The Wedding Surprise | My Wedding |
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 Julia and I got married in late 2004. The best part is that I got to marry a girl who's also my best friend. She's not your 'usual' kind of girl so I knew that we couldn't have a 'usual' kind of wedding. In fact it was quite extraordinary. You may have heard of people who have a "fairy tale" or "Hollywood movie" romance, well that's the way we feel. So my wife and I decided to surprise our families and friends in a totally unexpected way. When the invitations went out, our guests learned that the wedding was going to be downtown at a large, ornate 1940s era theater that had recently been restored to its opening day glory but we kept everything else about the event completely secret, even from our families. This drove everyone crazy and the wild speculation it caused was a lot of fun. Things got even stranger when the newspaper ran a story speculating about the mystery surrounding the upcoming surprise wedding. Our wedding invitation was in the form of a very real-looking movie poster that showed Julia and I starring in a film called "The Wedding Surprise". It encouraged each of our hundreds of guests to get in touch with their "inner celebrity" and come to the theater dressed as a movie star going to a red carpet premiere. Our gang didn't let us down. They looked awesome!  However, not one of them suspected that they would be confronted outside the theater with complete pandemonium including police cars blocking the street, throngs of screaming fans behind barricades, paparazzi, bodyguards, TV news camera crews and a real red carpet for our celebrity guests to parade down while signing autographs for their adoring fans. Once inside our guests were shocked to discover that we were already married and that I had called in favors from some of my old friends to secretly help Julia and I create an actual movie of our ultimate fantasy wedding complete with professional actors, crew, sets, camera cranes, special effects and several months of intense production. As the lights on the big screen dimmed for the premiere, our audience was sent on a journey that began in a bizarrely twisted David Lynchian fairy tale and ended with a classic Lord of the Rings-inspired spectacle in a cathedral with us exchanging vows surrounded by hundreds of flickering candles. Needless to say, there weren't too many dry eyes in the house as the premiere of "The Wedding Surprise" earned a standing ovation from a very surprised audience. Many couples have a special song. Ours is the one Julia and I first danced to soon after we met. Julia is a big 80s music fan so our special song is an 80s top-ten hit by The Tubes called "I Don't Want to Wait Anymore". Some of our friends were puzzled that the movie didn't feature "our" song. However, we laid any fear that we'd forgotten our special song to rest when Julia and I yet again surprised everyone by welcoming The Tubes to the stage to play a private concert. There was much dancing, laughing and celebration by all until the dance floor cleared to allow Julia and I to dance once again to "our" song as the band played it live. Our special day was featured the next morning in the Sacramento newspaper on the cover of the business section with me answering the question "Why?" by saying "the worst thing would be to be bored at your own wedding." We certainly weren't! You're invited to see photos and the movie online, as well as a video of the gala premiere and an exclusive "Making Of" video. |
