Happiness...Love...and Even A Little Godzilla Part 2

We had ridden in our little fairytale carriage for about forty minutes, and it was time at last to go to the wedding reception. 

The place we had chosen was the Wildey Theater in our town, a wonderful old movie house that had been renovated by the city. Our names were on the marquee in lights! It was so awesome to ride up in the carriage, with Tom taking pictures of us and outside of the grand old place. We thanked our driver and Jedi the horse for the wonderful (but cold) ride. 

Tom took pictures of us under the marquee kissing and across the street so the whole place could be seen. At last it was time to go inside. As we went into the elevator, I couldn't help but kiss Elizabeth again and smile. She gave me her patented Elizabeth look of happiness. 

After we exited the elevator and went into the reception room on the top floor, the room burst into cheers and applause. We were getting a standing ovation for just walking into the room. The song, As Long As You're Mine from Wicked played as we entered the room. We waved to everyone, and my son, Noah, screamed "DAD! DAD! LOOK AT YOUR CAKE! THAT IS SO COOL!"

I looked where he was pointing. The baker made my cake just like I wanted: a toy Godzilla action figure between two buildings, with one on fire and the other broken in half. The words '60 Years Of Destruction!' were written on the bottom of the cake. It truly was awesome and was what I have been wanting these past two years in a groom's cake. 

As we walked through the crowd with all the cheering and laughter, we made it to our own head table at the front of the room. I looked out at the packed room smiling, and couldn't help but feel proud to be surrounded by so many people that loved us.

"What are all of you doing here?" I asked, laughing. I got a good laugh from the crowd and I sat down next to Elizabeth.

Our wonderful DJ, Alesia Clardy, introduced us again and helped with the serving of the food. We had gotten food from Bella Milano, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Edwardsville. As people were served, I kept looking over at Elizabeth as we ate. She was smiling and looking out at the crowd of friends and family that had gathered for us. 

Her father did a wonderful toast for us. It was full of jokes and laughter. But the ending was serious and brought tears to my eyes. I kissed my new wife and we both raised our glasses in our toast with everyone else in the room.

At last... the moment Elizabeth and I had been dreading arrived. THE FIRST DANCE! We both crossed ourselves and said a little prayer as we went out onto the dance floor. We both have four left feet and can't dance to save our souls. Alesia started up the song, I See The Light, from the Disney movie Tangled.

At first, we felt stiff and tried to remember basic dance moves. Then we did a simple little spinning move, and we got a huge cheer. We both looked out at the crowd in shock. We were both thinking, 'That was our best move, so please don't cheer yet.' We both nearly tripped at one point, but we were able to keep it from happening. 

But something strange happened after that. We just looked into each others' eyes, and the room seemed to disappear. The moves came naturally and we stopped worrying how we looked. The dance moves came from the heart and it finished with us ending in a kiss. The crowd cheered for us and we bowed to the crowd.

After that we had a huge dance with the wedding party to the song Hooked on a Feeling. My God, it was so much fun being out there on the dance floor with everyone! 

The night continued after that with a lot of well wishes from people coming up to our table to shake our hands and give us hugs. Then a familiar song started up: the song GODZILLA by Blue Oyster Cult! It was time to cut my groom's cake. I loved how my cake turned out! I almost didn't want to cut it. But I cut off a small piece for me to eat and shared it with my fellow Godzilla fan, Noah. He had just turned sixteen earlier in the week and we had gotten him the movie Godzilla 2014. He loved my cake and I was happy to share the moment with him.

Then Elizabeth and I cut our wedding cake. It was a wonderful, beautiful cake with a castle cake topper on top. It was fantastic and added even more beauty to the already wonderful room. Both cakes had been made by a local baker and we owe her so much for all the hard work she had done.

The room had been decorated by Elizabeth and a lot of people from out of town that had come for the wedding. It turned out fantastic. Elizabeth had come up with all the ideas for the room. It was beautiful, all of it. I was having such a wonderful time, I guess that is why what happened next happened...

The song, Gangnam Style, started up, and Mitzi, one of the bridesmaids, asked me out to the dance floor. Sooooo... it happened. I cut loose with dance and did it GANGNAM STYLE! 

GANGNAM STYLE!

Ohhhh...well. I had fun and gave a lot of people a good laugh. So it was worth it.

Then came a special game when to came time to take Elizabeth's garter off. Elizabeth sat on a chair with a box hidden underneath it with different things inside it. The idea was that instead of the garter I would be pulling out all this other weird stuff out from under her dress.

The first thing pulled out was a deck of Taboo cards. Then a box of muffin mix. Then a little heart. Each time I would make a little silly face. But what Elizabeth didn't know was that I had a surprise for her.

A few months ago I had saved a poor little puppet from a trash can at work. I felt sorry for it and decided to give the little thing a home. IN ELIZABETH'S CAR! I named him Chuck the woodchuck and he stays in the car and sometimes I will pull him out and talk in a silly voice and make Elizabeth laugh. Or mad, depending on her mood. But mostly she laughs at the poor little guy and will play-punch him. Well, guess where he was hidden on the wedding day? Yep!

I felt Chuck in the box and played it up.

"Oh yeah! I got the garter now! I feel it! I got it! Annnnnd...THERE!" I said as suddenly Chuck was up in the air on my hand in front of Elizabeth.

"OH MY GOD!" Elizabeth laughed out and threw her head back laughing. She then punched Chuck on the face and I laughed and took him off and went back to looking for the garter.

The next thing I pulled out was...GODZILLA! Of course it was! Elizabeth just laughed some more and at last I finally found that little blue Tardis Doctor Who garter. What a wonderful and funny moment it all was!

At last the night was winding down and people were starting to leave. We had the one last dance together out on the dance floor with mostly everyone that was left there. It was a beautiful night. People were all laughing and some were still crying tears of happiness as they said their goodbyes to us. It was all so perfect and the entire day was just wonderful and magical.

We couldn't have done any of this without all the help and volunteers of people that gave their time and talents to us as wedding gifts. It would take another blog post to list all of them. But I just want to say to everyone, 'THANK YOU!' We both are forever in your debt for all of the love and time all of you gave us for the wedding and the reception. It truly was a fairytale and it was a day that will live on forever in our hearts.

I love you Elizabeth. My beautiful Star...my beautiful wife. Thank you for being in my life.

And....GO! GO! GODZILLA!

Happiness...Love...and even a little Godzilla. Part 1

We just got back from the honeymoon tonight. It was a wonderful time and it will receive its own blogpost. But first, I wanted to go over the events of Nov. 8th from my point of view.
First off, two wonderful friends (Chris & Mark) took me out for a little fun at Fast Eddie's for a couple of drinks the night before the wedding. A kinda of impromptu bachelor party. It was a fun time, and they took good care of me and cut me off so as I wouldn't have that bad of a hangover. When I got back home, my son, Noah, who was one of my best men, was watching Godzilla 2014 with my friend Stephen. They both took care of me and made me drink plenty of water and take some Advil before I went to sleep to keep me from feeling bad in the morning.
I woke on time and with very little side effects from going out the night before. My daughter and her husband and her child were there at the house, along with my future stepson, Ian, and my son, Noah. To say that I was a little nervous would be a bit of an understatement. I could feel my heart racing as I tried to get ready for this very important day. I made coffee and had a couple of cups to get my energy up.
Mallory and Jonah asked me how the service was going to be done. I explained to them that it would be a full service in the Episcopal Church's tradition. This is one of the main reasons Elizabeth and I wanted this service. Our faith is important to us, and having our vows said before God was something we could never have in a courthouse.
After talking to them for a little while, it was time to get ready. After I showered and shaved and all that good stuff, I tried to wrestle the boys into getting ready. I had to tell Ian and Noah five or six times to start to get dressed, and as usual, Ian was outside with no shoes on. My God, his feet were so muddy! I had him go wash them off and made Noah get in the shower while I got dressed.
Thank goodness I fit in my tux and so did Noah and Ian. Both of them looked sharp as razors! And I couldn't help but cry tears of pride looking at the two of them.
Two more of my groomsmen showed up at the house. My two good friends, Patrick and Stephen, arrived to help calm me down and to make sure things were going smoothly. They could tell my nerves were starting to get the best of me, but they got me to calm down and finish getting ready.
   After we were all ready, we headed out to the Gardens at SIUE for photos. We got there early, which was a good thing. Because I forgot Elizabeth's shawl that her friend and maid of honor, Kati,e had made for her to wear on the wedding day. With the fear of death instilled into me, we ran back home to get it.
When we got back to the gardens, all the guys were there. Mark had picked up the flowers from the florist and had them waiting in the car. Frank was there, wearing his Cubs hat to poke fun at Elizabeth. Patrick was there, along with Ian and Noah. Chris was there, smiling and poking fun at me and the photographer, Tom Atwood, was there to start taking shots.
We went out on the bridge to start up the fun. Mark walked out on the bridge messing with his tie and asked for help to fix it. I gave him a hand with it like a good friend would. Then the guy KISSED ME! A LONG KISS DEAD ON THE LIPS! EW! Of course Tom took a picture of it! Ohhhhh....
After everyone got a good laugh about it, we started the business of trying to look cool for pictures. I have to say, everyone looked fantastic in the tuxes we had picked out. Tuxes with tails are classy! All of my friends and two sons looked awesome, and I really think everyone liked being dressed up.
Finally the bridesmaids began to show up, Mary (Chris' wife) walked over to me on the bridge holding a yellow scarf and told me it was time to be blindfolded. Elizabeth and I had decided to do a first look set of photos, so I had to have my eyes covered. I let Mary blindfold me, and I let Tom lead me out to the center of the bridge.
I heard Elizabeth laugh as she got closer to me. Tom informed her that a little porn had already happened with Mark giving me a kiss. I gave another 'Ew' when that was brought up. Elizabeth walked past me and I stood there while Tom snapped photos of me standing there with her behind me. At last, Tom told me I could take off the blindfold and look at her. I slowly took off the blindfold and closed my eyes and turned around.
When I opened my eyes... time stopped. Everything vanished and all that existed in the universe was just God, Elizabeth and I. Her beauty, standing there in the sunlight, in her wedding dress and her little tiara, shone brighter than the sun. I felt my breath catch in my throat and couldn't speak. Tears freely flowed down my face and Elizabeth smiled at me.
Tom told me it was okay to kiss her and I slowly kissed her in the morning sun. I could feel all of our friends and family around us smiling and sharing their love with ours.
After the business at the Gardens was finally over, it was time to go to the church. A bunch of Elizabeth's family had came into town and it was a complete blast meeting them and having photos taken with them. Most of my family couldn't make it for the wedding. But my son and daughter and her husband were there, along with my new granddaughter and my sister Theresa and her husband Don. I know the rest of my family was there in spirit.
We then finally had the one bad thing happen that they say always happens. Somehow, we were short one flower. A boutonnière for one of the ushers. Elizabeth and I were both upset, but we made the decision that the ushers would just have to go with out flowers.
After several pictures with family, friends, and our priest, Father McMichael, we got to the one photo I had been looking forward to. A special shot with all of my groomsmen and best men plus Elizabeth's father and stepfather. We had gotten all of them personalized cufflinks to wear with their tuxes.
Chris got a hot pepper. Mark had gotten a guitar pick. Frank had gotten a Cubs logo. (It was the last one to show up in the mail.) Ian had gotten the Batman logo. Elizabeth's dad Ralph had gotten golf clubs. Her stepfather had gotten a musical symbol. My son, Noah, had gotten Godzilla. Patrick had received a cross. I myself was wearing a pair of Godzilla cufflinks that my good friend Patricia Palm had gotten for me as a gift. I wanted us all to form a circle and show our cufflinks and get a photo of them all together.
Unfortunately, another bad thing happened. Poor Mark's cufflink lost both picks off of them! He stepped out of being in the shot because of it, and it made me feel bad that it happened. After all... the man kissed me. ;)
After that last shot it was time to start to get ready for the wedding to begin. Everyone went to their places as the opening music for the service started up. Our friend Sara, who was a bridesmaid, had her daughter there and she was our flower girl. Beatrice looked beautiful and had practiced all year to be able to spread the rose petals. Elizabeth's nephew, Sammy, was our ringbearer and looked sharp in his tux. So we were all set.
As the refrain for the trumpet music began, everyone started to go in. Elizabeth and I looked at each other and smiled as we stood there arm-in-arm. She made one last joke that we could make a break for it. Our friend, Donna, who was serving as bearer for the Gospel of the Lord, held the metal-clad book up to us and said, "I will hit you with this book!" I had a feeling she meant it and could take us both on. We laughed as the hymn started and we began to process into the sanctuary.
When I looked into the room earlier, it didn't look like a lot of people had shown up. But as we walked into the room now, Elizabeth and I were taken aback by how packed the room was! There were only a couple of empty places left in the pews. All these people had come to share in our special day and I couldn't help but feel a sudden rush of happiness run through my body.
The hymn that was being sung at the start of the service is my favorite one, it is also seven verses long. But it is a good thing it was long, as Father McMichael had a little trouble untying the rings from the ringbearer pillow. Sammy the ring bearer just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Lucky the father got them free and placed them on the altar. As the hymn continued, Father gave me a little bit of a look that said, 'You had to have all seven verses of the song?'. I smiled and just gave a slight shrug of my shoulders.
After the singing was over, the service finally began. Elizabeth and I each said our parts as they came up in the service. Our friends Geoffrey and Candace did the wonderful readings from the Bible about love and marriage. The service that Father preached was amazing and during his homily, I could feel the power of love begin to build in the room to new levels.
At last, the time for the vows came. We both stood up there, and as I repeated what was said to me, my voice broke with emotion and tears ran down my face. I was later told that when I started to cry, their wasn't a dry eye in the house. I pulled myself together and finished the vow with all of the power of love and strength I could muster into my voice.
   Elizabeth's turn was next. And despite what she might say, her voice did crack with emotion when she said my name during the vows.
We thought it was time to kiss after the vows, but our priest shook his head and told us not yet! Which got a laugh from the crowd. He still had to bless the marriage. After Elizabeth's father said the prayers for our marriage, Father wrapped our hands with his stole and blessed us both. As we knelt in front of the altar, I felt the love inside me reach to Heaven. I know my stepfather was looking down at us at that moment and smiled.
After we stood and he pronounced us husband and wife, I looked at him and asked him, 'Now?' He smiled and said, 'Yeah, go ahead.'
We kissed as husband and wife and the room exploded into cheers. As we said thank you to everyone down the aisle during the peace, it was overwhelming, all the good wishes we were receiving.
The rest of the service was fantastic, as all who wanted to come to God's Table to partake of his love came up.
The end of the service finally approached and we began to walk down the aisle as people watched us, with all the room full of smiles. As we made it to the front door of the church, we looked outside and saw the Cinderella carriage waiting for us.
Our wonderful priest came up behind us and touched our shoulders. We both turned around and hugged him and thanked him for a wonderful service. We made our way down to the carriage, smiling and laughing like children. We decided to wait for everyone to come outside so they could see the carriage and take pictures of us. What was really fantastic is that the horse's name that pulled the carriage was Jedi! We both laughed at that strange little twist of fate.
More and more people came out of the church and took pictures and were all smiling and laughing. It was by far one of the happiest moments of my life, being there next to Elizabeth waving at the large crowd of family and friends.
And this was the biggest reason by far why we wanted to do our wedding like this. This is what we wanted more than anything. That feeling, that energy, that power of love from God in our House of Faith as we became husband and wife was something that neither one of us could have gotten by just going down to the courthouse. And the feeling of having so many people show up at the church to share it with us was overwhelming and amazing to us both.
Jedi pulled away from the church so Elizabeth and I could have a little alone time, as we tried to catch our breath from the long day. Tom rode with us for a few minutes to catch a couple of pictures but then it was just us. We smiled at each other and kissed again. 'I love you, my wife.' I said to her with tears in my eyes. 'I love you, my husband.' she replied.
 We rode around downtown Edwardsville as I held her close to protect her from the cold wind of November. It was magical...like a fairytale. But the night was just beginning. To be continued in part 2.

13 DAYS AND COUNTING DOWN!

Well Hello All!

  It has been crazy the last few months, but I just wanted to drop a quick post. 13 DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING! WOW! BY GODZILLA, WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

  Ahem...excuse me, had to release that.
 
  Now that is taken care of, I do have to say that it has been fun the last couple of months trying to get things done. We have the wedding cake and the groom's cake paid for. We have had our meetings with our priest and choir master to try to get ready for the church. All the invitations have been sent out and it looks like we will have a very nice turn out for the wedding. Unfortunately, my mother and father won't be able to make due to health reasons. But I know they will be there in spirit.  A my children will be at the wedding along with my new granddaughter so that will be wonderful.

  I think the hardest part about planning this wedding has been trying to do it with me working and going to college part-time. But we have managed somehow to get the things done that have needed to get done.

  Well, time for me to get started on some homework that needs to be done for my classes at school. I will try to get one more blog post in before the wedding day. Thank you to all of you that have been reading this blog for the last couple of years on the journey that Elizabeth and I started all the way back two years ago when I went down to one knee at Disney World. Later all.

                                                                                        Jimmy Gillentine


P.S.

     THE GODZILLA CAKE IS GOING TO LOOK AWESOME!

T-minus 52 days!

Things are rolling along, and despite the constant changes, bumps in the road, my insane travel schedule and Jimmy's new career as a part-time college student, the wedding is approaching. No, not like an oncoming train... much!

For those planning to join us, please check out the website. We've put all the details there, because we can only fit so much on an invitation. 

Jimmy and I are so excited - nervous! but excited - as we approach this day. I hope everyone realizes that while we will have been engaged two and a half years by the time we go down the aisle, we have not spent all that time planning a wedding. Don't get us wrong: the wedding will be fun! And it's been fun planning it. It's been almost a joint hobby for us, as we have taken every step together, laughed at the silly stuff (like $1200 for a pair of shoes!) and worked together on compromise, budgeting, planning and keeping our perspective. You know, like married people do.

And that's really the key. What Jimmy and I have really been doing is preparing to be married. It's far too easy for couples to fall into the wedding crazy and spend all their time in preparation for a ceremony and a big party, and forget that the marriage is the important part. Both of us wanted to spend this time preparing mentally, emotionally and spiritually to be married, and it has been a wonderful experience. 

It's been described to us that the church and the priest do not actually marry the bride and groom; they bless the covenant that has already been woven between them. That's truly how we feel; we've spent this looooong engagement weaving a bond between us and among our children. We are a family, and the wedding is the blessing and celebration of that family's bond.

Whether you will be with us in November or you are wishing us well from afar, thank you for your love and support. We are blessed in friendship and family, and will never forget the love you all have shown us as we danced toward our castle.

Ohhhh jeez! 114 Days To Go till Ground Zero! Holy Godzilla!

Oh man! Do you see that title of this blog!? 114 DAYS TO GO! Oh holy Rodan and Mothra! Where is the time going? We are quickly counting down to being only 100 days before Elizabeth and I get married. Wow! It is getting so close, and to be honest with everyone, I'm scared. No...not scared that the wedding is not going to happen or is it going to have to be postponed again. Elizabeth has said we have non-refundable deposits down now, so no backing out of it now.

But I'm scared that as it gets closer, something is going to get overlooked or forgotten and then on the day of the wedding, BOOM! It will be staring us in the face that it got left out. I will say though, Elizabeth is doing her best to keep things on a list and keep everything organized as we keep moving forward on this crazy little adventure. But even she will look at the Knot website and I will hear a 'GULP!' when she sees how many days are left till the wedding.

But, even though this can be stressful as hell, I wouldn't trade this for anything else in the world. I've had so much fun with cake tastings and wedding shows that I really believe I'm going to miss all of the planning and running around we've done to get ready for this special day. Elizabeth started to talk about the wedding today and things that will happen during the wedding day. I couldn't help but get choked up and had to do my best to keep from crying tears of love. I love her...and I'm the luckiest man on Earth to have her in my life. 114 days...still to long of a wait.

Holy God and Godzilla! 137 DAYS TO GO!

Oh man! What happened to the time! Only 137 days to go to the wedding! What happened to the time? It feels like yesterday that I tripped on my heart and proposed to Elizabeth in front of the castle. Now here it is, 137 days until the wedding. Oh geez! We still have so much to do! So much that has to be done. But here we are, 137 days and counting. Well...I'm looking forward to the neck breaking speed that we are going to have to go through to make sure everything is ready for the big day that I take Elizabeth's hand in mine and have the honor to call her my wife.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. The main thing that is happening in my life is that I'm going to be a grandfather soon and I'm also going to be a student again when I start going to college this fall. I'm looking forward to both of those things happening to me. But I'm still looking forward to being Elizabeth's husband so much. We have a lot to do in the next few months to be ready. But I know we can do it. But wow...137 days and counting. Time is going by so fast! Soon...I'll be in my tux trying my best to hold back my tears of love and happiness when I see Elizabeth walking down the aisle toward me. Get ready! Alot to do in the near future! GO!

172 days

I have no idea how we have been engaged for nearly two years, postponed twice and still can be behind schedule in planning this thing. The money is raised; it sits in an account, waiting for us to get a move on and give it to people.

Granted, little things like an impending grandchild, daughter's wedding, graduation, intermittent book tours, Jimmy's college application and release of two new books kind of distract us. As I told my father, priorities need to be observed. Our marriage is important; the wedding is not the marriage. Cost and crazy are managed. Lots of things get in the way, and sometimes there is irony. How funny is it to take a bit of cash from your own wedding fund for your daughter's wedding?

But just in case I was settling into some Zen about this thing, and everything's in perspective, I've got The Knot to send me a hysterical email.

ME: 172 DAYS.
JIMMY: Till the wedding?
ME: Yup.
JIMMY: Ohhhh.
ME: We will never be ready in time, we should...
JIMMY: NOOOOOOOOOOPPPOOOOOOOOOOOPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOERRRRRRR
JIMMY: NO
JIMMY: no
JIMMY: No
ME: We could probably get our deposits extended...
JIMMY: No. No. No.
ME: You're sure?
JIMMY: OHHHHH
ME: You're so much fun to torment.
JIMMY: NOOOOOOOOOOPPPOOOOOOOOOOOPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOERRRRRRR
ME: What does that even mean?
JIMMY: No. Times a gillion.
ME: If that is your final word on the matter...
JIMMY: Yes.
ME: Well, okay then. Meet you at the church, Nov. 8.
JIMMY: Good.
ME: Unless you come to your senses.
JIMMY: Hush.