Why we chose to get married on September 11th

The moment when we first saw each other on our wedding day.

When we were planning our wedding we had lots of people who felt that it was their place to tell us why we shouldn't get married on September 11th.  This included everyone from friends who were confused by it to the worker at Office Max who copied our programs.  Since today marks the 10th year since the attacks on the World Trade Center and our 2nd anniversary I felt it was time to talk about why we chose to get married on that day.

When the attacks on the World Trade Center happened on September 11, 2001, I was a freshman at Hope College and Andrew was a senior at Flushing High School.  We did not know each other yet.

When Andrew's mother passed away on September 11, 2005, I was in my first year of teaching at Lafayette Jefferson High School and Andrew was a senior at Hope College.  We had spent a lot of time together and decided that dating long distance didn't make much sense for us.  However, his mother's unexpected death showed us how much we cared about each other.  In the days following his mother's funeral Andrew told me he loved me for the first time.

When we were deciding on a wedding date, we knew that we wanted to get married at The Mavris and we started looking at the dates that they had open.  When we had our first meeting with John Mavris, he mentioned that they had Friday September 11th open.  We both dismissed the date saying "Who would want to get married on that day?"  We started looking at other dates they had available later in the fall.

My favorite picture from our wedding.

But when we were talking about it later, Andrew and I both agreed that we didn't have any problem getting married on September 11th and even liked the idea because it would be a way of honoring his mother and of creating a positive memory to go hand in hand with the memories of the attacks on the World Trade Center and his mother's death.  It was our way of moving on while still remembering.

Favorite movie

My favorite movie is definitely Little Women.  I have seen it too many times to count.  What do I love so much about it?  It focuses on the importance of family and friends.  It goes through all four seasons and about every emotion.  It captures the feelings of rivalry between siblings, the love of a relationship, the sadness of losing someone you love.  It's a classic story and an absolutely beautiful movie.  Take a look at the pictures to see for yourself:

All pictures taken from
 http://periodmoviecaps.blogspot.com/2010/01/little-women-1994.html

I have two stories involving this movie.  The first is that when I was in college, this was the movie I used to watch whenever I was sick.  Since I lived with the same roommate for three years, she got to the point where she dreaded coming home to see this movie on because it meant 1) I was sick and 2) I was going to be crying because I always cry at this movie.  

The second is that I chose the song "For the Beauty of the Earth" to walk down the aisle to at my wedding because I really like that song and partly because it's the song that's used during Meg and John Brooke's wedding in the movie.

Favorite song

My favorite song has to be "The Rainbow Connection" sung by Kermit the Frog.

I have a long history with this song.  My Grandpa Chuck had a player piano roll of this song and it was a family favorite to play and sing.  Over the years, the song has always reminded me of my family and home.  When it was time for me to pick a song to dance to with my dad at my wedding, I chose "The Rainbow Connection."

It's great to be reminded of that moment and that day, especially since today is Andrew and my one year anniversary!  I can't believe that it's been a year already.