Jennifer and Corey: 2010

This coming December on the 27th, Corey and I will be celebrating our fourteenth wedding anniversary. Many do not know the beginning of our relationship so I thought I would write about how I met my man.

We met at Applebees July 1, 1996. Corey was a corporate trainer sent from Jackson, Michigan to open the new store in Wyoming and I was server hired for the new restaurant opening in the neighborhood. I was going to Grace Bible College and Applebees was located down the street from the school.
We had our first date July 5th. We went to the movie Independence Day together.
Three months into our relationship, Corey had my mom and dad over for a nice Sunday dinner. After I had left for work, Corey asked my father for permission to marry his daughter. The following day, my mother called very concerned about the short engagement and I explained to her that Corey hadn't even asked me to marry him yet! Evidently Corey had let it slip we wanted to get married around Christmas while discussing the plans with my parents the night before. So upon my next visit with Corey I explained the conversation I had earlier with my mom and he quickly went down on one knee and asked me to marry him on September 29, 1996.
We were married 3 months later.

Our plans were for a quiet and simple wedding with only our families present but somehow ended with a large wedding in our home church with many friends and family present.

My mother said I would regret not having a wedding in my church because little girls always dream of their wedding day for years. I panicked at thought of all those people watching me and had dreams of tripping down the aisle, falling doing the stairs, or vomiting from stress over not remember my vows. I knew what I wanted for the bridesmaid dresses and could not find them so my mother handmade each dress from the pictures I drew for her. I knew I wanted the bridesmaids to wear long evening gloves and went all over Grand Rapids looking for them in the color ivory. I picked Corey's ivory tuxedo before I ever started to look at wedding dresses. The wedding dress was my least favorite to shop for. I did not like trying the dresses on and really had no opinion on any of them so I trusted my mother to choose the perfect dress, which I believe she did! Looking back, I am thankful my mother encouraged me to have a church wedding. However, I think some of our wedding pictures show pure fear and panic all over my face. My father held me so tight down the aisle there would be no chance of falling. I did forget a portion of my vows but my groom came to my rescue.