The Ford Wedding Album
On Christmas night, 1990, John proposed to me. It was done in an extremely unromantic manner, which I won't bore you with, but I wasn't doing anything for the rest of my life, so what the heck? I said yes. Shortly after that he got orders to go to the Gulf War, and in case he died while overseas, he wanted me to have all the benefits of being a military spouse. Instead of wasting time planning a big wedding for my family, we opted to elope quickly and quietly instead. We definitely didn't want to wait on blood tests and we both hated Los Angeles, so we opted to leave CA to get married. On January 18, we took off work, got up bright and early, and drove from Long Beach, CA to Phoenix, AZ. We stopped in the Maricopa County courthouse and picked up our marriage license. We had to stop in a local mall to get some shoes to match the dress we'd hastily bought earlier in the month, then it was off to Apache Junction to find his old friends (who we'd be staying with). I spent all afternoon getting ready and barely made it in time to rush to the courthouse to get married. We drove back into Mesa and waited our turn to be married by the local justice of the peace.
	And I do mean wait. There were several other couples ahead of us, which gave us time to sit there and feel nervous. And sit there, and sit there...
Finally we got in and the ceremony started. It was short and sweet, just like we wanted. (Didn't want to have time to really consider what we were doing or anything!)
	Gotta kiss the bride.
Realization kicks in what we just did. ;-)
	Then it was out to the garden of the courthouse to snap some wedding photos...
...and more smooching....
...and a little horseplay.
After the ceremony, we left for a much-deserved meal at Red Lobster with John's friend. Then he stayed up half the night talking and catching up while I went on to bed (aren't we just the most romantic couple?). The next day we left early to head back to Long Beach.
	The drive back was much more fun. We weren't nervous anymore, and we took our time to enjoy the sights and each other's company.
And I guess it was a good union. We've been married for 12 years and counting now. Good thing we snapped a picture of this license because we haven't found it since!