A Tale of Two Weddings

I was lucky enough to have Lauren as a date for two weddings in Michigan. (I also crashed a wedding that she was at in Florida, but that’s a different story.) Part of me felt a little bad for her, because both weddings I stood up in, which means she sat alone.

The first wedding was in November 2014. It took a lot of convincing (mainly on how to make it work without her missing any time at work), but after asking her a few different times, she decided to go with me. It was one of the coldest Novembers that I can remember. I suppose that could be all in my head, seeing as the past 5 months had been spent in Florida and Louisiana, but it was still freezing. I felt so bad for Lauren! I picked her up from the airport around midnight, as she took the last plane out after work that day. We took the scenic route to our hotel, so she could see 8 mile. She wanted to take pictures of the street sign to send it to some of her friends.

The next morning was the wedding. We woke up a bit early, so I could bring her to National Coney Island so that she could experience the deliciousness that I had told her about before. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel so I could complete my groomsman duties and she could get ready.

A few days before the wedding I warned her that she was going to meet my family while in Michigan. What I didn’t realize until the night of the wedding reception is that she was going to sit at the same table as them. Lauren was a champ though! She held her own during the questioning stage from my mother. I had told my sister Emily to shut it down if it started getting too crazy. I also used any excuse I could think of to go visit the table.

That night was full of laughter, dancing, drinking, and eating. It was amazing. The next morning was not as amazing. We flew back down to Florida the next working, with our flight departing at 6:00am. That my friends was not fun, not fun at all.

HOWEVER! When we landed back in Florida, it was officially Lauren’s birthday celebration. I’ll go into that detail another time.

After we landed back in Florida. Smiles for our excitement for the birthday celebrations to come!

The second wedding was in July 2015. Just over a month after Evan was born we took our first family flight up to Michigan. By then everyone either knew Lauren from the first wedding, or just from the stories I posted online. Everyone was so excited to see her and Evan.

Once again I was standing up in the wedding. This time around Lauren was sat with friends, so I didn’t have to worry about running interference as much. We brought Evan to the reception for the first hour, then sent him home with my parents so Lauren and I could play! We got our drink on, our dance on, and our photo booth on! The entire time she had a smile on her face. You would never know that she was just in the hospital three weeks before then!

Lauren had the most contagious smile around. It was impossible to be mad around her. It was impossible to be mad at her! It wasn’t fair, it caused me to lose all of the few arguments we every had.

Evan has her smile, her eyes, and her laughter. Hopefully he’ll also have her dance skills, because he doesn’t want mine. Everyday I look at him and see her at the same time. That’s the only thing keeping me going right now. I know it’ll get better eventually. I’m nowhere near that though. I’m currently at the stage where every time I close my eyes I re-live the last 6 months and ask “what could I have done differently?”

Thank you all again for everything. I love you all. If I could, I’d visit you all and give you a hug and a high five.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Evan and I will go spend some time with her at the cemetery, then probably go for a nice walk. I’ll tell him some stories, then show him the video below of the two of them laughing up a storm back in January.