12/16/08: Yesterday’s Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday David and I celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss.  Okay, maybe not all 13 years were blissful, but we celebrated, nonetheless. 

13 years ago, David wore one of his old suits and I wore a friend’s red dress and we drove about 40 minutes to Taylor, Michigan to get married in my father’s childhood church – no attendants, no musicians, no frills.

This was a “quickie” wedding.  No, there wasn’t a bun in the oven. 

A few days prior to the wedding, we’d received notification that David’s Army unit was being deployed to Bosnia.  At the time, David and I were living together and planning a large wedding for the following June.

After receiving word of his impending deployment, we knew there was no way he’d be back in time for the big wedding six months down the road. 

We called the pastor who was scheduled to marry us in June in the chapel of Concordia University-Ann Arbor, where I ‘d attended undergrad, and asked him if we should go down to the county court house for a quickie wedding before David shipped off.

His response was, “No – come down to my church.  It’s beautifully-decorated for Christmas, so you can bring a couple of friends and family members and we’ll just have the wedding here.”

I was still in the process of making my wedding dress, and it wasn’t anywhere close to being finished, so a friend loaned me her red Christmas-y dress for “something borrowed.”  Thankfully, we’d already received the rings – already inscribed with the June wedding date. 

There wasn’t any time to put flowers together, or a cake, or even music – but these were things that mattered little at the time.  All we could think about was that we had less than a week before David was going to Bosnia. 

We each called our parents to tell them about the “quickie wedding,” then we each called a friend to join us as our witnesses. 

Somehow, word spread like wildfire… and when David and I pulled up to the church for our small “quickie wedding,” we were astonished to see almost 160 people waiting for us. 

Despite the sadness of David’s imminent departure, there was a joyfulness to the ceremony.  The church was indeed decorated for Christmas, just as the pastor had said.  We had a candle-lit ceremony with holiday greens lining each pew, and the pastor suggested we all join together in singing an a capella version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” (I get goosebumps each time I hear it now).

There was no procession, no long message, no soloists.  

We simply said our vows, exchanged our rings, and we were married. 

Three days later…

David’s Army unit’s orders were cancelled. 

It was all for naught, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

Realizing that we could still go ahead with the originally-planned BIG-WHITE-DRESS wedding in June, we did – and now we celebrate two anniversaries each year:  Dec 15th and Jun 22nd. 

So we called this anniversary “The 13th anniversary of the 1st wedding” and David surprised me by taking me out for an amazing dinner last night at The Melting Pot (309 S. Main St in Ann Arbor). 

Our fantastic waiter (Guy – you were AMAZING!!) led us to the back corner table (very cozy & intimate), and the feasting began…

The first course was a creamy blend of aged cheddar cheeses, lager, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce & chives blended together – right there at our table! – served with an assortment of breads, fresh vegetables, and crisp granny-smith apples for dipping.  Seriously – this was SOOOO fantastic that I could have stopped there. 

BUT WAIT!!  There’s MORE!

Our second course was a giant salad – I had a fresh spinach salad topped with baby portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced red onions, chopped tomato & bacon, served with a warm Burgundy shallot vinaigrette.  YUMMMMM!!!!

I had no idea how we’d have room for the main course and dessert, but a few good belches later, I made room. 

The main course featured lobster tail, filet mignon, salmon, BBQ pork tenderloin, Key West shrimp, honey-Dijon chicken, and ravioli stuffed with spinach & gorgonzola – all served with about a billion different kinds of sauces, fresh potatoes, broccoli & mushroom caps. 

I had never realized that fondue could be anything other than cheese or chocolate, but for this main course, we were given a pot of broth-like liquid that simmered steadily, and we were told to pierce our raw meat pieces with the fondue sticks and cook them to their desired “doneness” in the broth:

I was totally in my glory.    There was no way for this to go wrong – I had bread, I had cheese, I had seafood (and did I mention the AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC glass of Spatlese I was drinking?) – and I knew chocolate was yet to come.

Oh. My. God.  The chocolate. 

Creamy melted milk chocolate, mixed with marshmallow cream, flambéed with a little rum, and topped with graham cracker crumbs.  And this was just the dipping sauce.

INTO the dipping sauce went:

 

Yeah.  ALL of that.  A large piece of creamy cheesecake, miniature decadent chocolate brownies, moist pound cake, chocolate-covered marshmallows, Rice Krispie treats, fresh strawberries & bananas, more graham crackers, and an already once-dipped-in-chocolate cherry, just waiting for its second dip. 

Guess who almost went into sugar-induced comas?!?!?!?

I swear – we had our pants unzipped, and they almost had to roll us out of there.  How we walked all the way back to our car is beyond me.  When we woke up this morning, we were STILL stuffed!

If you’ve never been to the Melting Pot, go!  I can’t imagine how David will ever be able to top this event.