NEWLY WED

We are wed. I’m married. Married to Jim Elliker. That makes me his Mrs.

So that’s weird and stuff.

I live in a different house now. I don’t live alone anymore. Depending on the week, there are three to five people and two dogs that live in this house.

Weird again. Not bad-weird. Just weird-weird. Life is different now. Well, I suppose it’s different every day, but extra different lately.

I’ve got five sisters, but I phone-talk to Whit, the one just younger than me, the most often. For years we’ve talked about how opposite our lives are. She, a married stay-at-home mom with three young’uns. Me, a youngish professional with no kids, married for ten years, cheated on, left, dating a man with kids, falling giddily in love with said man, enjoying said kids, engaged to him, and now—whoa—married to him. My life was so stable and chill. You could say it’s been less so of late.

But I imagine we’ll talk more and more about all that. You want to know about the wedding day. The rough sketch:

We got married on Thursday, May 15 at 3PM in Jim’s—no, our (whoa, weird)—backyard. It was warm, about 80 degrees, and there wasn’t wind. You want photos. I retained the talented and forbearing Ashley Thalman of Orem, Utah, to shoot the wedding, so, yes, there will be photos and I will share. Be patient.

I had to be a bride. I told my mom I’d rather be a farmer than a bride. I’d rather tent-camp than be a bride. I don't want to do either of those things, ever. Unless I’m reading something I wrote or making people laugh, I hate being the center of attention. So I’m glad the whole bride-thing is over with.

The ceremony was sweet. My dear friend Evangeline brought her violin from Boston and played me, my flower girl, Violet, my maid of honor, Lauren, and the best man, Benjamin, down the aisle. Our bishop married us. Instead of doing readings, we had our parents talk. A mom and a dad. My dad spoke, got emotional about how wonderful my husband (my husband!) is, and then Jim’s ma (my mother-in-law!), Gay, spoke. Jim’s dad, Shirl, passed recently, and Gay offered Jim Shirl’s wedding ring. She slid it off her finger, where her own ring was holding it on, and gave it to me to put on my Jim. We did the ring thing, said I-dos, and zipped back down the aisle, man and wife.

(It occurs to me that I should probably get our signatures on the marriage license and send that thing in.)

Then, the fun. There was cake, stunning cake. Again and again I overheard, “This is the best cake I’ve ever had” “I’ve never had such good wedding cake” “I’ve eaten a lot of cakes, and this one is the best!” So If you’re local and you need cake, use Stephanie of Paris Custom Cakes. She crushed it.

There were appetizers and colorful sodas with long, striped straws. There was music. All four of Jim’s sisters were there and Ashley got a photo of the five Elliker kids laughing really hard. Something about garlic and cheese. Of my five sisters, I had just two at the wedding. Don't be mad, the other three had about the best excuses ever for not being able to attend: Belgium, baby, surgery.

After the post-ceremony soiree came the real fun. We had our after-party at the indoor go-kart track. You read that right. It suited us because Jim is Mr. Fun and I'm Mrs. Can't Do Anything The Normal Way. We wore jeans. A couple hundred friends came by and enjoyed racing and terrific food. Jim ordered barbecue from one restaurant, a taco bar from another, some of the best pizza my sister Whitney’s ever had, and had me put together an order from Whole Foods for “all [my] weird yoga people.” Oh, and there was a table with tons of cookies and a pile of my favorite kinds of candy. It wouldn’t be my party without a mess of processed sugar, so Jim made sure that was there. I think it’s safe to say that ours was a memorable wedding “reception” and one that people actually wanted to go to.

The wedding day: a success.

Jim and the kids are at the lake with the Allens today. I stayed home to unpack from the honeymoon, get on the laundry, take care of some tidying, and get in a yoga class with my Cameron-friend. Before all that, I should go shower.