to my friends for heading to the church and decorating the sanctuary!

We were supposed to start pictures at 1 p.m., and my photographer said that I was being overly positive about what time I would be ready. And I ended up still sitting in the hairdresser's chair at 1:15 p.m.

I just laughed.

"I gave my fiance a schedule, and now he's going to be like, 'She's not even following it,'" I told my hairdresser.

Oh, well!

I scrambled into the church, put on my dress - which was luckily pretty easy - and applied my make-up in a scramble.

We ended up right on time with everything. I even had a few moments to spare to play a game of air hockey and pray with my parents before the ceremony started.

A lesson in patience and not being a bridezilla the day of my wedding. Luckily I was so happy I just went with the flow, for the most part.

Part III: The Ceremony, coming tomorrow!

A chat with my parents

I'm back!

I think it's going to take me a month to not only catch up on the blogging about everything that has happened recently but to also catch up just on life! A wedding Sept. 2, a honeymoon until last night, starting dance tomorrow, moving on Saturday - we're just trucking on.

To catch up, maybe I should just go chronologically. First things first: Our wedding day.

I didn't think that I would be able to fall asleep the night before Nate and I got married. However, put me in a dark room, snuggled in a warm bed and even "Friends" going on the TV won't keep me awake.

The next thing I knew I felt someone standing over me, and I opened my eyes to face right above mine. I jumped and grabbed the covers - a great and helpful reaction if someone was going to attack me...

Luckily, it was just my dad. It was 6:30 a.m. and he wanted to talk before the big day, and my mom jumped into the king-size bed next to me and snuggled up.

They talked about the importance of love and respect between a husband and a wife. My dad said how men are instructed to love their wives, because that isn't something that comes natural to them. Love for women is just a natural thing. However, woman are instructed to respect because that is less natural for them than love.

It was an interesting topic, one that was actually repeated in the sermon at our wedding ceremony - which I didn't realize was going to happen.

However, I think the part of that conversation that stuck out to me the most was how my parents talked about each other. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but they said that 30 years from now they hope that Nate and I still find what we need only in each other.

They said they still can be in a room full of people, but when their eyes meet across the distance it's like a relaxing feeling comes over them and they just know that they're OK because they have each other.

I love that my parents are still so in love 33 years after they got married, and I can't wait to have that with Nate and to tell our children about it when it's their turn to tie the knot.

More tomorrow on how the rest of the day turned out.