Here's the story...

First of all, I thank everyone for the emails and nice comments! It was a whirlwind of a weekend a long time coming, but is a great story with a happy ending.

You may have noticed in the picture below that I'm not wearing a wedding band. This is because it hasn't arrived yet! My engagement ring arrived just two days before our big event (a week late) and the band is still held up due to the winter weather up north. Last Jason was told, it may arrive by the end of this week. This is all part of the story....

We'd actually thought about running off to New Orleans for a New Year's Eve ceremony, but the $$ and timing weren't right. I had read that there is a waiting period to marry down there and at that time we didn't have rings, so we thought it would be too rushed. So the next obvious choice was to elope to Vegas. The courthouse and chapels are literally open until midnight, every day of the year. So we started looking at flights and rings in January. When I tried on this setting, I knew it was the one. Jason picked out the diamond and whalah - the ring was ordered! The band will match and I'll post a new pic once it comes in. I purchased Jason's ring at a local, family owned jeweler - more on that later.

We were supposed to leave Friday afternoon from C'ville at 3:40pm. Jason arrived well enough in advance to get on the plane, but I had the boarding passes. I did not arrive early, however, and caused us to miss our flight. I actually watched it take off, balling and begging the airline attendant to ask them to come back or put us on the next flight. I was not prepared for the trip and tried to do too much at the last minute. I didn't think the nice folks at the little ole airport in C'ville would seriously leave us, but sure enough they did. Needless to say, Jason was fuming (and rightly so). I was devastated and sure I had just ruined everything. Luckily, there was another flight leaving Saturday morning at 7:15am, so I booked the flight, still weeping. Friday night was not a good night at home. I was just sure we were done. Still upset the next morning, we got on the plane and headed to Charlotte, our connecting airport. By the time we got to Charlotte, we were on speaking terms again. I'm sure it had something to do with the BoJangles we ate in the airport. We LOVE BoJangles, and only get to eat it occasionally (I should write them a thank-you note, don't you think?!). We left Charlotte and arrived in Las Vegas about 1:15pm. The flight into Vegas is amazing - we flew over snow, canyons, rivers, lakes - Jason was glued to the window the entire trip. It is surrounded by incredible mountains, which we vow to drive through on our next trip out. But I digress....

We landed in Vegas around 1:15pm and took a taxi straight to the Clark County building to purchase the marriage license. Two forms, $60, and about 15 minutes later, we walked out with a marriage license. There were all kinds of people in there with us, all waiting to legally wed. From there we headed to the strip to book a hotel room (no, we didn't do this ahead of time). We'd checked out a few of them online and figured that since we were only there for one night we decided to splurge. So we chose the Bellagio (one with the fountains) and checked in around 3pm. The hotels are HUGE and the strip is somewhat like Times Square - lots of lights, billboards, people, restaurants, casinos, all on one strip of road about a mile or so long. After a quick nap, room service, and a shower, we headed downstairs to figure out what to do next.

The lobby at this point was pretty crowded with people from all over the world and the casino was pretty full. It was dark out so we strolled out to watch the next fountain show (they "perform" every 30 minutes). We watched the fountains dance to the Pink Panther tune - it was awesome! I'm sure the pictures won't do it justice. After the crowd cleared we walked over to a balcony near the water and Jason got down on one knee and proposed! I thought we'd just use my engagement ring for the ceremony since we didn't have the band, but he surprised me right there in front of the Bellagio! As the crowds cheered walking by, I of course said yes. I can't describe the incredible feeling in my heart other than it was jumping for joy inside.

From here we were back to business - where to get married? The concierge recommended a few nearby chapels (there are literally hundreds to chose from). One of these was A Little White Chapel so the choice was easy. We were on our way! The chapel has a variety of packages including drive-through ceremonies, large photography packages - you can even have Elvis himself perform the ceremony! None of these were cheap, so we went with a simple, basic, Christian ceremony, a small picture package, and rose for me. We waited our turn while Elvis performed the ceremony before us - hilarious. Then it was our turn, and around 9pm. We walked together down the aisle and had a very basic ceremony. When it came to the ring exchange, Jason just pretended to slide a ring on my finger since we were without. When I went to put his on, it didn't fit! I just barely got it on, but it was obviously too small because his finger quickly lost circulation (note here that I got the size that Jason wanted so this part wasn't my fault!). We walked back down the aisle together and ta-da - we were married!! The photographer, also our witness, took around 40 photos, but they aren't great. We'll pick out one or two to share, but I think we'll have some professionally done at some point. The chapel limo returned us to the Bellagio - mission accomplished!

We walked around the casino for a bit, but it was packed with people coming in, going out, gambling, drinking, stumbling...you name it, you saw it. It's much more glamorous at night. I've never seen platforms like those before and you can only imagine what else we saw. It's a wild place at night. Unfortunately, we were so dazed and tired (feeling to us like around 1am at this point) that we just went to bed. It had been a stressful week to pull everything together at the last minute. We were running on no sleep and completely exhausted.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 5:45am (have no idea why), showered, and headed downstairs to the lobby by 7am. I thought for sure I would be the only one up, but there were people just coming in from the clubs, doing a little gambling before going to bed!! I wandered around for a bit then Jason came and found me and we ate a nice breakfast at one of the Bellagio restaurants. Then it was time to pack and head home, a married couple.

The trip home is a story in and of itself. We were at the airport by noon, took off the ground at 2:10pm and landed in Charlotte at 9:19pm. We literally RAN through the airport to catch our next flight to C'ville, which was supposed to leave at 10:15pm. When we arrived to the gate, out of breath, the attendant said our flight had been cancelled several hours before. So much for receiving those text messages from the airlines. We had no idea. She said she could put us up in a hotel for the night and book us on the next flight to C'ville, leaving at 11:15am Monday morning. Unfortunately, I had a very important meeting first thing Monday morning and Jason had to be back at work, so this was not an option. She offered two flights - one to Lynchburg and one to Richmond. We first took the Lynchburg flight, which was boarding as we were standing there talking to the lady, but then decided it wasn't worth the risk of either missing the flight or getting stuck in the Lynchburg airport in the middle of the night. So we opted for the flight to Richmond. It was supposed to leave at 10:30pm, but was late. We ended up boarding around 11:30pm in Charlotte, arrived in Richmond at around 12:45am, got a car and drove to the C'ville airport to pick up our car, and we finally got home at 3am. Three and a half hours later, we were on our way to work...

And that's the story.....

In case you are wondering, I did have Jason's ring re-sized and he is wearing it now. It is a simple white gold band, engraved with "Ever thine ever mine ever ours". Yes, I first heard this during the Sex & the City movie, but it just stuck with me as a really meaningful quote.

We have talked about having a regular ceremony at our house with among friends and family. For now, we are still happy with our decision to elope and have a private, memorable time together. We're recovering from the trip and smiling ear to ear!

Thanks for reading and hope that you share in our happiness and joy.

Love,
Charlotte