We Met At The Movies

On this day, I married my best friend. That was what our little "theme" was was. There was a sticker on the envelopes that said the whole marrying best friend quote. Our invitation was a little boy giving a little girl a flower. But our real theme was the movies.

DH and I met at the movies. He was the usher. I was the candy girl. The other candy girl was his girlfriend. We'll ignore that part. This was back when popcorn was freshly popped and we had to wear bow ties. Then I left my candy girl position and didn't see him for seven years.

Seven years later, he walked into my store and I knew...this was it. We dated, bonded over our love and appreciation for Star Wars, Jaws, and Indiana Jones. We anticipated the release of Phantom Menace together. We remained loyal to George Lucas despite that darn Jar Jar Binks. We claimed that we were going to name our first born son Quint (though I liked Brody better). It was love.

And then came the wedding. With all the planning and running around, my main concern was picking the right music for the important parts of the party. And it had a theme. The Movies.

Three weeks before the wedding, I called our DJ with our list of songs we had chosen. The bridal party and parents were to introduced to the instrumental theme of Top Gun. We were to be introduced to Star Wars (of course!!! What other song would do?) Our first song was Stand By Me, one of my all time favorites. Our second song, where the DJ asked people to come out on to the dance floor and join us was How Do I Live from Con Air. We were to eat dinner to Disney songs. We were to cut the cake to the theme of Jaws. And our very last song was NOT to be the classic, iconic last wedding song of all wedding songs-Donna Summer's Last Dance-but rather...I've Had the Time of My Life.

The DJ paused, chuckled, then said "You realize all those songs are from movies?"

Yes, Mr. DJ. We met at a movie theater. It was a secret little theme. I was curious to see if anyone else would pick up our pattern of songs and music from movies.

A couple of people did. Some people didn't know that we met at the movies and asked if our song choices were something that meant something to us or just purely coincidental. We smiled and nodded and told them. "We met at the movies."

Even our honeymoon was influenced by the movies. We had no interest in Europe and both are not really lie around on the beach all day people. Neither one of us had ever been to Disney World, so we were off to Orlando like two little kids. As fun at it was seeing Mickey, Minnie, and all those Disney Princesses and Princes and Animals and Tea Pots...it was at Disney Hollywood Studios were we were just amazed.

The Indiana Jones Show! Star Tours! And the Greatest Attraction I think of any theme park...The Great Movie Ride. If you have never been on this ride, it is simply a must. First of all, the ride is approximately 20 minutes long, so this means being off your feet and in air condition, which is a welcome thing in Disney. As you sit in the tram car, you are whisked from scene to scene to scene of different movies. All the characters are right there, in animatronics, from Alien to Casablanca to Indiana Jones. The greatest scene of all is Munchkin Land. Little Munchkins pop out everywhere, singing, in glorious color, looking a bit too real. Then a loud rumble and smoke and the Wicked Witch appears, making her cackling threats. The whole thing is just wonderful.

And now, it is 9 years later. A lot has happened in 9 years. We lost some very precious, close family members which makes it hard to look at our wedding pictures. We gave birth to our two wonderful, amazing kids who makes life more interesting than any movie ever could.

We've moved and remodeled. Got rid of our old, beat up Sentra. Have a truck and mini-van sitting in our driveway. We've seen the other two Star Wars movies and decided that the original three will always be the best. Been through four couches and five dogs (three are still with us today). He's been through many work locations and I wrote two novels. We've been rich and we've been broke. We made it back to Disney with our kids and revisited our happy memories with them and created newer and better ones. We've cried a lot. We've fought and slammed doors. We've laughed even more.

All because, we met at the movies.

Happy Anniversary, Honeybunch!!!