Common Mom

Originally posted on February 13, 2008

Check here to read about our uneventful travel to Maui!

On Tuesday, Dan and I got up early and headed in to Kihei to find St. Theresa’s Catholic Church and meet Father Jack. My Mom had worked so hard for the past year trying to plan a Hawaiian wedding on a limited budget, and she did GREAT! We were so happy with everything. When we got to the church, we were so happy. It was a simple little church, but amazingly beautiful. And since it was the Lent, it was decorated beautifully - we didn’t have to do a thing.

 

The meeting went very well. When we’d talked to the church manager on the phone a couple weeks ago prior set up the meeting, we’d asked if we could write our own vows. She said she didn’t think so because Father Jack was very traditional. We were OK with that; so when we got there, we expected to see Father Jack dressed in traditional Catholic Priest Wear. Um, not so. He came out in a white tank top, khaki shorts, and brown Burkenstock sandals. He was SOOOO laid back - it was awesome! We immediately liked him. The only bummer was that they’d had to start doing some rennovations on the library - which is the room where I would normally had gotten ready. But, that wasn’t the end of the world, so we went on our tour of the church and talked about the ceremony. When we told him that Al was going to sing at our wedding, he was very pleased and said Al was awesome and we would love him.

All in all, we left the church very happy. Then we headed to the government office to get our marriage license . . . had to show proof of the blood tests and everything and write down what I wanted my new name to be (it’s got more letters than the alphabet!), and all that jazz.

Off we were to enjoy our last afternoon as fiance’s . . . the weather was beautiful, everyone we were expecting had arrived, and we relaxed and had a nice dinner. Then we were off to our separate condos for the night. Even though we’d lived together for about a 8 months, I stayed with my mom and Dan stayed with his parents.

Check back tomorrow for details on our ceremony!

Originally posted February 12, 2008

12 Years ago today, Dan and I joined my Mom and stepdad, Tony, at the airport in Minneapolis. What were we doing there? We were leaving -35 F temperatures (-60 with the windchill!) and heading to beautiful Hawaii! Yup - Dan and I were getting married on Maui Travelling to Maui takes a long time from MN . . . but man was it worth it! We had a slight layover in LA at their “lovely” airport. Here we are waiting patiently for our plane to leave to head across the ocean:

We wanted to make sure I had my dress for the wedding - didn’t want it to get lost travelling - so we dragged that dang thing in a dress bag as a carryon. All the cabin attendants were so nice and more than accommodating when we got on the plane - they offered to hang it with the pilot’s jackets so it would be safe. They were wonderful! 

It was -35 when we left, but we still wore shorts because by golly, we were headed to Hawaii! That was the February that the entire US had weird really cold weather . . . so when we finally got to Hawaii and balmy 65 degree temps, we had to giggle at the Hawaiians working at the open-air airport . . . they were actually wearing parkas! They thought we were the weird ones in shorts and sweatshirts We hung out at the Honolulu airport for a while waiting for our plane to Maui to leave. When we got on that plane, we were 4 of about 15 people total on the plane. The cabin attendant was so nice and brought us a bottle of champagne. Then he sat down in a regular seat by us and said “Here’s the spiel . . . this is a 15 minute flight. I’m the cabin attendant. This is the emergency door. If this plane goes down, grab on to my coat tails because I guarantee you I’ll be the first one out the door!” HAHAHAHAHA!!!

When we got to Maui, we all headed to the rental car counter to get our two vehicles . . . the slight problem was that they wouldn’t let Dan and I rent our car because neither of us were 25 yet! They wanted a HUGE deposit to let us take it with our name on the rental slip. My mom was MAD . . . and really, when my mom is doing “business” you do not want to cross her. She went off telling them how ridiculous it was that Dan could fly $6 million planes, but they won’t let him rent a pice of *^*& rental car. Then she told them that she was going to drive it and that was that . . . then we walked out the door and she gave us the keys I LOVE my mom!

Off to the condo where we got settled and waited for the others to arrive. All in all we had about 20 people at our wedding . . . some family and some friends . . . what a great excuse to leave MN for a week in frigid February!

Check back tomorrow to hear about our first meeting with Father Jack, the priest who was to marry us