I had promised a few people that I would detail Val and my wedding in Las Vegas June 23, 2002, and it seems that Valentine's Day is as good a time as any
While Val and I met in 1985 (another story of its own), we did not go on our first date until 2000; in fact, our first date/get together was the annual Americanarama roots music festival here in Buffalo, which I was there to cover and she was there to shoot for our respective publications. By the end of the night, as possibly the only two sober people there, we necked like high school kids while The Irving Klaws played the closing set. We went on our first "official" date the next weekend; I knew right then that Val was the woman for me.
I asked Val to marry me exactly one year after our first date, June 23, 2001, also during Americanarama (a two-day event at this point). When she said yes, Val also told me an interesting little story: her mother, Janice, had recently paid for the wedding of Val's sister, Tricia, to Brad Dossinger (what a great pair of people, now a trio with their one-year-old son, Jack). When her mother talked to her about her sister's wedding, she said to Val, "you're not going to want all of this, are you?" Val replied no, so as it worked out, her mother gave her the same amount of money, before we started dating, for a down payment on the house we live in on Buffalo's West Side.
"So, as you can see, we're living in our wedding present," Val said. "I told my mother, 'the man who is going to marry me will be one who will want to get married by Elvis in Las Vegas.'" You want to?" I replied, and she did, so we started planning.
We decided to get married June 23, 2002, to continue our tradition, and approached a travel agent a friend had recommended, and he put together a great package.
Val and I got to Las Vegas a few days before our wedding, and yes, it was amazingly hot; the daily high temperature for the 5 days we were there never got below 100 degrees. We stayed at the Riviera Hotel, which, while not among the elite hotels, was more than good enough and was much more affordable than the Luxor, Caesar's Palace, Bellagio and others. It had a pretty good pool, several restaurants, rental cars and was near just about everything we wanted to visit, It also had a safe in the room, which we were happy to have to store money, valuables and most importantly, Val's camera equipment and our wedding rings in while we did other things. Brad and Tricia were going to join us for a few days in Las Vegas; they had planned to visit Brad's brother and family in northern Arizona, so they timed it to coincide with our visit and to serve as best man, matron of honor and witnesses for our wedding.
We had arranged before we left to have our wedding ceremony at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, just a few miles down the Strip from the Riviera, and were given the choice of a young (rocker) Elvis or older (plump/Vegas) Elvis; we chose to have a younger Elvis officiate. When we got to Las Vegas, we called Viva Las Vegas and solidified the arrangements so they would know when to send the limousine to our hotel to pick us up for the wedding. The four of us then did some touristy things, visiting several hotels, eating LOTS of great, affordable buffets, swam at the pool, gambled a little (Val and I vowed to spend $20 and basically stuck to the slots, and we stopped after losing $20 each) and just had a great time.
So, the day of the wedding came, and while we continued to do the above-mentioned things, Val and I were a bit nervous in the happy nervous manner, with the upcoming wedding in our minds at all times. After a short swim it was time to get ready for our early-afternoon trip to Viva Las Vegas, so we showered and were getting changed, Val into a white shirt, jeans and Western boots, me in jeans, an Ireland rugby sweater and steel-toed boots.
We were all but ready to go, so after we called Viva Las Vegas to confirm the limousine, Val went the safe to get her camera, necklace and, most importantly, our wedding rings (which were crafted in Ireland) so we could go downstairs to meet Tricia and Brad and the car. So, Val turned the dial left, right, left, etc., for the combination to open the safe ... and it did nothing. It would not open, not even partly, and after trying it oh, 50-100 times, Val let me try it for about the same amount of attempts, again with no success. We were getting frantic, and called the main desk; they called their locksmith, who was on the road, and they said he could get to the hotel for a few hours. Yes, hours. When Tricia and Brad came to our room, wondering where we were, we were way past nervous and Val was crying as she called Viva Las Vegas to tell them to not send the limo. They said they would see if they could fit us in that night or the next day, if we got to the rings.
Seeing Val crying over this as she told me and feeling as pissed off as I can remember, I yelled the expletive that rhymes with "truck," went to the safe, reared my right leg back as far as possible and kicked the safe with all my might with my just-remembered steel-toed boots. The safe made a loud, whirring sound, vibrated and popped open. We grabbed our rings and other items, called Viva Las Vegas and told them to send the driver back. We were downstairs in an instant and as soon as the limo got there, we climbed in and were on our way, wondering just how secure things in the safe had been.
Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel has several rooms for various sizes and themes of weddings; we chose the basic package with the above-mentioned young Elvis, and our package included three songs. We got the run-through from a few staffers, including one woman with a thick German accent whose brusque, often rude manner screamed cliche. As Tricia stood on one side of the, um, altar I guess, Elvis came out; his hair was a pretty good copy of the young, rocking Elvis and he had a decent resemblance facially, but I was initially thrown by his really deep, fake tan. I didn't remember either young or old Elvis resembling a chocolate dessert. He introduced himself (redundant?), explained a few things and then the "Wedding March" began and Brad led Val out. I can't remember a time before or since that I had smiled so much, and Val looked like she was feeling the same. During the ceremony, Elvis found it necessary to shake and thrust his pelvis at certain times and words, and not only was it funny the first time, it continued to be funny; of course, it could have been my giddiness.
One other thing that surprised Val and I was that our Elvis was a bit more tenor than either we expected or than Elvis Presley ever sang, but he was a lot of fun and after the ceremony had ended and they could pry Val and I apart, he led us in an extended version of "Viva Las Vegas" that actually got Brad and I dancing along with Tricia and Val and then posed for some photos with us. Yes, a video of that dancing and the wedding exists, and no, none of it will be posted here.
We went out to dinner at a lobster buffet at the Flamingo Hotel, and the food, from lobster and chicken to what seemed like hundreds of desserts, was incredibly good. The next day was the last full day Tricia and Brad would be with us in Las Vegas, and we started it at the pool. While I was swimming in the shallow end, just after I got in, I pushed off the bottom, and as I did that, I felt my ring come off. My gosh, what a crappy feeling I had, but I immediately told Val, Tricia and Brad, and after they got over their shock, they joined me in searching the pool, from inside and out, About 10-15 other people joined us, but about 30-45 minutes of this turned up nothing. I was now wearing a mask the hotel lent us, and as I was searching one area, Tricia, who was on the outside of the pool looking for items in the deep end, yelled that she saw something in about 12 feet of water in the middle of the pool. I swam to the bottom and then along the bottom to the area Tricia mentioned. I saw something right away, and as I closed in ... YES, it was my ring. I grabbed it and shot to the surface, yelling "I got it" as I broke the surface. I put the ring away then and wore a bandage under it for the rest of the trip, and I now have a plastic piece to tighten the ring on it that I wear all the time. I know I could get it fixed, but I simply do not want to take my wedding ring off for a week to do it.
The rest of the trip remained an awful lot of fun but, except for a stunning visit to Red Rock Canyon, supplied no more unexpected excitement, and while some people know, let me say this: I love Val at least as much, and I think more, today than I ever have. Happy Valentine's Day, dear.
