Journey to Married to a Baller, Part Four

The Wedding

I finished up my degree at Penn State and then the long summer of waiting to get married began. I worked at my dad’s health insurance company entering claims while Joe did summer league again. We had scheduled an end of July wedding as most basketball players do to avoid 1) a longer season due to playoffs (The Suns weren’t in the playoffs though) and 2) summer leagues that ran in July. I think this was one of the toughest times because in the back of my head I kept wondering if he was going to back out at the last minute. It wasn’t a good attitude to have, but it was a good reminder that we weren’t married yet. I think too may people act as if they are married before they are and so much hurt can come from that.

Wedding Day: July 27, 2002

Wedding week rolled around and everything was going pretty smoothly. The only trouble we ran into was that we had ordered a trolley to take us to the reception and the one reserved for us broke down. I guess it was good that didn’t happen on the way to the reception. Joe came to town two days before the wedding. And the rest of our bridal party arrived on Friday. The rehearsal was when it really hit me that this was real. His uncle was the one marrying us, so it was easy to run through everything with him. When we got to the part of practicing our vows though, I couldn’t hold it together. I was choking up every time I started to say them. I didn’t know how I was going to get through the next day.

That night I didn’t sleep at all. I was in my brother’s room with my maid of honor and his bed was the most uncomfortable bed. I just lay awake thinking about the next day. Morning came quickly and it was off to get my hair and make-up done. I had had my hair done for my bridal portraits, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. I thought it looked better the first time she did it, but I wasn’t too worried about it. then came the make-up and as much as I insisted I wanted natural look, I came away looking scary! Joe is an anti-make-up guy, so I knew he was going to be frightened to see me looking like that. So I went home and took a tissue to most of it!

It was time to head to the church and get dressed then. We did a bunch of pictures apart beforehand and I was almost all smiled-out before we even got the ceremony. It was a surreal feeling standing at the back of the church waiting to walk down the aisle with my dad. I kept having to remind myself to take it all in because I kept kind of glazing over. I am not one to like being up in front of a lot of people, so that made it a little weird, but I was thankful to have everyone there to celebrate with us. I made it safely through the vows as well.  It was actually Joe who got a little choked up.  Before I knew it we were being pronounced husband and wife. As we walked to the back and went to our separate room, both Joe and I just sighed and hugged each other. After 10 months of dating and 10 months of engagement, we were married! The covenant was now made before God and a whole new chapter of our life was beginning!

The reception was a blast! We kept thinking maybe we would leave early, but we were having way too much fun. Everyone filled the dance floor and danced until the very end. We were so thankful to have so many good family and friends there celebrating with us. After a fun night, the next morning we opened presents and then headed to New Jersey to begin our life as baller and wife!