The (First) Wedding (as told by the bride) The original plan was to keep this quiet, only tell our immediate family members, to ensure that the October wedding would remain as special as we wanted it to be. Well, my dad couldn't contain his excitement (or at least that's his excuse), and so within 24 hours of when I called my parents to say Tim and I had secretly gotten hitched, the cat was out of the bag. The word has continued to spread to many, though not all of our friends and family, so we've decided to go public with the story here on our website.  The decision to do a courthouse wedding before the church wedding wasn't one of those heat-of-the-moment, run-off-to-vegas things. We had decided pretty early on in our engagement that we wanted to take a new last name, and chose Carter. It turns out that changing your last name by way of court order is quite the process, and we thought that some of that process would go more smoothly if we could say we were recently married when asked for the reason for requesting the court order. There were other practical reasons, too. After graduating in May, I was going to be moving to Maryland to start work, and it just made a lot more sense to live together. We preferred not to live together until we were married. So after thoughtful consideration of our options, Tim made the appointment at the courthouse for Thursday, March 20. I drove down after school the day before, more excited than most about spring break. My sister Erin, and her husband, Jared, met me in Scranton and hitched a ride the rest of the way. We lounged around the house Thursday morning, went to lunch with Erin and Jared, and Tim's brother Jon, and his wife Kathleen. Then we got dressed and headed to St Mary's County courthouse. Tim and I had bought new clothes for the affair, and I even had flowers to hold. Although we were keeping this all a secret from almost everyone, it was nice for each of us to have a sibling there to sign as witnesses for us. (It was nice to have those siblings' spouses along, too, for the moral support and camera duty!) We really appreciated the kindness of the woman performing the ceremony at the courthouse. Although Tim and I knew that we would be saying our vows again in October, the woman ensured that our ceremony was special. We thought our family members who would be finding out as a surprise later on might appreciate a video of the event, and we've now loaded it on YouTube for all of you to enjoy. (Click here.) After the ceremony, Tim and I set off for a mini-honeymoon in PA, with Erin and Jared in tow. We'd gotten a great deal on a room in Scranton, and then Erin and Jared were kind enough to upgrade it for us! We spent Friday skiing in the Poconos (It was Tim's first time on skis; I wish we'd caught that on video!) and enjoying the jacuzzi in our room. Saturday morning, we drove toward western New York, where we would be spending Easter with Tim's family. On the way, I called my parents and siblings to share the news, and was happy at everyone's excitement and congratulations. Soon after we arrived at Tim's parents house, we asked them to gather in the living room for an announcement. Before we'd even gotten to the big reveal, Tim's father had a knowing grin on his face, and when we played the video confirming their suspicions, my new mother-in-law threw her arms around me. As the months have gone by, Tim and I are very happy with the decision we made to take care of the legal marriage before our October wedding. Send us an email if you'd like to see more photos from the wedding. And don't forget to check out the video on YouTube! <-- Previous Story Next Story -->  Return Home