But to the beginning of the story....
The Thursday before the wedding, we loaded all of our wedding and honeymoon stuff into the car. We had all kinds of dresses, suitcases, wedding party gifts, programs, decor, you name it we had it. The car was practically bursting at the seems with stuff! Although we weren't in a hurry to get out of Columbia, we were anxiously waiting for the tux rental place to tell us our stuff was in to pick up. Pretty much we just showed up and stalked the store until the stuff was in! After that we headed along our way to meet up at my in-laws house in Illinois.
While there we got even more stuff ready we had left at their house - centerpieces, aisle runner, etc. Since Nate's sister was still out of town at a mission trip (she was meeting us in Columbus), he decided to stay in her room for the night so he didn't have to sleep on an air mattress.
(Google Images)
Friday morning we woke up nice and early, packed all the stuff up into the car, and headed on our way to Ohio. From the in-laws house, Columbus was about 6 hours but we had to go a little north of Columbus to the Delaware County Courthouse to get our marriage certificate. The wedding was on Sunday and we had to get there before the office closed. For me it was cutting it close, but we didn't really want to go up an extra day early. (Do you sense the foreshadowing in this story?)
The drive was nothing exciting, and something we had done many times before. I was nervous (for many reasons) but relatively calm. Around lunch time (I am not sure what time it was because this is the point where my memory gets a little fuzzy but we were about half way there), we stopped at Wendy's somewhere in Indiana for a quick lunch. Nothing like the best cheeseburgers on planet to curb your nervous soon-to-be bride hunger!
We got out of the car, stretched our legs, and I ran inside to use the lady's room. When I came out I noticed Nate hadn't yet come inside. Still excited and giddy, I skipped outside to meet him at the car which he kept circling around. I playfully asked him "What are you doing." The look of pure terror he gave was alarming, and suddenly I knew something was not right. He mumbled under his breath, "I can't find my wallet."
At that point I am not sure what happened exactly, but I was about to lose it. I am not sure if I said anything to him, but I do remember walking away towards the street. I positioned myself on a curb behind a bunch of trees trying to keep my composure, but all that was going through my head was that we weren't going to be officially married this weekend. His driver's license and social security card were in his wallet, both of which were needed to get our marriage license. Plus he had hundreds of dollars for our honeymoon, his AAA card for the car rental, and we were flying so he needed his drivers licence for that as well.
(Google Images)
Stressed might be an understatement. I tried very hard not to ball my eyes out, but eventually gave in. When he came over to console me I told him to leave me alone and go fix it. He called his aunt who was driving behind us to see if maybe he left it at one of the rest stops, and I am pretty sure someone called highway patrol at that rest stop. I came back to the car to talk to the Courthouse to see what we could do.
Nate ended up getting a hold of best friend who hadn't left yet for Ohio. He got keys to his parents' house from a friend who was watching the cat. The wallet was sitting on table next to his sister's bed (He blames the fact that he slept in an unfamiliar setting and was rushed in the morning to leave). His friend then rushed to their church where he was able to fax over a copy of the drivers license and social security card to the courthouse. Having those copies of his identification, plus his birth certificate that I insisted on bringing just in case, we were able to get the marriage license.
The next 3 hours in the car were torture. I still couldn't keep from crying and I didn't want to be consoled at all. I was a mess but was trying to keep in all in because my in-laws were in the car. Instead of lashing out and saying a bunch of stuff I would regret, I just stayed silent. I barely even ate my Wendy's lunch, which must tell you I was pretty upset. Poor Nate probably felt worse than I did. He kept trying to hold my hand and I keep shoving him away.
In the end it all worked out okay. The people at the courthouse were extremely helpful. We managed to get there in time and got our marriage license. At our wedding ceremony we signed that document and were officially married!
After that whole wallet fiasco, nothing bothered me. Sure other things went wrong, but I was just so happy that I got to marry Nate that I didn't care anymore.
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