Three years ago today was, what LilZ and I often call, “The Best Day Of Our Lives.” (MrZ doesn’t quite have the flair for the dramatic that we have - he prefers “A Super Rockin’ Day.”) I started the day off with a limo ride with LilZ and his friends to thank them for helping me put together decorations and party favors. We took the limo up to Monte Sano mountain and practiced the Electric Slide. I recommend every bride start her wedding day off with a limo ride with a bunch of kids followed by line-dancing on a mountain. It was awesome. I ended the day married to my best friend with a cake made out of Krispy Kreme doughnuts thrown in the middle somewhere.

Thank you, MrZ, for being my husband. I love you with all of my heart and thank whatever deity I can that I found someone to spend the rest of my life with who, not only accepts my love of office supplies, but fully supports it. If only all girls could be so lucky.

NikkiZ is due October 25th, which just happens to be my SECOND wedding anniversary. Since I was talking about her due date in the last entry, I’m not thinking about my wedding day. LilZ and I drive past the hotel MrZ and I married at almost everyday. Whenever we do, it’s become a tradition, for LilZ to say “Thats the hotel you got married at.” I respond, “Yes, it is,” and we both pause and think about that day for a moment. Yesterday? LilZ said, “That was just the best day EVER. I wish we could have another one.”

I don’t know what is better, knowing that LilZ thinks that our wedding day was the best day ever in HIS life, or the knowing that it was in mine too. I worked for six months planning a large wedding under budget with TWO goals: #1) Having a wedding that was all about US and not about “normal” or “tradition” or what other people wanted and #2) Making sure LilZ was as much a part of it as possible. We pulled it all off with flying colors and it has since become one of my favorite things to talk about.

Here are the things we did to make the day special for all of us:

• The kids in the neighborhood all helped me make the party favors and decorations
• LilZ helped me make the arch we used during the wedding.
• LilZ asked several of his friends to be IN the wedding party too.
• I rented a Limo for the morning of the wedding to take all the kids around town to thank them for helping me so much. It was my first EVER limo ride.
• We had a wedding cake made out of donuts.
• We played contemporary music. The bridal party walked down the aisle to James Taylor’s You’ve got a friend, I walked down the aisle to At Last, and MrZ and I left the wedding to I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.
• I wrote a poem for MrZ that was read by my friend Stace during the wedding.
• After the “official” dances of husband and wife, and husband and his mom, I danced with LilZ to Kelly Clarkson’s A Moment Like This
• THEN? Me and all the kids got on the dance floor and did the Hokey Pokey
• We had the aforementioned ball game on the TV at the reception
• I wore hot pink sequined butterfly shoes under my wedding gown.
• I made all of our bouquets out of fake flowers all by myself and only suffered a few severe burns from the glue gun.
• I let LilZ pick out his own tuxedo.
• LilZ walked me down the aisle WITH my Dad. Actually? I panicked when I heard the music start and left them both behind. But then, I tripped (of course), laughed, and waited for them to catch up.
• I wore my hot pink tie-dyed house slippers to the wedding reception while both MrZ and LilZ wore their tennis shoes.
• Did I mention the donut cakes?

Anyway - I just wanted to reflect a moment on the coolness that was our wedding. I’m afraid we may not be able to really celebrate our anniversary this year, so I wanted to make sure at least ONE thing was mentioned about that day. October 25, 2003. The best day of ALL of our lives.

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“I’ll NEVER get married again. I am just not cut out for long-term commitment. Don’t get me wrong - I won’t run away from my knight in shining armor if he arrives, but I don’t believe he exists.”

That was one of the first conversations MrZ and I ever had. We had been flirting for a short while and I was very attracted to him. However - I knew that being a single mom sometimes shouted, “I need a Daddy for my Baby” so I wanted him to know right off the bat that I was NOT looking for a relationship. I had only been newly single for a year and I was just planning on enjoying that for a while.

A few weeks later? He told me he hoped I would marry him one day.

And a year ago today, I did.

My Dearest MrZoot,

There is no way on earth you will ever be able to fully comprehend what a difference you have made in my life. I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I will always look back on the day we got married as the best day of my life. Yes - I love LilZoot as I will any future children we will have - but the day he was born, although WONDERFUL, was also filled with PAIN. And LOTS OF IT. Our wedding day was, in one word: Perfect. It was the type of day for which the word “perfect” was invented.

The fun actually started the day before our wedding. Our friends and family started congregating in town. I had been up all night the night before putting final touches on a few things. We began decorating - we picked up tuxes - we checked into hotel rooms. We had our rehearsal and your mother planned the perfect rehearsal dinner. I ended the dinner and the gift giving time with my final toast. This was the toast I gave that night.

You have taught me more about love and relationships in the last three years than a lifetime worth of self-help books and Dr. Phil shows could have.
First: you have taught me that it IS possible to fall more in love with someone everyday, even after three years of being together.
Second: You have taught me that it is also possible for two people who could be the poster children for “Type-A Control Freaks” to learn how to compromise and share responsibility.
Third: You have taught me that those little things that are cute in the beginning of a relationship – DON’T have to start to aggravate you as the years go by. I am still a sucker for the voices you give our animals and the times you like to break into the MrZ dance!

But MrZ? The most important thing you have taught me is that

The perfect Dress,
Krispy Kreme wedding cakes,
The support of family,
And the presence of Friends Old, New and Rekindeled,
Along with more butterflies and purple roses that should be legal –
Can make a dream wedding…
But – it is the comfort in knowing that you are marrying your soul- mate
The one man you know you were put on this earth to spend the rest of your life with,
That turns the same dream wedding into a true to life Fariytale.
I promise to spend my life saying “Thank-You”.
And with you and LilZoot by my side,
We can turn this “Once Upon a Time” into a “Happily Ever After”.

(more…)

I think I mentioned that my first wedding was your typical white dress/veil/string quartet/church/(pregnant bride - hehe) type wedding. I didnt plan any of it - I just showed up, wore the dress, and did what I was supposed to do. And tried NOT to smack the photographer when she kept trying to tell me to “suck it in” during pictures. None of that wedding said “Zoot”. It was beautifully put together, and everyone had a great time, but it wasnt really me.

(for those of you keeping score? That wedding happened 10 years ago yesterday. weird.)

Anywho - I wanted my wedding with MrZ to be one that screamed out The Zoots! at every turn. I covered everything I could with butterflies, I wore a dress that showed off my tatoos (not cover them), I did the Hokey Pokey, and several other things that made the wedding very unique to us.

But one of my favorite touches? Were my hot-pink butterfly shoes! Aren’t they the most ROCKIN’ shoes you’ve ever seen? I love them so. My matron of honor, IrishChic, has a matching pair. When I saw her wearing them? I thought “Those shoes were designed for no other reason but to be worn in my wedding. I need a pair.” MrZ and I went the next day and bought them.

For nine dollars.

Nothing makes the perfect shoe better than a sale that prices that shoe for under ten dollars.

LilZoot had quite a bit of responsibility the day I got married. He had to escort Ariel and Leah down the aisle during the bridal party procession, and he had to circle back around to come escort me down the aisle. Since my brain turned to mush about 30 minutes before the wedding (Seriously mush. But that’s a story I’ll save for another day.), he had to remember to do that himself. So when I saw him back out next to me before my song played, I thought “Wow. He remembered. I would have forgotten.” And then? My music started and I panicked and entered the wedding hall withOUT my Dad and Son. No only did I entire WITHOUT them, but I TRIPPED on the way in.

Yes. I tripped on the way into my wedding. It was Zoot-perfect.

I paused, gathered my composure, and waited for my Dad and Son to catch up with me. And the laughed the rest of the way down the aisle.

Luckily all of that happened behind standing guests, so MrZ didnt even see. hehe.