I said "I do!"

At the age of 19 you do not think about your life at 49 or how to raise a family. All I knew was this tall handsome Czech boy asked me to be his wife and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. On March 6, 1982 I promised to love, honor and cherish but refused to include the word "obey".  That is when Louie knew life with me would be a challenge. We had an amazing Czech wedding complete with polka band and buffet style meal for our 359 guests.  When we left for the traditional "throwing rice" event there were only about 15 people left. We enjoyed the wedding so much we were part of the last to leave. The next day we went back and helped clean the dance hall and had the family over to enjoy with us leftovers and opening of the gifts. We did not go on our honeymoon until that following Monday. We traveled ALL THE WAY to San Antonio and spent a week just enjoying each other's company. At the time I did not realize how simple we were. There was no drama over the dress; my  mom said "This one!" and I said "Okay!". There was no pampering or getting make-up and hair done the day of the wedding; I stood in the bathroom of our soon to be home and just got ready like I did every other day. My parents came up from Killeen the night before and we all got ready together. This day was not about “the bride” or the event itself. It was about love, family and God. My most treasured moment was when we broke tradition once again and my father danced the first dance with me to a Czech song about a girl getting married and her father giving her away to the new man in her life. When my father led me by the hand to Louie for our first dance together as husband and wife, I knew that he was not giving me away, as was the tradition, but was including my husband into our family. As I look back I realize that day was the foundation of the way we would share our life together. We do not need elaborate vacations or primping or pampering. Life has never been about what we each want but more of what we can accomplish together. We live simply but love elaborately. After almost 30 years our life is still about love, family and God.