I got married in Vegas….Once

Just spent a weekend in Las Vegas, NV doing some shows, and everywhere we went, we were bombarded with weddings!  Just that perfect storm of details kept giving me the flashbacks to 10 years earlier when I was involved in my own ceremony at The Little White Chapel of the Flowers in Vegas, (pictured left).

After graduating from college, I went straight away and worked for Toyota.  He was a manager of a dealership and I hated him from the start.  He was cocky and condescending and I dreaded calling on his account.  He was much older as well…15 years with 4 children.

One day, finishing my day at his dealership, I was invited along to happy hour…and not being one to miss out on a party, I joined.  After a few too many gallons of adult beverages, I decided to tell him what I thought of him.  Well, he asked me why I wasn’t so friendly and that was my window to share my opinion of him.  That conversation was the wrecking ball that busted down the barriers to the relationship we were soon to be consumed with.

He was totally wrong for me in every way.  He wasn’t even officially divorced yet, but after that night, we couldn’t spend a minute apart from one another.  He suckered me in with his piercing blue eyes, his sense of humor and his english accent, (yes, he was british, dangerous). We spent every day together after that night and eventually also started an auto consulting company as a team.  We were unstoppable.

Our company exploded…it was amazing.  We travelled to dealerships all over the country so there were very few days a month that we were off work.  After a long weekend in Port Arthur, Texas, we received a call that one of our clients had to postpone our visit, so we had a free weekend coming…WOO HOO!  We should rest, I say, to which he responds, “why don’t we get married in Vegas?” Ummm, not the most romantic proposal, and he was fresh out of a marriage, had four kids, serious debt, hmmm, weigh out the options….Ok, that was enough, SURE…let’s do this!

We switched our flight to land in Las Vegas and we were on our way!  My parents were not too keen on him, so we didn’t tell them, and my sister would probably tell my rents, so didn’t tell her…my bro lived with them, cuz he wasn’t even in high school yet, so couldn’t tell him…hmmmm, ok, so I’m doing this solo…I survived cancer all by myself, supported myself through school alone, why not get married without anyone’s support, just seemed natural.

We landed, went straight to the registrars office, rented some wedding duds, checked into the hotel, took a nap and then made one of the largest gambles of my life…

to be continued………..