We did some insane driving for two days and we are pretty beat, but our trip to Ohio was a success and we are now married.  We arrived in Columbus late Thursday night.  We stayed at the Red Rood Inn Thursday night which was centrally located and easy for us to get everything done Friday morning as it was only a few blocks from Columbus City Hall.  We were pleasantly surprised that Columbus was a really nice little city.  It was clean, modern, and everyone seemed to be nice.  Getting our marriage licence was a breeze, we literally just flashed our ID’s and we were good to go.  Once we got our license, we packed up our things and headed to Ohio’s Vegas style wedding chapel, “Weddings R’ Us.”  We pulled into the driveway to discover that this place was just a house.  We started to get weirded out but it was too late to turn around now, we had to ride it out.  We were greeted by a nice women and her poodle “Babar” and welcomed in.  The entire house was gutted for this business, the outside was deceiving.  She had a large room for bigger weddings, an office, and the Vegas Chapel for quick weddings.  It was decked out in tacky neon heart signs and had a little seating area in case there were guests.  When we first got inside, my tie was disheveled so she suggested that I “Go up the stairs and fix it in the mirror.”  I walked up the 4 stairs to exit the office and then proceeded to walk up the stairs into the bathroom when all of a sudden I heard the women yelling in full panic mode.
“Where are you going!?” she yelled
“You said at the top of the stairs..” I said, totally confused and trying to hurry back down the stairs before she really went nuts.
“I meant the top of these stairs..” she said referring to the couple of steps leading out of her office.
I totally didn’t think she meant that, but oh well.  After I fixed my tie, Nicole and I entered the Vegas Chapel, along with the women and the poodle which trotted right into it’s cage to prepare for the ceremony.

The lady put on her justice of the peace gown, and started the ceremony.  At that moment, everything that was insanely ridiculous about the entire scenario started to fade into the background and became completely irrelevant.  I was getting married.  Nicole and I held hands while this women began to marry us.  She was good, professional, and made it comfortable as Nicole and I stood there getting a bit teary eyed.  We repeated the vows that she spoke to us, at one point I was so nervous that I started repeating Nicole’s when it was her turn…I’m not the brightest some times.  When it was finished, we elected to buy the photo package and the woman took us into the backyard for some pictures.  The backyard was like a wedding wonderland, filled with flowers, tents, chairs, and different areas to take photos.  It was actually pretty impressive.

When it was finished we got into the car and headed to Cleveland fully married and excited to continue on with the rest of our weekend.

To be continued Monday….. (I need to keep the ratings up on my blog..)