Wedding - Perfectly imperfect
I never wanted to get married. I never thought marriage made much sense. I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve made and it seemed silly to willingly sign into a contract with someone who could some day leave you and take half. It was also a bit scary to think of how people change and what they want changes and how it wouldn’t be as easy to just breakup now you have to get a lawyer involved. Anyways I had my reasons for never wanting to get married and I guess those reasons haven’t changed. But at the end of the day after spending 9 years with someone the stigma around boyfriend and husband grows stronger. It wasn’t like I wasn’t committed already to Corbin as if he was already my husband it was that others didn’t respect our relationship in the same way. So after a farm to table dinner hosted by the tahoe food hub ended with good food and dancing. We decided maybe we should just throw a party and call it a wedding, same venue and same DJ.
The only time Camp WAMP was available was one year out so we booked for a Thursday and started inviting our friends and family. It was going to be casual. No isle, no bridesmaids, non of the fluff and pomp. Just simple food, people, dancing and nice words.
It wasn’t lost on me that booking a wedding a year in advance left the potential for people to be pregnant that didn’t even know that they were going to be pregnant yet but it was a risk we took anyways. That was until December rolled around. I started getting calls from my sisters. It felt like they were hiding something from me. And that’s when my first sister told me he I’m sorry but I’m pregnant and due the day before you wedding so I won’t be able to make it. I understood and said that it was okay. Then a few days later I found out my other sister was pregnant and due in late July it would be a stretch for her to make it either. In a disappointed exclamation I said don’t tell me Anna is pregnant too… the silence told me all I need to know. All 3 of my sisters were pregnant and due the week of my wedding. Something that was joyful felt crushing.
So what is one to do when your entire family can’t make it to your wedding. The show could still go on but the whole point of a wedding is to have the families meet and to have their blessing. So in that moment I decided why not two weddings. One for the immediate family and then a party for the friends at the original plan in August. But if I was going to be forced to have two weddings the family one would be in Yosemite. The place that Corbin and I met.
The only weekend that work for everyone was the last weekend in February. We knew we were running a risk with winter and weather but Yosemite is low elevation and further south so it would probably be fine. We ended up having a pretty mild February leading up to the wedding but the forecast wasn’t looking promising.
Corbin and I drove down to Yosemite west a few days early to avoid the road closures on 80 that would have inhibited us from making the drive. A few inches of snow fell in the days leading up to my families arrival in Fresno. We left early in the morning and had a lovely drive through snowy roads down to Fresno to pick my family up. We left everything at the house expecting to be back in a few hours anyways. But made the last minute decision to bring the dogs just in case.
Our good friend jenelle and Steve tried several times to leave Tahoe but couldn’t make it out because of road closures. I was optimistic that the conditions would be better further south and that the tahoe conditions weren’t foreshadowing. We spent the day in Fresno picking up my family and getting rental cars. My sister Anna and Augie were the first to arrive and promptly needed a ride to the urgent care for a bought of pink eye. I spent most of my day at the urgent care while corbin ran errands with Nikki. It was pouring rain in Fresno.
There were no delayed flights so we had everyone loaded up and headed for Yosemite by 3pm. As we made our way towards Yosemite conditions got bad fast. Even on the pass coming into Oakhurst we saw ambulances and cars stuck in ditches. The road was slick and it was a nightmare. We had left NIKKI in Fresno since Chuck wasn’t flying in till late that night. By the time we made it to oakhurst we decided to chain up our vehicles. I got a call from Vacasa saying that the big house we rented wasn’t cleaned and we couldn’t stay there. I made some angry phone calls thinking it was ridiculous that they could do that only 1 hr before checkin. We chained up and then kept on moving. It wasn’t long till we made it a little ways outside of fish camp and the police stopped us. A snow plow had gone off the side of the road and the hwy into yosemite was closed. No estimate of when it would reopen.
We turned around weighing our options of driving in through the 140 or just staying on the 41 hoping things would open in the morning. We decided to stay put we ate at the local BBQ joint and booked some rooms at the Hampton Inn.
Jenelle and Steve had made it through the closures in Tahoe and had stayed at a hotel in Mariposa that night. When we woke to the road still closed the next morning we decided our only option was to go in through El Portal. So we picked up from Oakhurst and started the drive around. The road was gnarly with downed trees and rock slides. Mariposa and El Portal were without power. We started getting word that Yosemite National Park was closed indefinitely. My heart sank. My wedding dress was inside that National park along with my work laptop and all my belongings. We needed to get into that park.
I drove like hell to that entrance gate to find the ranger turning everyone around. I showed her our resident sticker and begged her to let us in but when nothing made her budge I told her we had left our dogs there and they wouldn’t survive for the 3 day closure that they threatened. She made some phone calls and got approval for us to be police escorted to Yosemite west. We were only allowed to grab our dog and then had to come straight back out with the police escort. I had my sisters in the car and they started freaking out concerned about the conditions. So I quickly flipped a U turn ditched my family and grabbed Corbin. We had a wedding to make happen and the stuff in Yosemite west was a necessity for making that happen.
Corbin Eigen and I drove into the park and met up with the police escort. By this point everyone else had convened in El Portal and we decided to have the ceremony down in the river in Incline. Conveniently our photographer was staying in El Portal and he let my family get ready there while Corbin and I ran into the park. It took forever to get to the west and we postholed down the 3 flights of stairs carrying load after load of our belongs into the back of the car. It was a shitshow but we had everything and we’re back heading for El Portal in no time.
As we were leaving Yosemite West we got stopped by the cops and asked to chain up. That ate up another 30 minutes as we untangled the chains and then promptly pulled them off 2 miles later. The valley was beautiful and it wasn’t even snowing anymore. It was sad that we didn’t get to have the wedding there.
As we exited the park we met my family at the photographers hotel and quickly changed into our wedding outfits. There was no power so no chance to wash my hair or to curl it. So we put it into a ponytail and called it good. I couldn’t believe that every single person had made it including the photographer. And had to keep reminding myself that that’s what mattered not getting married in Yosemite but getting married in front of all these people just a few miles west of Yosemite.
Clay and Mila came in clutch with the pizza and we all ate pizza on the side of the road before gathering in a small circle to exchange vows. As we were getting situated we saw a familiar truck drive by it was our friend Heather out for a dog walk. We insisted the universe had put here there and to join us! We the. Exchanged vows, ugly cried, and kissed. Our families talked and shared stories and as everyone started to leave it began to rain again. Corbin and I stayed a little longer in the rain for a few more pictures.
Since Yosemite was off the table we decided to go back to the Hampton Inn in Oakhurst. We had planned pulled pork tacos for dinner that night anyways and Jenelle had already cooked all the meat so we set up a little reception in the hotel lobby and eat pulled pork tacos and delicious wedding cake made by our friend Linn. Ruthie and Anna’s family were both sick with the stomach bug and sinus infections so they turned in early. The next morning a few people left and the remaining family members went sledding up by Fish Camp. We spent one final night in the Hampton Inn before driving back to Fresno the next day. There were no flight delays and everyone made it back safely home.
Corbin and I returned the rental cars and took a deep breath. Some how we pulled it off. Even if literally nothing went to plan. We drove back up towards Tahoe only to get stopped in Auburn because the 80 was closed. We spent another few nights in a hotel in Auburn patiently waiting for a window of weather to get home. The two days later we got our window we showed our local ID and they let us through. They checked our id 5 times before we finally made it home.
When we got home the snowbanks had doubled and we had 8 feet on the deck to remove. We were very stoked to have the second 1132 on the deck to make quick progress of that. That was just the beginning of what would be the snowiest March ever recorded. We spent the follow weeks after our wedding shoveling our roof and stuck on the summit. Corbin was in a car accident that would total the 4Runner we used to transport everyone during the wedding. A winter we won’t soon forget.
