Our Tenth Anniversary
My wife and I got married three times. The first time was ten years ago today. Here's a picture of us on our first date. We were married three months later.
Wedding One
In a small public park in Delaware my wife and I were married. We showed up at the park to meet the judge. He said "where are your witnesses?"
"Witnesses? Um..." I had totally forgotten we needed witnesses.
"You're going to need two folks to sign your certificate and give their details."
"Ok, hang on." I ran over to the jogging path at the park and stopped the first two people that ran by.
"Hi, I know this is weird, but we're getting married and we need two witnesses. Do you have a minute?"
We got married right there under a big tree with a judge and two joggers. Afterwards we went to Friendly's for dinner. It was glorious and wonderful.
Wedding Two
Officially married on paper, we moved into together and started planning our White Wedding. Everyone was there.
We worked together in the design of the wedding. I searched the web for "Scottish Interracial Cake Topper" and we had a custom one made for the cake. It had tiny classes and a goatee as well as tiny African cloth in a design that matched Mo's hair wrap and bouquet.
We did the whole thing on the cheap, but it looked like a million bucks. Used dress, MP3s for DJs and burned CDs for party favors. To this day we both pride ourselves on making the old look like new.
A tiny asterisk said "Mo and Scott were married last year in a private civil ceremony." To this day I still get my anniversary dates confused.
Wedding Three
We went to Zimbabwe to settle lobola. One day while there I was padding into the bathroom to take a bath and when I opened the door I noticed there was a goat in the tub. I closed the door and reopened it just to check. Yep, goat. Not knowing exactly what was going on, I decided to go back to bed. A few hours later I came out, went to the tub and, no goat.
After a bath I joined the family for breakfast. They made a big deal about giving me some special meat for breakfast. It was the bathtub goat. Unfortunately I said no thanks, and ten years later this faux pas haunts me. Pro tip: Eat what's offered to you. Of course, this was just the first of a thousand cultural goats, I mean, goofs, and I'm sure there will be a thousand more.
It's been ten years, two boys, three houses, three jobs, three college degrees, dozens of trips, two filled passports, one new citizenship, and seven (voluntary) viewings of Love Actually.
Happy Tenth Anniversary, Small Wife.
Related Links
- Podcast: Tables Turned - Mo Interviews Scott
- Podcast: Geek Relationship Tips with Scott's Wife
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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Greg Hughes
Congrats!
Again, Congratulations :)
Prashant Brall
The second and third times were in Fiji, about a year later and a week apart. We had a traditional white wedding (for her), and a traditional hindu wedding (for her family). The second one was the scary one - there is nothing like 600 guests looking at the "gorah" to keep you on edge.
Like you we always get our dates confused all the time. We just had our 7th aniversary of the civil ceremony (this is the one I always keep) and will be having our 6th anniversaries of our traditional weddings shortly.
As you know, being married three times means you are three times as happy, although my wife likes to joke she will never get married to me again. I always reply that this will be fine by me. Best wishes for your anniversary.
My wife and I got married twice.. basicly the same story except for Zimbabwe. Fun stuff! :)
HOLY COW, zerio to married in 3 months?!?! WOW! Green card, no rock=no nookie, or something else?
Of the 2 couples I know who waited 7 years to get even engaged (lived together for many of those years) one is divorced and the other seem quite unhappy with each other.
I'm not sure if I'm going to tell my kids these stories though. :)
As an aside, I've enjoyed the couple podcasts that you've done with your wife. I've been married 15 years and it's amazing to find a good woman who groks the tech obsessive.
Where in Delaware? That's where I'm originally from.
And I am happy to see this post and the interesting story.
Seriously, though theoritically it is possible for a geek or blogger to have a family, it never occurred to me to put a technical person/blogger like you in a family album :-) Might be because I have read more and more of your posts and saw your presentations, code, etc. only on the technical side.
Congrats, again :-)
Thanks for sharing and here's wishing you both very many years of happiness together.
-Stuart
You guys make a wonderful couple (but you already new that).
I was glad to read your story, and made me imagine myself how me and my wife will be after 10 years :)
Wish you a happy life always.
Saludos,
YovannyR
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