So, how did Tami and Wayne’s love story begin?
It was the summer of 2002. It was a tae kwon do class at Currie High School in Chicago. He had been taking classes for 6 years. He met her mom, DiAnee, in the class — 3 years before he met Tami!
Her mom invited Wayne to Tami’s apartment housewarming in 2002. He did not feel comfortable since he had never met her.
Tami joins the class he is in. She had been doing tae kwon do by this teacher at another location. He is in the back of the class — but does NOT say anything.
His first impression — she’s really cute. A group goes out for dinner. At dinner, DiAnne calls her daughter, “My little Tam Tam” That’s when he gets it — Tami is DiAnne’s daughter!
They continue in the class together. They get along well. They go out on group dinners a lot. They poke fun at each other. As for dating, he does NOTHING — for 4 years!
He did not date her because she only dated jerks — and he is not one. And he is shy.
SHE notices him more and more in class. She misses him when he is not there. When he is there, she has a celebratory moment in her mind. She thinks about him more — he’s cute but quiet. She gives clues that she is interested in him. He remains OBLIVOUS to any and all signals. She sits next to him at dinner one evening. She brushes across him — he is STILL clueless. He just thinks she needs more room.
So, finally, she decides that SHE is going to have to approach him. In the parking lot, after class, she nervously says, “I have a crush on you.” His expression does NOT change. She does not know how he feels. Not sure if she was not into her — or gay. 3 seconds later — it was an eternity to her — he says, “That’s great!” He hugs her. She exhausted.
They start dating. Their first kiss was on their 3rd date.
“Our story is not very funny,” Tami told me before we met. She’s changed her mind. I told this story to much laughter, as you can imagine, at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Schaumburg on Saturday. The bride’s sister, the maid of honor, is the director of banquet sales there. She did a great job of being the maid of honor, not an employee that evening. The food was wonderful and non-stop, as were the desserts.
To see videos of other couples’ stories being told, click here.
A perfect wedding is a boring wedding.
As part of the ring exchange, I say to the groom, “With all that I am” and he repeats it to the bride. For the first time ever, Ken says to Donna, “I am the lamb.”
I repeat, “With all that I am”. Ken says to the bride, “With all that I am.” Donna is cracking up. So are the guests.
Bride with groom who said, twice, "I am the lamb."
I enunciate even more clearly, “With all that I am.” Ken says it correctly! Whew.
The couple had the script 10 days before the wedding, so he had seen it before. Nerves.
In a thank you note, Ken wrote that ‘Everyone was making fun of me” about the mistake. “I’m going to have to live with that one for a long time.”
Yes, he will. But it will be a fun story to tell for years to come.
This happened at Avalon Banquets in Elk Grove with Karen doing a great job making sure everything was just right. There was so much food and even more desserts!
To find out more about vows during the ceremony, go to http://iDoWeddings.TV/vows.html
I just booked a wedding for 11/11/11 to begin at 11:11am. The Friday morning wedding will take place at the wonderful Chevy Chase Country Club in Wheeling.
I have weddings on 10/10/10 (but none at 10:00am). It’s a Sunday. The ceremony is at a chapel in Oak Brook
9/9/9 was a Wednesday. So, I did no weddings. But I heard Las Vegas was especially busy that day.
8/8/8 is considered a lucky day in Asian cultures. Without realizing that, I planned a family reunion in ’04 for that date. Ooops. But a couple of the six ministers on my team did weddings that day.
The biggest day of its kind, by far, was 7/7/7. It is considered to be a lucky number by many. And it was a Saturday. Bingo! I ended up doing 5 weddings that day — and turning down a ton more requests. I ended up on page one of the Sunday Chicago Tribune, on CBS2 News, ABC7 News and FOX32 News (morning and at 9:00pm, the funniest)! It was a hot, tiring but wonderful day.
All of these promise an anniversary date the groom can’t forget. If he does, he deserves to be in trouble :>)
For those looking ahead, 12/12/12 is a Wednesday. And I’m available!
When we marry “till death do us part,” do we really expect to be parted by death? I know several women who lost their husbands after relatively brief marriages, forcing them to raise young children on their own. I thought I could imagine their pain and anger at the unfairness of it all. But I also knew they could not afford to wallow in grief, if for no other reason than that their children needed them to be emotionally intact.
But after the children have moved away and have children of their own, a spouse’s death leaves an emptiness that is hard to fill. There’s no one in the house with whom to share the events of the day, discuss the broken pipes and rotten politics, relish the antics and achievements of the grandchildren.
So writes New York Times Wellness columnist Jane Brody in a touching tribute about her husband. The column she wrote is very much worth reading.
It reminds me of that amazing, wordless 4 minute montage in the Oscar-winning Pixar movie Up. That scene shows the couple getting married and going through the ups and downs of marriage ending in the wife’s death. I can not see that sequence without tearing up.
I have been married almost 26 years. I can’t imagine life without Pam. Because of our work schedules — she works a normal 9-5 type job, I am out so many evenings and weekends with weddings — we don’t see as much of each other as many couples. But to know that we will be together for our “Friday evening” — an evening together to reconnect, share about life, share food and wine — even if ends up being on Sunday evening is priceless.
May we all aspire to long marriages of contentment and joy. (Oh, trust me, there will be plenty of challenges and disagreements along the way.) But let’s honor our vows — “as long as we both shall live.”
When it comes to paying for a wedding while remaining financially afloat, today’s rule is all hands on deck.
Couples are relying not only on the kindness of the bride’s parents, who have traditionally borne most of the burden, but also on that of the bridegroom’s parents, along with the couple’s stepparents and even grandparents, aunts and uncles.
With the average American wedding running north of $28,000, according to the 2009 Condé Nast American Wedding Survey, and significantly more in major cities, most everybody must now chip in. And even as the nation seeks to shake off a deep recession, this is a trend that’s likely to stick long after the employment figures rebound.
David M. Wood III, president of the Association of Bridal Consultants, estimated that only about 10 percent of weddings are now wholly paid for by the bride’s parents, down from the 20 percent figure that the association reported from a 2003 survey.
Mr. Wood also estimated that 33 percent of weddings are now financed by the bride and bridegroom alone, up from 27 percent in the earlier survey.
When Pam and I got married 25+ years ago, we were just out of college with no money. The ceremony was at a church. The reception was in my in-laws large yard (formerly owned by Pam’s grandparents.) It was tricky — my stepdad wanted to invite business colleagues we did not know, resulting in Pam reducing her list. He offered to pay for a band — and then got an ooom-pa-pah band, which he liked, which was definitely not our first choice. But money rules. Still, it was a nice event done for not-so-much money. And we were married! (My stepdad died of cancer a few years later.)
Read the entire New York Times article here.
Stories About Couples | Rev. Phil Landers | 
April 29, 2010 8:02 AM | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe