You Are So Beautiful...

22 Years Ago I stood at the altar and watched my best friend, escorted by her father, walk down the aisle with a huge, confused smile on her face.  When she was finally close enough to touch her, I reached out and whispered, "I love you, You're Beautiful".  She whispered back, "I love you too, Thanks, What's up with the music?"

That day was the happiest, but most frustrating day of my life.  This is how the first few minutes went...

Trish and I were married outdoors at "The Garden of Roses" here in Columbus Ohio.  The weather all week long was beautiful, but one hour before our ceremony the skies opened up and the rain POURED down for 30 minutes.  All of our decorations, the chairs, etc. were soaked.  We had an indoor alternate, but my best man would have none of it.  He and my brother in law went down the street and purchased a case of Paper Towels to wipe off seats before people sat down.  We got started 20 minutes late...

Because we were marrying outdoors we had no church instruments so we hired a DJ to provide music.  A little background... I HATE the traditional wedding march because when I was a little kid we always sang lyrics to that tune that were, well, not nice.  "Here comes the bride, All FAT and WIDE!!" and they got worse from there... To this day I hear that tune and in my head I hear those lyrics.  Period.  There is nothing I can do about it, it just happens.  Every Wedding I go to, it happens.  The LAST thing I wanted to be thinking on my own wedding day was, "Here comes the bride all fat and wide!"  So, I was going to sing to her instead.  Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" was to be the song, but we couldn't find an accompaniment track, so we settled on having the DJ play Joe's version...

But the DJ didn't show up... and amidst the confusion of running to get paper towels, sorting through my Brother In Law's Tape Collection looking for songs to use, of course he didn't have any Joe Cocker, 300 something Tapes in his trunk and NO Joe Cocker... somebody else was rounding up a Boom Box and extension cords, and somehow, amongst that chaos, the message never got to Trish that the DJ wasn't there.  Nobody told her that she was going to walk the aisle to Kenny G instead of Joe.

So there I was at the altar and there she was at the far end of the aisle, waiting.  And Waiting, And Waiting.  And my heart started to skip beats.  What was she waiting for!?  Why was she not coming down the aisle?  Are her feet cold now?  RIGHT NOW?  I'm HERE at the ALTAR, What are you... and then it struck me... She's waiting for Joe.  She's going to be waiting a LONG time for Joe, 'cuz he wasn't there, and neither was a tape with his name on it... So I started waving her down, "Come on" I whispered as I motioned for her to with my index finger, "Come here".  Ultimately she figured it out, and they came down the aisle.

The ceremony from that point on was as beautiful as we had planned.  When the pastor finished he said, "Let us pray."  And just then there was a huge flash of lightning, a LOUD crack of thunder, and he yelled, "God Bless the Pergers.  AMEN!  I present to you Paul and Trish Perger!"  He then leaned over to us and pointed toward the limo and said, "RUN!"  So we did.  And as we dove into our limo the skies once again opened up and rained on our guests...

That was just the beginning.  There were so many things that went wrong that day that I could write a short book.  But, it was OUR day, and all the stupid stuff that frustrated us on that day has provided fodder for hours upon hours of laughter since.

So this post is for my Beautiful, Wonderful, Sexy wife who I love more than life itself...  Because You are and always will be So Beautiful to Me...

Here's to another 22 years!

I love you Bunches and Bunches,
Paul