Wedding Day

I woke up a bit late (yikes!), and rushed around the apartment getting my stuff together. I didn't want to forget anything important (like the wedding rings or my shoes), so I double-checked everything before getting into the car and heading out to Valders.

When I got to my parents' house, I found my friends, Robert and Christina, had already arrived.  However, I didn't have much time to chat, because I only had an hour to get dressed, print out the hotel reservation, and get my vows memorized.

Robert, Petch and I left for the church before noon because we where going to meet the bridesmaids and Pat at the church for a rehearsal. My brothers were already at the church when we arrived, but Patty was late!  Oh no! Did she forget? Did she change her mind? Was this going to be "The Hangover, Part 3"?  Haha, nooo! They were just late because Gam has A LOT of hair to style!

When they showed up, we walked through the wedding ceremony. Oops! I forgot to tell my brother, Bob, that he was the best man! Oh well, here you go, Bob, take the rings now, you're the best man! After the "rehearsal", Patty, Kay and the girls went into another room to get changed. I stayed in the sanctum of the church, practicing my vows. Gam's dad had translated them into Thai for me, but unfortunately he used the karaoke version of Thai, which makes it harder to pronounce words correctly. I like reading things with Thai letters because then I can see the tone marks and get the pronunciation more accurately. Luckily, some of the Thai students arrived early, so I asked Petch, Gene, Pokpong, and May to help me pronounce the words that I didn't know. I was very nervous, but I felt I could do a reasonably good job if I stayed calm and used a sweet voice.

As the guests started to arrived, I played the role of the usher and helped them find their seats. We had the Thai students and their hosts sit on Pat's side of the church, and my family and friends sit on my side. Pat had more people on her side! How can that be? I'm the American, I should have more guests on my side! Sigh, I guess my wife is more popular and well-liked that me! Hahah! One cool thing was that my high school social studies teacher, Mr. Evans, came to the wedding. He was my favorite teacher in school and some day I'd like to be as good a teacher as him. So I was very honored that he joined us for our wedding.  Maybe some day I will get invited to the weddings of my students. That will be a neat experience!

Finally, the time came for me to stand up in the front of the church to await my bride. Wow! I was actually getting nervous!  I didn't think I would get nervous. In fact, Pat and I had been so casual about our wedding plans because we had felt like the wedding was merely ceremonial.  After all, we'd technically been married for two months already, and yet when the music started playing, my heart jumped into my throat. Wow, this is really happening. Pat and I are making it official. We're going to be husband and wife for the rest of our lives. Is this a dream?

I didn't see any faces in the crowd. The only thing I could see was Pat walking down the aisle. She was the most lovely thing I have ever seen in my entire life, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.  It was as if an angel had descended from heaven and was gracefully gliding down the aisle towards me. I think I stopped breathing for a full five minutes. I felt light-headed and I was probably smiling like an big idiot.  All the sadness, heartache, and stress of my life just melted away.

As Pat walked down the aisle, I was transformed by this angel in white who smiled with eyes filled with love meant only for me. I wanted to stop the wedding right at that moment and just hug her close to me and whisper, "Thank you, thank you..." over and over in her ear. No words can express the gratitude and devotion I feel for her. She is a unique and special woman and I am very lucky that she chose me.

I thanked her brother for walking her down the aisle and giving her to me. Pastor Jim started to read from the scriptures we had selected. I think he was rather enjoying himself, because this was going to be his last wedding. He was retiring tomorrow! We were quite honored that he was willing to wed us on the day before his retirement, I'm sure he was quite busy with other things, so it had to be inconvenient for him. However, he clearly didn't seem to mind at all. As Pat and I stood in front of him, he rambled through the scripture readings and described how each one related to the things Pat and I had told him during our pre-marriage conferences with him.  I felt a bit like a naughty student, however, because I kept sneaking peeks at Pat while Pastor was talking to us. I think she knew I was doing it too, because she kept smiling and giving me a "would you stop it!" look out of the corner of her eye.  One cool moment was when Pastor Jim read a passage out of the Velveteen Rabbit. That's one of my favorite stories and I read it to my students at the center all the time. What a coincidence that he picked that book!

Then I had to read my vows. So I pulled out my paper and started to read it in Thai. The Thai kids, of course, all started giggling at my horrible accent, but Pat's eyes started to fill with tears of joy. I'm not sure if she understood everything I was saying, but she knew it was very sweet. At one point, though, I had to tell her to stop laughing at me because I was getting too flustered. Haha!  Then it was Pat's turn to read her vows and my turn to cry. How could such an amazing woman be pledging her love and loyalty to a guy like me? I just stared at her with awe and wonder until my tears clouded my vision. Her little round face became a distant sparkling moon, and I wished my heart was a rocket so I could reach her and bring her close to me.

I think Pastor Jim sensed this too, because he paused after the vows and let us hug each other for a moment until we both stopped crying. After that, we engaged our rings and then we walked up to the altar to do a Thai "water ceremony". Normally people do a "unity candle" or "sand-pouring" ceremony during the wedding, but we wanted to have some Thai elements in our wedding to give it a special meaning to Pat and her family. So we had a couple of small silver cups that are normally used to pour water over elders' hands during Songkran and we also had a big ceramic bowl on the altar. Pastor Jim used the silver cups to pour the water over our hands and then used the water in the bowl to perform a cross-blessing on our foreheads.

Once that was done, we were officially husband and wife. We walked down the aisle together as everyone applauded, and I felt ten feet taller than before. I was so proud of my lovely, caring, and clever wife. From now on, George and Panida Carroll will be facing the challenges of life together! And as long as she is by my side, I know there is nothing we cannot overcome. She gives me strength, stability and love, and I give her a very big belly, which makes an excellent pillow upon which she can rest her head after a long hard day of fixing all my mistakes! Haha!

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We had the reception at CNC Links, the clubhouse of a golf course south of Manitowoc. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived because the place looked beautiful. Pat and I had not put much effort into wedding planning, we just hired a wedding coordinator and let her do all the work. Haha! She did an amazing job too!

We had some appetizers and snacks laid out before dinner. So everyone got a few drinks and talked. The kids were there for almost an hour before they realized that the music playing in the background was Thai songs! Not the most observant group in the world, hahah! But once they recognized a song, they rushed over to the speakers to listen to the music.

Pat and I admired the cake. It was very lovely. When I had gotten an email from the wedding coordinator, the receipt for the cake said "Christel's Piggly Wiggly" in Valders. A wedding cake from Piggly Wiggly? I couldn't believe it, and yet when we saw the cake we were blown away! It was covered in beautiful white flowers and layered ribbons of white icing. I guess Piggly Wiggly is a great place to buy a wedding cake!

The photographer kept trying to get us to go outside to take some pictures on a scenic bridge on the golf course, but we just looked at each other and said, "Naaaaaah!" Although it had cleared up a little bit in the morning, the weather had turned colder in the afternoon, and it was quite chilly by the time we reached the reception party. In fact, it started snowing! So Pat and I decided to stay where we were. We were happy and warm and enjoying the party. Besides we had already planned to have my niece come down to Manitowoc next week to take posed photos outside when it is warmer!

Once dinner started, my brother had to give a speech as part of his "best man" duties. He grumbled about the short notice, but he did a great job. Then Gam and May stood up and gave a VERY short speech too. Finally, I stood up and gave a speech too. I wanted to explain to everyone why Pat and I were together. On the surface, we may seem a bit of an odd couple, but there is a deep bond of love between us and I wanted to share that with my family and friends. I rambled on a bit too much, but here's a summary of what I said:

"Pat says I talk about the flood too much, but we fell in love during the flood, so it will always be a part of our story. Plus, a flood is kind of a metaphor for my life before I met Patty. You see, floods are the worst kind of disaster. A tornado or a hurricane may do a lot of damage, but then they are quickly gone and you can start your life over again. However, a flood lingers on and on. It just doesn't go away, and that has been what my life was like. I would still accomplish my goals, but I would have to slog through the muck of problems, heartbreaks and bad decisions in order to reach those goals. It is so tiring. It's an exhausting struggle that seems to have no end, until you eventually give up and sink beneath the water. That is a flood.

So when I met Pat, it was at a time when the floodwaters, both literally and figuratively, were almost over my head. I was drowning in debt and problems. Any sane person would have stayed far away from me at that point, lest I pull her down with me. And yet, Pat jumped right in and started fixing things. She made my problems her own, and worked tirelessly to save a dream that wasn't even hers. When the floodwaters in my life threatened to overwhelm me, Pat saved me with little acts of kindness that gave me hope and strength to continue on. For example, one night I was my center, which was in a flood zone, and Pat came to see me at my apartment. Unfortunately, I didn't charge my phone, so she got angry that she had come all the way across town in a flood and couldn't contact me, and yet in spite of that, she still left a bag of food and water on my doorknob. When I finally got home, I was dead tired from walking almost a mile through the floodwater, but when I saw the bag she'd left for me, my heart warmed and all the weariness in my body melted away. I fell in love with Pat that night. I had found an angel who was so loving, caring, and kindhearted, and I knew that even when she was mad or disappointed, she would still take care of me and stand by me through any trouble.

So today I can stand on my feet like a man, because she reached in and pulled me out of the flood.  In every possible meaning of the word 'save': She saved me."

After dinner, Pat tossed the bouquet and I tossed the garter, two traditional ways to determine who will be the next couple to get married. May's host sister, Sydnee, caught the bouquet and my nephew, Ben, caught the garter. Will we see romance in their future? Who knows!

Then the DJ started to play music for dancing. At first, the kids were two shy to get out on the dance floor, but then Sai's host brother, Justus, saved the day by jumping around on the dance floor with such enthusiasm that everyone couldn't help but join in with him.

Some of the kids, like Gene and Japan, still refused to partake in the festivities. Oh well, as we say in America, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." In other words, if they wanted to be bored wallflowers, that was their choice, but everyone else was going to have a great time!

By the end of the night, everyone was dancing or chatting merrily. It was a great party. One of the great things about not being too serious about wedding planning is that both Pat and I could just relax and enjoy ourselves. If something wasn't quite perfect, we didn't even notice, because we were too busy having fun.

I do regret not being able to spend more time with my friends Robert and Christina. They had flown all the way out from Boston for the wedding and Robert was one of my groomsmen (I had stood up at his wedding too, fifteen years ago!). But Pat and I had plans to go to De Pere for our "honeymoon" (woohoo!), and they had to leave on the next day, so we weren't going to be able to spend any time with them.

Dada took a million pictures of Pat and me. I think she thought it was very funny how I kept kissing Pat a lot. Every time I kissed Pat, I would look around and see Dada with her camera!

It's really great seeing how close the kids have gotten with their host families in such a short time. Everyone seemed very comfortable and natural with their host siblings and parents. This is the best part of this job for me. Connecting great families from other sides of the world and watching lives change and kids' personalities blossom like magic, it's a great thing to be a part of and I'm very proud of these kids. They're really a great group of young people.

My parents really love Pat. She's got a sense of humor and sarcastic wit that fits right in with my family.  Actually, I'm a little worried they might like her more than they like me! Hahah!

We banned the DJ from playing "Gangnam Style" until everyone was in a party mood. So finally the kids begged him enough and we let him play the song. Gam and Didi really got into the act!

Gam's host brother, Dillan, is a great hip-hop dancer! At one point, everyone stopped dancing so they could watch Dillan's impressive breakdance style. I think I could charge his mom money for a copy of the video I took, it was priceless!

FINALLY, Gam lightened up a bit and gave us a nice photo. Still not a smile, but close enough. :-)