WeddingMagazine

Carmen and James

Jim and I went to a wedding the weekend before our own. It was raining, and the couple had to redo all of their plans. I decided I wasn’t going to let anything I couldn’t control ruin our day. That week, I sent my mom to find an umbrella—one that “looked” like me. I decided that if it rained, I was going to embrace it.

The stress of last-minute plans left me sick. Jim insisted I was going to get him sick. I assured him that it was just my allergies, and he would be fine! Sure enough, at our rehearsal dinner, Jim started to look pale. I asked how he was doing, and he could barely talk. As the night went on, he only got worse. Although I didn’t know this until the next day, my brother Matthew brought him back to his apartment from the hotel. The goal was to get Jim a good night’s sleep so he could shake it off by morning. Well, morning rolled around, and not to Jim’s surprise, he didn’t have a voice—at least nothing above a whisper. But he wasn’t going to let that ruin his day.

At the church, the girls were getting their last minute touch-ups before pictures. That’s when I found out about Jim. I worried, but everyone assured me he was fine. We had most of our pictures done before the ceremony, so we met in the church first to have a special moment together. I heard Jim’s whisper of a voice and could see how sick he felt. Yet, he had on the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. He told me this was going to be the best day of his life, and nothing was going ruin it. My heart melted. Our day had officially begun!

The ceremony was so unique because our priest, Father Don, used the fact that Jim had no voice, to take us from laughter to tears, resulting in the warmest, most heartfelt ceremony. Sometimes, what you think may be the worst thing that could happen, turns out to be the most unique and special. 

BUSINESSES: Rochester International Event Center (Catering & Reception), Hy-Vee (Desserts & Floral), Kroc (DJ), Carmen Buntje (Invitations), and Mike Hardwick Photography