If you didn’t have a major life event in October 2005, you may not remember but that September leading into October, there were three straight weeks of rain.  Crazy rain.  Flooding rain. Hurricane-like rain. (Katrina had hit NOLA just a few weeks earlier.)

And if you weren’t doing anything particular on the third consecutive Friday of that marathon rain session, you may not remember that particular day but it wasn’t just rain – it was monsoon rain.  It was crazy-high-winds-pouring-down-buckets rain.  It was knock-over-light-poles-on-91-in-Windsor kinda rain.

It was also my wedding day.

All good.

My girls were with me.  Husband-to-be was at the church.  Best man had the rings.  All. Good.

After a little psyche-up session with the girls, time to roll.  I remember walking down the aisle at precisely 4:30 with my dad, thinking the church was looking maybe half as full as it should’ve been.

Probably because the highway was closed.

….all good. (???!)

No matter.  Started the ceremony.  The minister called up the readers.  One of them wasn’t there.  We later find out she was stuck on the highway.  (No worries – she’s in the picture below somewhere…)  We said our vows, had the kissy moment, turned back around and most everyone had snuck in during the ceremony.

And even if they hadn’t, we’d still be married.

All good.

The pictures all happened inside but the night went on perfectly.  It was wet but I didn’t care – the dance floor was packed before the salads were served, right through til closing time.  The food was good.  The laughs were plentiful.  Most fun night of our lives.

And then the real fun started.

Limo long gone, we ran out to my parents car and they drove us to the hotel.

Well, to the entrance of the hotel.

The lone little road that takes you to our hotel was flooded.  As we later found out, it was friends-got-their-car-stuck-in-that-flood-and-couldn’t-get-out flooded.  Cops at the entrance wouldn’t let us in.  My dad bravely rolled down his window and yelled out,  “But we’ve got the bride and groom back here!”  To the best of my recollection, that was met with “I don’t care if you’ve got the Pope back there, this road is flooded and we’re not letting anyone through!”

We were one of the last to find ourselves in this conundrum – having been the last to leave the reception, many of our friends were waiting in a parking lot across the street for us to show up and figure out what to do.  Fortunately, my parents house was 2 minutes up the street from the hotel so everyone had a place to crash for the night.

Imagine all your college friends at your parents house on your wedding night.  In their tuxes, suits and dresses… some in my mom’s pajamas.

All I could do was laugh.

All good.

But man it was my wedding night and I wasn’t about to spend it at a sleepover at my parents house so us newlyweds snuck back home to our apartment.

The weekend was followed with a beautiful week in the Turks and Caicos… half of which the entire island was out of power thanks to continued tropical storms and hurricanes.

All.

Good.

Our wedding experience wasn’t the first time weather slaughtered a major life event (e.g. it snowed at our May college graduation in NY… a story for another day) but it was a beautiful example of how we live our lives.  Catching the curveballs and hitting ’em outta the park.  A pretty good start to a pretty good marriage if you ask me.