#3.2: Praying for a Miracle
Chris and I decided to get married at a winery in my hometown called Eden Try.
A venue named for trying to replicate the Garden of Eden. Eden Try boasts itself as being “an upscale vineyard barn, featuring soaring ceilings, cathedral-grade beams, natural wooden floors, chandeliers, and cantina lighting.”
Our one claim to fame in life - being on the Eden Try wedding brochure
While we were both looking forward to our wedding day with excitement, the planning process was far from smooth sailing. (And...that is putting it lightly.)
We actually had to fire our wedding planner after we caught her in a series of lies. Chris did the honors which is saying something given his natural inclination towards being a peacemaker.
I was so proud- AND relieved! Thankful for a friend’s recommendation we ended up with the best planner - L. Havard Events! (If you are in the VA/DC area and are in need of a planner, you can check her out here.)
A month before the wedding, Chris’ cousin and groomsman- Gilbert- from Luxembourg arrived to stay with us. Each night he watched us practice our first dance, offering his advice as we went.
Looking back it’s so cute because we really had zero clue what we were doing.
We picked our song- At Last by Etta James- and then watched a bunch of YouTube videos in an attempt to piece together what we liked most about each performance. The practicing each night after work was fun, Gilbert’s advice was helpful, and the execution was…. well, hilariously awful - but, we will get to that.
Gilbert also helped me with a surprise that I was planning for Chris. You see, we wanted a mix of traditional and personalized vows. To accomplish that, we decided to complement the traditional vows with a short letter to read to each other during the ceremony.
To make mine extra special, I decided to end the letter in Italian. Considering I have zero Italian background, this was going to have to be quite the feat. But each day before Chris got home from work, Gilbert would help me with my grammar and pronunciation, and encouraged me that I could do it. I felt like I had a brother that month and I loved every minute.
My brother for a month
About two weeks before our wedding date, I left Chris and Gilbert behind to head to VA and finalize all of the last minute details, attend my last dress fittings, and spend time with my family.
The night before leaving for VA
It was a couple nights before our rehearsal dinner, I was sitting by the firepit with my mom and sister drinking champagne (clearly this was a pattern), when I looked down to see a missed call from my matron of honor.
“That’s strange”, I thought to myself. We text a million times a day, but rarely do we pick up the phone and call.
I called her back- she didn’t answer.
A few minutes later, my phone rang. It was her.
As soon as I picked up, I knew that something was wrong, very wrong.
“Allison,” she managed through sobs.
“What’s wrong?! Are you okay?”
“It’s my mom,” she finally managed after what seemed like forever.
It took a good while, through sobs, and gasping for breath for her to verbalize the shocking news of what she was still trying to process…While walking across a crosswalk in Tennessee with her sister, she was hit by a car. The car miraculously missed her sister, but her mom was unconscious and in ICU. Her prognosis, uncertain.
Being like a second mom to me, my world stopped when I heard this. To this day, I can’t even imagine the pain that my best friend and matron of honor was experiencing.
That night, she left behind her newborn and husband, to join her father on an agonizing 12 hour drive to Tennessee.
I didn’t know what to do.
I wanted to support my best friend.
I wanted to drop everything and be by her side.
I wanted to postpone the wedding. But, with family and friends beginning to arrive in town for the festivities, I knew that wasn’t a possibility.
Still, I really struggled with how to move forward.
While a very different situation, the dichotomy of experiencing extreme fear in a moment where you thought to be experiencing extreme happiness wasn’t lost on me. And, I am not just talking about me - I am talking about her entire family. They had all walked with me through the stories of my 20s and were also looking forward to celebrating this time.
Once again, we all turned to the only resource that we had at our disposal - prayer.
While I couldn’t physically be by her side during her most traumatic day, and while I knew she was likely not going to be by mine on my happiest day, we still maintained contact everyday during her time in the hospital in Nashville. Each taking turns providing updates and praying for a miracle…