Mr. & Mrs. Luis Prato

For all of you waiting anxiously for pics, I'm sorry to disappoint you but no one took pictures with my digital camera on our wedding day!!! My mom and aunt have both turned in 5 rolls of film each, so I promise, there will be plenty to post coming up soon!!

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect ... until the honeymoon started but that's another story! A bit of advise for anyone getting married, GO ALL INCLUSIVE! Getting married at the wedding chapel was the best thing ever! Anyway, the day was so perfect!!! I knew that there would be lots of tears shed, and I was right. We both cried when we saw each other as I came down the aisle and then I did most of the crying after that. It started when Pastor Alan was talking about committment to one another and mentioned how Luis stayed with me through my surgery, ICU stay and near death experiences. Then the tears flowed again when Luis said his part of the vows "in sickness and in health". For all the tears that I knew I would cry, I wanted to make Luis cry and boy, did I ... along with most everyone there. As a surprise to Luis, I recited my vows in Spanish. It was something that I had come up with on my own, and with the help of one of my nurses and Pastor Alan, we pulled it off flawlessly! I wanted to go straight from memory but thought that in the moment, I would draw a blank, so Pastor Alan had my "cheat sheet" in his Bible and handed it to me just before I was to repeat the vows after him. Pastor Alan fed me the lines in English but when I turned to say them to Luis, I recited them in Spanish. Luis had to turn away from me because he was crying so hard. He even started crying again tonight when we were talking about it again. I got him good!!!

The real drama started when we left the chapel. First, we had to have the limo driver return to the chapel because neither one of us had a house key. We were going to the house to change and then have the limo take us to the airport. Then, before I even got out of the limo, his mother pulls up at the house followed by the rest of the family ... Hannah, Micah, my mom, my brother, both of my sister-in-laws, Luis' dad, Luis' brother ... EVERYONE! So then we finally get to the airport, and I don't make it through the metal detector because of all 62 bobbypins in my hair (yes, we counted them all) and had to have a "pat down" done by some scary girl who decided I needed to know her life story! So we take off thinking that it was all smooth sailing from there but we were wrong. When we landed in Dallas, the plane at our gate was running late ... and hour late, so we sat out on the runway for an hour. Then once we pulled into the gate, there was no one there to attach the jetway (?) to the plane and open the door ... another 30 minutes goes by. So we come barrelling off the plane deserately trying to make our connecting flight to Atlanta, and miss it by just seconds. There were several of us on the same flight going to Atlanta that were directed to the AA ticket counter for rebooking. Luis and I were the last of everyone in line and knew our fate before we even got to the counter. They were going to be putting us up in a hotel and we would be on the first flight out the next morning. I fell to pieces when the AA lady actually verbalized that news to us. So from there, we all boarded a shuttle headed for The Best Western. I was completely crushed. We had decided to let ourselves splurge and stay at The Westin in Atlanta for our wedding night so were we ended up was a definite let down. We ended up meeting a really nice couple though. They were on the same flight with us and Lisa said she knew that we must have just been married due to my hairdo. While Luis and I were in the lobby buying deodorant, toothbrushes and t-shirts to sleep in (we hadn't packed a carryon of any kind ... dumb, I know!), Lisa and her husband offered to buy Luis and I dinner. We had mentioned on the ride to the hotel that besides the cake that we fed each other, we hadn't eaten anything. They were so nice! Lisa told us that she and her husband had been married for 23 years and started out with a similar situation to me and Luis. I hope that in 23 years, Luis and I are that couple that's providing a helping hand to frustrated newlyweds. We finally make it to Atlanta and have just enough time to shower before heading to the Braves game. It was my first time at a professional sporting event and we had so much fun. We stayed the night in Atlanta again and then headed for the beaches of Myrtle Beach, SC. It was a short stay in SC but we made the most of every minute! Then the drama started again when we were trying to fly out. Our flight leaving Atlanta was an hour and a half late but that goodness our connecting flight in Dallas was late too. We made the flight and got home only an hour late. Like Mrs. Kathy just wrote about, I'm a people watcher too and while we were in Atlanta, I thought I recognized someone sitting along side of us at our gate. Luis always tells me that he can't take me anywhere without me knowing someone but I never imagined it would happen in the Atlanta airport. Well, the mystery guy was Phillip Taylor. I do believe that he's one of the infamous blog lurkers, that reads but doesn't comment! :) If anyone cares to know, he now lives in the Dallas area and was married a month ago.

We really had a great time, but reality hit us as soon as we landed back in OKC. Luis had to start his first day of work at 7am the morning after we got back and doesn't get a day off until Wednesday. I'm so glad that I don't go back until Monday. It's not like I'm being productive with my time off though. I still haven't unpacked my suitcases! :)

I have been trying to upload pics for awhile now but it won't let me, so I'll try tomorrow.