15 on the 15th

March is the month when the day of both our anniversaries matches the months since that date. Cray cray.

15 whole months ago, Mac and I jumped off the deep end into the crazy world of marriage. We kept it a secret so that people would take our wedding seriously. Is that bad? Ours was not the typical “shot-gun” wedding: we weren’t pregnant and didn’t have an impending deployment. We just decided we didn’t want to wait and wanted to get all of the administrative aspects of Army marriage out of the way before June. We’re really romantics at heart.

I have a very defined ulna bone. Weird. Also terrible posture.

Looking back, we should’ve changed out of what we wore to work. But fun fact: I was wearing this same shirt the night Mac and I met (a sorority sister was kind enough to photograph us making out, so yeah).

We decided to get married when Mac came home from Afghan-land. He was supposed to get home around December 1, so we were hoping to get married on December 9 (so our anniversaries would be exactly 6 months apart). Well, the Army does what the Army does, and Mac was delayed by over a week. He finally got home on December 8. We pushed any wedding back until the next week.

Sometime the next week, we filled out the online application for a marriage license which could be saved for two weeks. We happened on Thursday for THE DAY. We ducked out of work and drove over to the courthouse. I had my camera in my purse, the security guard informed me that cameras weren’t allowed in the courthouse, and I had to take it back to the car (though camera phones are okay?).

Mac and I got in line at the Clerk of Deeds office to pick up our license. The lady found ours and finished processing everything. We coughed up $60 and walked out license in hand. Luckily for us, the magistrate was located across the street at the County Detention Center (aka the jail) and was available 24/7. Crime never sleeps in Fayette-nam. At this point, we only had Mac’s brother as a witness (you need two). My friend, Megan, worked downtown for the city, so I sent her a text asking if she felt like playing hooky from work. She happily obliged, and we had our witnesses. Walking up to the jail Detention Center, we noticed that we couldn’t bring cell phones inside (but cameras were okay). So we headed back to the car to drop off the phones.

Once inside sans phones, we gave our license to the clerk and sat in the waiting room. A very young couple was ahead of us, and they brought a whole pack of witnesses. After they were married, the clerk called us in. We signed the marriage license and moved to the magistrate’s room (I have no idea what it’s actually called). She asked us if we had rings and if we wanted to use them. We said why not, giggling like fools the whole time. Gettin married doesn’t make you any more mature, y’all.

The magistrate asked us to pronounce our names properly then we moved right into the ceremony. It was a quick version of the traditional vows. Just like that, we kissed and were married.

We decided to celebrate our new union by going out to dinner. Lucky for us, Joey had cleaned his room and found several gift cards to Chili’s. Yeah, we’re high class. Megan even joined us and, in doing so, got in a fight with her then-fiance / now-husband because he didn’t want to go to Chili’s with us. Good thing we didn’t suggest On The Border: Megan and Mike used that restaurant as their break-up stop (they’re married now but had split up several times over their nine years of dating, typically at On The Border).

So now, we’ve decided to celebrate both anniversaries: December 15 and June 9. We call December our Chili’s date and plan to go there on that date for the rest of our lives. Maybe I should submit this story to Chili’s and see if they will give us free dinner.

How many of you military spouse bloggers married before your wedding? What did y’all do?