April 30, 2011 my beautiful, first born, daughter, Katie was married to a wonderful young man in Tempe, AZ.  This wedding was 18 months in planning and actually my part was fairly easy.  Matt, the guy my daughter married, is a very rare creature. He is a hopeless romantic, very detailed and creative individual, faith and family first sort of guy.

Together the young couple planned every major and minor detail of their wedding -- including personalized converse tennis shoes for the groomsmen, to patriotic lapel pens of the groom’s grandfather who served our country, to choreographed first dances with both the bride and mother of the groom and much more. Some of the incredible touches and decisions they made would never have made my radar. 

Nothing went wrong except the bride contracted a terrible stomach virus 3 days before the wedding, sending everybody into a crazy state of stress -- everybody but the groom.  He was calm, collected and confident his chosen young lady was going to walk down the aisle feeling just fine. 

After a trip to the doctor, appropriate medicine and an attempt to have an IV to help restore her hydration -- Katie Rose made it down the aisle, looking as though she had never suffered a sick day in her life, much less the 2 miserable days of throwing up just prior to the wedding.

This wedding, while very different from the weddings of my era -- was as beautiful as the royal wedding in England only the day before.  That evening, April 30, 2011, I saw the most in love and empowered young couple ever.

I have 2 more G’s to go.