Closing Day

I don't recommend closing on a house the day before you get married. Meet at the courthouse-sign away the rest of your life & first born, meet the carriage driver to arrange specifics, dash to the church for rehearsal, gather up all the participants & out-of-town relatives & try to get them to the rehearsal dinner & through it all-it rains. Not just little showers but thunderstorms & downpours & in the back of your mind is,"if it rains tomorrow-no horse & carriage-non-refundable down-payment", but we won't think about that right now! My fiance & I meet at our "new" house for a quick toast & he gives me a pair of diamond studs to wear on my wedding day-Mr. Romance! The rain has tapered to a steady drizzle-I am still not panicked-positive thoughts. I go back to Mom & Dad's for the pleasant task of writing place cards for the reception-little last minute glitch. I forget about the rain-I am so exhausted sleep overcomes me the minute my head hits the pillow. My last thoughts are-this is my last night in this bed, in this room, in my parents house.

Saturday dawns with sunny skies, so of course the groom has to wash his car. He is almost late for his own wedding. No one is really worried about this, as it is his MO. The church is in the heart of our state capital & hundreds of bikers are blocking the road to the church protesting to repeal the helmut law on the capital steps. Hubby-to-be, already late, but hey that car sure is shiny, explains his situation & those bikers divide like Moses parting the Red Sea. The ceremony was lovely I'm sure-to me it was all a blur. I hitched up my skirt & crawled, as lady-like as possible into my awaiting carriage. We popped the cork on the champagne, finally able to relax & enjoyed a jaunt around the city. The reception was a blast, my parents had to pay the DJ to stay an extra two hours. When we were all getting ready to go home-I thought where exactly were we planning on sleeping. Because of buying the house, we didn't plan a honeymoon. Well, there's always the basement... Hubby being quick on his feet & an idea man at that, called our favorite inn & by fate or coincidence they had one room left at the inn. Problem solved. We crawled up the stairs-lots of them-to our room-at an inn-in a four poster bed-whew-not the basement!

We had a lovely champagne brunch at the inn that next morning & continued on to our impromtue wedding trip to Cape May-again with the old houses! It was all the rest & relaxation I was going to have for a very long time.