Surprise! It’s a fitting month to get married in Philadelphia, don’t you think? :)
We’re getting married (again!) Now before you scratch your head and say, “Wah? I thought they were already married? Have they been lying to us all along?” Don’t worry – we eloped nearly ten years ago at the county courthouse in West Chester, when we were young kids. (Thinking about it now makes me giggle… We bucked the trend when it comes to marrying later in life. Looking back on it, we were practically children.) Now we’re finally getting around to celebrating our vows with our Kiwi & American friends and family here in Philadelphia.
Linds and Carrie – Tongariro Alpine Crossing, New Zealand (2013)
So let’s back up. You’re probably wondering why we eloped in the first place. Any of you who have met Lindsay, have probably heard his accent. He’s a Kiwi and we met in New Zealand in 2001 when I was volunteering overseas for Habitat for Humanity. His parents were actually my “host parents.” (So we joke that his Mum imported a bride for him.) Long story short, we fell for each other immediately, and we fell hard. The only problem was that an entire globe and a massive ocean sat between our homes. You really can’t get much further away from Philly than New Zealand. For the next three years we did everything we could to stay in the same country. I studied abroad and got an internship with Habitat in NZ. He worked over here for a few months as a contract bricklayer. We moved to and worked in London for a few months. We popped over to Australia and back again. We flew in and out of countries for the sake of visas. We backpacked through Europe and Thailand. We even attempted to move to Japan (but it didn’t work. Japan is still on our bucket list.)
Carrie and Linds, Thailand (2003)
It was a whirlwind of a few years, but we were broke from constant international journeys and just wanted to set down some roots somewhere. It became clear that we were running out of options. We’re pretty practical people so the option of marriage came up. Remember – we were fresh out of college, so it was terrifying. But we did it. And yes, it involved a “Green Card” interview at immigration, which was surprisingly easy. The only issue was that Lindsay had to enter the US on a “Fiance Visa” and only had 60 days to wed from the time he stepped off the plane. We didn’t want to plan a wedding in 60 days, so we told our friends and family that we were going to the courthouse and that we’d do the wedding “later.”
You know where I’m going with this right? Ten years later and we’re finally doing it. For the first few years we were so busy with The Monster Minders that we really didn’t have a life to speak of. (No worries – we love what we built, but we worked seven day weeks for over four years.) Anyway, we kept putting it off, and putting it off, and we figured we probably couldn’t keep telling our Moms that, “We’ll plan the wedding eventually.”
So on May 31st, we’re having an intimate ceremony, and “getting married.” It’ll look like a wedding, it’ll feel like a wedding, but there’s not much legal about it. We took care of that a decade ago. We’re just pumped to celebrate everything we are and everything we will be.
And yes, the Jax and Lola (our dogs) will be there. They are going to be our ring bearers. Pictures will follow. Promise. (Minder Matt is going to be the dog-handler!)
At another wedding, New Zealand (2011)
