The Wedding

In June of 2022, things were set in motion. It was a blur to me and I’m sure to Leanne too. As mentioned in the last blog post, we set the wedding date to October 8th of that same year. Less than 4 months to plan out a wedding.

Luckily Leanne is a teacher and had the summer off. While I was at work, she was getting things done. She had made trips back to her hometown to get things planned and booked. We got married at her hometown church that she grew up in. One of my best friends officiated the wedding. He’s the associate pastor of the church from my hometown. Leanne, Leanne’s mom, and my mom all helped get everything ready. My job was to find a photographer. Being one myself, I was pretty particular and all the ones I contacted were already booked. Leanne found the photographer that we eventually used. In all, I just showed up for the wedding. Leanne did it all in less than 3 months. 

If you are reading this and aren’t familiar with where Leanne and I are from, take a moment and look at this map of Illinois, and try to find the most rural part you can find. Look at big cities, look at interstates, look at neighboring states. Have a guess? Yes, this is where we’re from. Well, this is Roseville, Illinois, and we asked friends and family to join us here in this location to celebrate our day. Our friends and family came from great distances to stay in the most rural part of Illinois. A place they could not stay in a hotel in the actual town we were getting married in. A place where the closest major-ish airport was an hour away. A place that provided hardly any entertainment to spend the few hours they needed to kill before the wedding. For that, we are super grateful and fortunate we have the friends and family who made that trip. Thank you to those who came!

My best man, Adam, is from Indianapolis. I’ve known him for just over 10 years now, nearly 1/4 of my life, so it only made sense to ask him to be my best man. We made the short film, Onyx Window, together. A week before the wedding, we’d gone to Cincinnati and spent the day hitting all the baseball card shops, went axe throwing, played pinball, and finished at a pizza place. I took my film camera along and captured our adventure.

The night before the wedding, Adam and I had a hotel room together in Monmouth. In the morning, having breakfast, we ran into a few of Leanne’s friends. I had actually not met any of these friends prior to this, except for one, so they recognized me first. 

The day of the wedding couldn’t have been any better. It was that perfect fall temperature. A little crisp feeling in the air that made wearing a suit feel comfortable, and the sky was a beautiful blue with the occasional fluffy cloud passing over. 

Photos were taken of the bridal party and the groomsmen. Then the first look of Leanne in her wedding dress. I think out of the whole wedding, this is what I was the most nervous about. It was nothing about Leanne at all that worried me. It was that everyone in that sanctuary would be looking at me and my reaction, and I didn’t know what that reaction would be myself. Would I tear up and start sobbing? I didn’t know, and this is what made me anxious. 

After turning around, I saw Leanne standing there in her beautiful dress. A smile on her face. My heart skipped a beat, and no, I didn’t cry. I knew this was the moment I’d been waiting for, and it was about to happen. 

The part of the wedding that I did just about tear up on was when Leanne’s dad walked her down the aisle. Her dad has Parkinson’s and he was going to do his damnedest to walk down that aisle with her. The absolute last option was he’d already be at his seat and stand up once Leanne got down the aisle to give her away. The decision was going to be a last-minute decision because sometimes Larry could be doing really well, and the next minute his mobility could be very limited. I didn’t know what was going to happen until I saw her walk in. When I saw them both start from the back of the church, that got me.

The second thing I was worried about were the vows. Here’s how my mind works. I can remember full conversations that were made when I was 3 years old. I could explain to you certain scenarios of who was there, where they were standing in the room, and what they said. This has continued throughout my life. But the one thing I struggle with is memorization of exact phrases when I need to remember them. This also goes for names. If someone told me their name, I’d forget it before I had a chance to say, “Nice to meet you…” With our vows though, I was afraid that Rick, our pastor, would have to feed me my lines one word at a time and repeat those words. I’m happy to report that I was able to do whole groups of words at a time, without stumbling across any word, or asking for help. 

I could tell Leanne was nervous. I’d never seen her like this before. I was not worried about her. I knew these were nerves she’d been waiting her whole life to feel. I just held her hands and tried to reassure her as much as possible.

The rest of the ceremony went off without a hitch. I didn’t pass out from locking my knees, something that I just about did when I was 8 from being a ring bearer. The kiss went as planned without any awkwardness. And no rings were lost. That side of the story belongs to Rick when I was a groomsman in his wedding.

With the time of the wedding being 4:30 pm, the perfect golden hour photos were going to be right after the ceremony. Leanne didn’t want the guests to wait long to start eating. I didn’t care how long they waited. Sorry. Out of all the weddings I’ve been to, I’ve had to do my share of waiting around, and I wanted to get these pictures, and this was going to be the only time to get them. So we made our guests wait as we drove to an area about 5 minutes away from the Church to get some photos. Sorry, not sorry. 

Note from Leanne: She thought guests started eating while we were out getting photos. My memory was arguing over this before the wedding, and I was against letting guests start eating without us, because again, in my experience, people didn’t leave food for the last to eat, and since this was OUR day, I wanted us to be the first through the line. If you were a guest, what happened? Did you wait for us? Or start without us?

What I do know is that all of you who attended the wedding watched this video. It was something I’d been thinking of ever since we got engaged. I wanted to show how much of a small world it was by showing how close we were in the beginning, how far apart we were at times, and how close we ended up together. I created a 5-hour video that played this video every 5 minutes.

The rest of the night was relaxing. I didn’t feel pressure to do anything else. We had our first dance, Mom and I had our dance, and Larry was well enough to dance with his daughter. It was a touching moment, and this was the only photo I took that night myself.

For our honeymoon, we took the train to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I wasn’t aware of this place; it was a suggestion of Leanne’s. Everything about the trip was wonderful. The train ride was pleasant, even in our tiny roomette. The nice thing too were the “fresh air breaks” or “smoke breaks.” We were able to get out and stretch our legs at a few stops. Most were about 15-minute stops, with Denver being about an hour.

Photography Note: All the following photos, except for this first one boarding our room on the train, have been taken with a film camera. Either my Rolleiflex or Canon AE-1. I took a lot of film photos. I also took a lot of digital, but only as a backup. I figured this trip deserved to be captured on film.

In Glenwood Springs, they have a Hot Springs Pool. Water that’s heated naturally. We hit this every day. It was nice and warm, even with 40-50 degrees outside temps. We spoke to a worker and he said it’s open all year round. Said folks bring drinks and will wade in it while it snows. That sounded wonderful.

We did a lot of walking. We walked trails, visited the supposed burial location of Doc Holliday (although, it’s unknown where he really is), went to the amusement park, walked through some caves, walked through the hotel where the Teddy Bear was invented, walked through shops, and I took a lot of photos. Brought all my cameras, even my drone.

After a super busy 2022, I remember specifically telling Leanne at the end of the year that at least 2023 would be a bit less stressful since there were no more weddings to plan for and we could relax a little. There seems to be a trend with what I say at the end of the year about the next year. Well, you all know what comes next. Get ready for the birth of Rosalie.