Wedding season is not over in Marietta yet and my guest today is another wonderful Tule author who has contributed so much to our wedding fun this year. Please help me welcome the lovely Kat Latham to JaneBlog!
Here’s Kat to talk about Wedding Memories and her new release, Two Nights With His Bride!
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For a romance author, I’m surprisingly pragmatic about weddings. I didn’t grow up dreaming about my wedding day. I don’t think I ever looked at bridal magazines till I started writing Two Nights with His Bride.
When I got engaged in 2005, I picked out my wedding dress within about an hour of shopping with my mom. I think I tried on only four dresses. I bought the shoes a few months later at Accessorize at Stansted Airport in London; there was no tax and they were on sale—they cost £6 (less than $10). I think they were actually house shoes, but they were comfy, pretty and matched my dress perfectly.
For the venue, my husband (who goes by Dr. Smarty Pants, PhD. on my blog) and I found a beautiful historic house in La Jolla, San Diego: the Darlington House. All the profits fund the home for senior citizens next door, and we were thrilled that our wedding could support such a lovely organization.
In some ways our wedding was very traditional. I had a cream-colored dress and a veil. Smarty Pants wore a traditional British morning suit. And we had lots of autumnal flowers, designed by my childhood next-door-neighbor—a nurse who’s been doing floral arrangements for weddings for decades.
But in other ways, we ditched tradition and made our own. We had a delicious Mexican buffet and a chocolate fountain instead of a cake, since most of the wedding cakes we’d eaten were beautiful but not very tasty. And instead of being married by a professional, we paid the state of California 20 bucks and they certified my mom to perform the ceremony. We wanted the ceremony to be personal, so all four of our parents stood up with us as my mom declared us married and told us we could kiss.
There were a couple of reasons I was especially practical about my wedding. For one, throughout our engagement Smarty Pants and I lived in London—thousands of miles from San Diego—and I was doing my Master’s degree in Human Rights. My mom did all of the legwork for planning the wedding, which took a lot of pressure off me. My studies also helped me shake off any pre-wedding stress; it’s hard to get too upset about wedding details going wrong when you spend months and months reading detailed reports about torture.
The second reason is that, when I first started going out with my husband, several of my closest friends stopped speaking to me. You see, Smarty Pants and I have different religious beliefs, something that has never bothered either of us because we deeply respect each other. But many of my friends had a huge problem with it. I received letters and emails telling me I was turning my back on God’s plan for my life by falling in love with the wrong man. Because of that, I didn’t take it for granted that everyone would consider our marriage the blessing that I knew it to be.
By the time we got married, I had a very clear idea of what our wedding meant to me. I’d always known our relationship was for life, but our wedding was a way to make that declaration public, to say, “We are together and no one will tear us apart.” And it was a chance to celebrate and thank all the many, many people who had supported and loved us throughout the years.
This October, we’ll celebrate our ninth anniversary, but I have so many memories that are as strong as if we got married yesterday. I remember watching guests arrive as I was getting ready, and I suddenly felt overwhelmed that so many people had given up their Saturday to celebrate with us. It washed away all the pain of being rejected by other friends.
I remember peeking around a corner with my dad, trying to see my flower girls as they panicked and had to be coaxed down the aisle by their mom.
I remember walking down the aisle with my dad and seeing the look of overwhelming joy on Smarty Pants’ face as he watched me.
I remember our kiss.
I remember sitting on a sofa after the ceremony and looking at his wedding ring.
I remember that I didn’t get a single bite from the chocolate fountain.
I remember our best man, my brother-in-law, giving us a card signed by several Irish rugby players, including Brian O’Driscoll (be still my beating heart).
I remember my dad’s voice breaking as he gave a speech about how much his new son-in-law meant to him. And I remember him pulling out of his tux jacket the tiny pink dress he bought right after I was born. He told our guests, “I spent more on that baby dress than I had on any item of clothing for myself in my whole life. I knew then that having a daughter was going to be expensive. I hope you all enjoy your meals tonight.”
I remember leaving the reception wearing a sign I’d handmade and walking a mile to our hotel, where my bridesmaids had decorated our room with rose petals and left us champagne (my mom’s idea) and whipped cream (my best friend’s idea).
And I remember my brother showing up at our hotel room a few hours later, so drunk he could hardly stand up, asking for money for a taxi home. But I promised him I’d retire that story, so that’s all you’ll hear about it from me.
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What beautiful memories of your wedding, Kat! Thank you so much for sharing them with us.
Readers, if you haven’t already picked up a copy of Kat Latham‘s Two Nights With His Bride, do it soon! I’ve also got a fabulously fun giveaway for you. Leave a comment below for Kat and you’ll be entered to win a totebag full of books, goodies and more! Contest ends Monday with winner announced on Tuesday.
great wedding day memories! can’t wait to read the new book!
What an awesome post! I love weddings. Love the book cover of your latest release. Good luck with the book!
Kat Latham‘s Two Nights With His Bride is a wonderful book.Thank you for the opportunity to win.I enjoy reading your books.
That is a beautiful story! And the wedding sounds like a dream – very personal, very lovely.
The veil picture is so sweet and happy, I feel it perfectly depicts what weddings should be like.
I enjoyed hearing about your wedding day and seeing your pictures. It sounds like a perfect day. I really enjoyed your book too.
What a fun wedding!!! I love the picture of you watching the flower girls!
It sounds like the perfect wedding day. I hope one day that mine will be as lovely.
Always enjoy hearing stories about other people’s weddings. Congrats to Kat on the new release.
sounds like a fun wedding! I still remember my wedding and reception.
Your wedding sounds like a very fun day. I had a very small wedding in a little country church, nothing near what your wedding was. My was 30 years ago.
I love what you did to personalize and make special to your wedding.
I love reading about weddings. My 14th anniversary is next week. =)
Your flowers and gown were absolutely gorgeous! Thank you for sharing your story and pics with us 🙂
What a lovely story and great memories 🙂 You look beautiful and looking forward to reading this book 🙂
I loved reading your post, Kat! Such a fantastic outlook on your wedding and I love that you stuck to your guns and did it your way. Just awesome!
Beautiful wedding photos!
It sounds like you had a wonderful wedding and you guys worked it out
Your pics are great!
My first wedding was a disaster and so goes the marriage…there were enough omens. LOL My second I wore jeans and got married in a courthouse with loved ones. Guess which one I prefer? 😉
Those are some great memories of your wedding and thank you for sharing them with us. Your pics are also great.
Thanks for sharing your memories and pics!
you have great memories of your wedding; love the story about your Dad pulling out the little pink dress and commenting on it was going to be expensive with a girl. Love it.
Thank you for sharing the greatest moment of your life. A beautiful story in itself.I look forward to reading your book. Thanks for the chance.
Carol L
Thank you for sharing with us! It is crazy that people do not respect people’s feelings sometimes and the heart always knows, just who you should be with. Love the new story!
What a beautiful story!! We were married 33 years ago Saturday (2 years & 1 day after our first date). Because I had a large breasts I was told that by the bridal store in town that I would never find a dress to fit. So I sewed one for me,very 70’s-80’s peasant style, in cream. We were married in the backyard of a dear friend’s rental house. The reception was at a nearby hotel. The best man stayed with us at our apartment. We had friends and family involved in our wedding, which was simple but meaningful. Both of my parents walked me down the aisle, which was not the norm in 1982. We used local people to do our flowers, make our cake, & take pictures. It was wonderful and memorable. I don’t know if I would have changed anything.
I absolutely loved reading about your wedding and especially appreciated your dad’s sense of humor!
What a great wedding story! I have really enjoyed Kat’s stories!
Great wedding story. Congratulations and cheers to a long and happy marriage!
fun pics to share
Lovely photos, lovely memories — obviously a wedding to remember and cherish. Thanks for sharing, Kat! I smiled all the way through your post.
I really loved hearing about your wedding and seeing the pictures, Kat. I always love a HEA.
Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures of your special day.
This story almost made me cry. Loved it. Thank you for sharing. Beautiful dress. Love the idea about a chocolate fountain. Sorry you didn’t get a bite.
Love the cover to your new book. And the title too. I’ll love to read it.
Thanks for this lovely post. Your photos are beautiful and memorable. Many happy years.
What a beautiful story!!! I love the shoes and that she made the wedding her OWN! Can’t wait to read the book!!!
I’m so glad you didn’t let others dictate how you should live your life. That was a beautiful post and it sounded like a wonderful celebration of marriage – your way!
Love the memories and pictures. Thank you for sharing!
When my husband proposed to me on Christmas morning after less than four months of dating, I was astounded. My previous boyfriend and I had lasted 1.5 years and I never thought about marriage, so after 4 months this definitely wasn’t on my wish list. There was no way I could answer immediately – yet my mother decided to answer for me, by saying, “Yes, she will!” *I* asked for a couple of weeks to think about it and then decided a couple of days later. We celebrate our 34th anniversary in a few weeks, and we’ve never been more in love with each other.
Best of luck to you, Kat, as well as to Jane, of course, for many more years of marital bliss….
Great book!! Great series!!
Thank you for sharing such lovely memories from your wedding day Kat! I felt so bad when you said you lost friends because of your husband’s religious faith because he didn’t fit with God’s plan. I must say God knew his plan and chose the right man for you. Hopefully the sting of that pain is gone and you can rejoice in your wonderful life and family!
What a wonderful blog. I love hearing wedding stories, the good and the bad. I’m glad you have such sweet memories, and could get past the sadness of your friends’ snub.
What a wonderful wedding story. Thanks for sharing it with us. I too went wedding dress shopping with my mom and found my dress in the first hour of shopping. It was the first dress I tried on.
What a lovely wedding story and like you and others, I bought not one of the first wedding dresses I tried on, but the very first one. Best of luck with your writing! I am looking forward to reading your books.
Beautiful memories!Thanks for sharing with us Kat 🙂
The wedding story I remember is my first husband promising to be loving and hateful instead of loving and faithful. It was funny at the time, but not so much later.
#40 Rochelle L you’re the winner! Drop me an email with your mailing address so we can get your package to you.
Thanks everyone for helping Kat feel welcome!
Jane
Yippee! Thanks!