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Let's start at the beginning. I
was the firstborn of a struggling young
couple who I love dearly. Their lives were never the same after
I arrived.
OH, I went back too far.
I married my High School sweetheart on May 28,1977. And HER life
would never
be the same ever again. Do you see a pattern here? Well, 23
years later I
decided to surprise her and renew our wedding vows at National
Conference in
Las Vegas. A lot of planning went into this and it was so worth
it because
she was totally surprised.
In January I contacted the Flamingo Hilton Gazebo Chapel to
reserve the
chapel for July 18, 2000.
I then needed to find a unique way to propose to her. First I
contacted
Dianne to see if it would be possible to flash my proposal on
the screen at
National Conference in front of 10,000 of my closest PL friends,
and to
invite her to the wedding. She sent me a letter regretting that
due to her
busy schedule she would be unable to attend and the idea of the
proposal was
very nice, but they have had that request in the past and were
unable to do
it. I can understand, it would take away from the reason we were
all there.
Then I contacted the Flamingo Hilton to see if they could put my
proposal on
their marquee for half a million people to see. Well, that one
fell through
also. I finally came upon the "Perfect" way to
propose. It would be on one
knee on a Gondola that goes through the Venetian.
That was set then I got the ring. It was a Millennium ring that
had the
diamond raised up and under the diamond viewing from the side
was the year
2000, one mirror image to the other with the 2's touching
forming a heart.
Talk about perfection.
I then took to practicing the song I was going to sing to Lynn
at the
ceremony, Back at One by Brian McKnight. It took me forever to
sing the song
without crying. First I sang it, then sang it to her picture. It
took a lot
of practice to make it through, but I was ready.
Then came the wedding dress. We got that about 2 months before
the wedding.
She thought it was for the "fancy dinner" at
conference. It was so cool
picking out her wedding dress and she had no idea what it was
really for. Then I had to get a very nice outfit to "get
married" in but not rouse any
suspicions. Tough, yes. But I am a sneaky cuss who loves to
surprise folks.
We went to the store to find a new sport jacket for me to wear
at
conference. I saw the tuxedo's and my choice was made. But how
would I get a
"tuxedo" without her getting suspicious? I looked and
tried on a nice
jacket, then I moseyed over to the tuxedo rack looked at one,
held it up,
then looked at the price tag and put it right back (it was only
$25 more
than the jacket). Well Lynn saw this and insisted I at least try
it on. It
fit like a glove and I felt like a king marrying his queen in
it. I slowly
took it off and walked away. Lynn told me to go right back and
pick it up as
I was getting it. I put up a weak struggle saying I didn't want
to spend the
extra money. She insisted, I gave in, and it was mine. See,
sneaky, but I
didn't want ANYTHING to cause her to think something was up. So
our wardrobe
was set.
I then had it arranged with Dave and Raven, who were the
witnesses to our
wedding, to have a live feed of the ceremony. I then arranged
for my aunt to
call my sister to get our kids in front of a computer to witness
it.
Technical difficulties made it not possible, but the idea of it
was so much
fun.
The day finally arrived. I went to register for conference and
the line was
horrendously long. By the time I got registered, my plan of the
Gondola proposal was out the window. I got up to our room and my wife
asked me if we
could go to dinner as she was hungry. I told her we could go
later, but I
had other plans for right now. I got down on one knee and asked
her to marry
me again. She loves the flower pansy, so I took our Keepsake
Tealight holder
and presented her the ring in there. Luckily for me she said
Yes. She then asked
when this was supposed to happen. I told her in one hour. Then
she asked
where it was going to happen? I told her right down there as our
room
overlooked the Gazebo Chapel where we were to be married. She
then told me
she needed to go to the lobby to get a pair of nylons as she
forgot hers at
home and figured she would have all week to get another pair.
Well she went
downstairs and returned 15 minutes later with the nylons and I
was in my
tuxedo, wondering what took so long to get nylons.
We went to the chapel and started the ceremony. Nobody notified
the minister
I was going to sing Lynn the song so he started with the
ceremony. I had to
quickly tell him to hold on as I was singing a song and the
music had
already started. He backed off and I started singing. There is a
line in the
song that says, "and girl you hold the keys to my
heart". I went out a
couple months prior and bought a necklace and 3 charms for it.
They were a
heart charm surrounded by 2 key charms. At that point in the
song at the
ceremony I slipped the necklace over her head. Then I heard a
guest gasp and
start sniffing. All I could think was, "don't you start, I
made it this far
without crying". I had it videotaped and they did a
fantastic job. They
double imposed our faces on the backs of our heads so you could
see me
singing and Lynn's reaction at the same time. At the ring
exchanging part of
the ceremony, I found out what took Lynn so long to get her
"nylons". While
she was out, she went to a jewelry store in the lobby and bought
me a new
diamond wedding ring. And I thought I was the only one pulling
off a
surprise.
The wedding was so much more than I had expected from a Vegas
wedding. Lynn
finally got to eat her dinner, though not at the time she was
hoping to.
Then the next morning we were having breakfast just looking at
each other
and the song I sang to her started playing on the restaurant's
speakers. I
couldn't have planned it any better. We both teared up. Then we
went to the
Venetian to go on the Gondola. Normally there were to be 4 to a
gondola, but
there was not another party of 2 so we got a private Gondola ride. The
Gondolier sang to us the whole trip then, told us about the
tradition of
kissing whenever you go under a bridge. Who were we to break a
tradition? We
HAD to do it! He didn't tell us when we were supposed to stop,
so we just
worked that out by ourselves.
When we got home I created a silk pansy floral arrangement
inside the
keepsake holder I presented the ring to her in. Then, I deliver
mail to the
local paper, and they knew about all of it, so they ran a story
about it. So
there were mementos and surprises long after the ceremony.
I would do it again in a heartbeat, as she is my world and
nothing is too
good for her.
As far as the struggling young couple, both had passed away, but
I KNOW they
were looking down on that very special day.
~Steve
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