Tomorrow, Kevin and I will have been married for 12 years. I thought I’d share our wedding story or errr secret. July 19, 1991 Kevin and I married in secret in Fredericton. I had told my Dad and he and his girlfriend came down to be our witnesses. I did not tell my mom, my sister, brother, friends, etc. Kevin did not tell his parents, friends, etc. I was 21, Kevin was 19. We had been living together for one year. We knew our families would not be happy about the marriage and we were still in school and we knew they thought we would never finish, etc. if we married. We needed student loan money, we knew we could get more if we were married and since we knew we wanted to get married anyway, why not now and reap the benefits of student loans (sheesh). Stupidly enough, we exchanged rings and told our families that they were promise rings. Then in September, I am moving to Kingston to go to St. Lawrence College to take Veterinary Technology and Kevin is staying behind to go to UNB for one year. Our “plan” was that we would finish out our respective years of school and then the following summer have “the wedding” and hopefully no one would know the difference. The first week in Kingston, Kevin stayed with me to help me get settled and surprise, there is a problem with my student loan. I can’t get a hold of my mom as she is away so Kevin asks his mom if she can loan me the money and I could pay them back when my loan comes which was supposed to be in the next few days. Reluctantly, Kevin’s Mom goes to the bank to deposit the money and to her surprise (and our stupidity) the teller says the account is registered to a Lisa W___ (maiden name R_____). Kevin’s Mom thinks there must be a mistake, maybe it’s a joint account, etc. Then the teller says no it’s Lisa W____ and then says they used a marriage license to open the account. (Now in hindsight, that was a huge breach of privacy, shame on you teller). Needless to say, she hit the roof. My Mom gets back, more shit flies. Bets start getting made saying the marriage would only last 3 months, 1 year, etc. (wish we had taken them up on those bets). Over time everyone got over it and now we are all really close. Kevin and I do feel bad about the emotional upset we put everyone through. We don’t feel bad about eloping just the not telling everyone. We never would have a “typical wedding” even if we did it again. We’d renew our vows in some beautiful garden somewhere with no minister, jp, etc. just family and friends. Now 12 years later, we’ve had ups and downs but I think we have a great family and each year of marriage seems to get better and better.

Something funny, last year in For Better or For Worse (the comic) they did the same thing more or less:-)