Editor’s note: In an article earlier this year, Mary Larmoyeux described her nightmare honeymoon, and asked readers to send in their own stories. Here are a number of the replies we received.
Oh yes, we have a story.
My husband and I were married on August 5, 1972. We were just 18 years old, but very excited about the upcoming wedding and honeymoon.
Back then rehearsal receptions were the norm. So the Friday before we were married on Saturday we had our rehearsal and reception and all was wonderful.
Early on our wedding day I woke up and felt horrible. Everyone but my mom thought it was nerves. Our wedding was scheduled for 4:00 pm and I literally slept until 2:00 pm that day hoping to wake up feeling like a million dollars. We went to the church and I laid across the wooden chairs while my bridesmaids dressed and then they did their best to get me into my wedding gown which my Great Aunt had made for me. It was beautiful.
My dad walked me down the aisle and literally was holding me up. Thank goodness we were not having a reception after the wedding. My husband and grandmother had decided that I was not going to make it to Myrtle Beach that Saturday evening so they had gone that morning and fixed up the little trailer that my parents owned on Lake Norman. I had spent many summers up there and it was not where I had in mind spending my honeymoon, but I guess God had different ideas.
We did spend Saturday and Sunday night in that very small trailer and on Monday morning I was at the doctor’s office. I had gallstones and was put in the hospital that week to have my gall bladder removed. Back then you were cut from the middle of your chest down your side so that was major surgery and we had to spend the next month in my parent’s home. What a honeymoon and on top of that the hotel where we had our reservations for our honeymoon week would not return our money. That was a major blow to 18-year-olds who were just starting out.
We have now been married 36 years this coming August and look back on that time and wonder was it part of God’s plan to help us cope with some of the trials that our marriage has gone through during the past 36 years, and to learn to trust in Him during these times.
Ronna and Wayne Privette
***
My husband, Jason, and I had what seemed to be an accident-plagued honeymoon, although it started off wonderfully. We flew from Pittsburgh to Ft. Lauderdale, rented a convertible, and drove about an hour west to Marco Island. It was a beautiful drive, and we were just happy to be alone.
After settling into the condo and spending a night together to rest and to get to know each other better, we decided to venture out to see the sights of the surrounding area. One of our drives led us to what was supposed to be a nature preserve. After only a few minutes there we soon discovered that mosquitoes were the only nature that had been preserved. There seemed to be millions of pesky mosquitoes buzzing around us. For some reason, mosquitoes seem to be drawn to me, and I got bitten multiple times.
Another day, we decided to take a stroll up a quiet beach to watch the sunset. I decided to take my sandals off and walk barefoot up the beach. As I did I stepped on a sharp piece of a broken seashell and cut my foot. I had a blood trail following behind me as we walked hand-in-hand on this romantic sunset stroll. On this same beach, yet another pesky mosquito found its way to my blood, and he bit me under the eye. My eye quickly began to swell, and we laughed that I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. My face was horribly swollen and misshapen. Still, my husband would hold my face in his hands and sweetly kiss my lips.
Then, to round off the fun, Jason came down with the flu the last day of our honeymoon. We were trying to find a hotel near Ft. Lauderdale as we had a very early flight back home. After a lot of searching (with Jason being very sick) we finally found what we thought was a decent hotel. Jason ran a high fever that night. We tried to rest but soon found out that our neighbors were a huge group of teenage kids that were there for a party. The hotel management had to call the local police department to bust the party. Our rest was very limited that night with sounds of kids screaming and being arrested.
However, during all the accidents, we still found some beautiful sights, time alone, and the start of a wonderful marriage that is now almost six years old and going strong. I guess it showed us that life will not be perfect, but we can still stand together!
Bobbie Sue Gildroy
***
We got married in Georgia on a very hot September day in 1971. The afternoon temperatures hit 95 degrees. Our little British Cortina did not have air conditioning. I had spent hours carefully sewing my going away dress.
We climbed in our loaded car that had been decorated by friends with everything imaginable. The sweat began to pour from both of us.
We had no money for a honeymoon, and we were due to start back to school four days later. We drove the 120 miles with all the windows down and loose items bouncing around in the backseat. We arrived a bit bedraggled at our trailer in Athens, Ga. As Henry carried me across the threshold, we were met with a blast of superheated air. The air conditioning was not on! “Hot” doesn’t begin to describe it!
He put me down and immediately turned on the window air conditioner. Realizing that romance was a bit farfetched at the moment, he started to bring in our luggage. As he brought two suitcases into the living room, they fell open, dumping rice everywhere. Our loving friends had filled every nook and cranny with it. Somehow, we got things organized a bit and settled down for the evening.
The next day dawned beautifully. The trailer was cool. I cooked us a delicious breakfast. We gazed at each other longingly as we ate. Life was gooood! But then . . . Henry noticed that the toilet was leaking.
He said, “I’ll just get a wrench and tighten that bolt.”
Crack!
A jagged line ran up the tank, and the water started to pour out, all over the freshly-laid, hot pink bathroom carpet. (We’re always in the height of style!) A loud exclamation followed.
Now, Henry comes from a very sedate, well-ordered, small family. I come from a rollicking, large family, where if anything can go wrong, it will.
He takes life seriously; I laugh at most mishaps. So, I laughed. And laughed. And laughed some more. Until I noticed, he was not laughing. To describe that moment as tense would never do it justice!
We mopped, and mopped, and mopped some more. Then we went looking for a new toilet. My uncle had given us a generous check as a gift. It was just enough to pay for the new toilet and the plumber to install it. When we told my uncle how we’d spent the gift, he laughed and laughed and laughed some more. He still laughs!
Almost 37 years, four children and three grandchildren later, we both laugh. And the romance did come back!
Belinda Bryan
***
Our honeymoon was memorable for two reasons: First, my in-laws wanted to pay for our trip as our wedding gift and asked us where we would like to go. My husband, being a golf-enthusiast, was fascinated with the island of Bermuda, but when his parents made the reservation they could not quite remember the name of the island, just that it began with a “B”! And so we ended up in the Bahamas which were also beautiful!
The second and more dramatic memory we have was the scuba diving trip we took. The weather was fabulous for scuba diving … not a cloud in the sky, calm water, and beautiful fish of every color swimming all around us. We were provided with masks, snorkels, and fins, but not life jackets, since they were only provided “in emergencies” by the owner of the boat. After all, we were just swimming around the boat enjoying the view below.
However, within 10 minutes of entering the water, a storm blew into the area, creating waves that began separating us from the boat and dumping salt water down our snorkels. I was struggling to swim, despite being a swimming instructor, but my husband was struggling even more, as his favorite pastime was not swimming. With a tremendous amount of verbal encouragement to “use your fins and don’t stop kicking,” I managed to get him back to the boat.
It was an experience which taught us in our early days of marriage to appreciate every day we have together, and to never stop kicking when the challenges of life come our way!
Susan and Ed Morse
***
Demetrius and I have been married for seven going on eight years. We married while we were still pursuing our degrees. So we’ve had a lot of obstacles in our way. But none strike me like the very first.
We basically did not have a honeymoon. The second day of our marriage, we were preparing to go to the Bahamas. We were very excited. Once we arrived at the airport, I remember a man with a raspy voice ask if we were there for the flight to get to the Bahamas. We were so excited and we answered, “Yes!” Then that nice raspy-voiced man says “Sorry, the trip has been cancelled.” Of course we looked at each other, and then looked at the man as if he was going to say it was a joke. But he did not.
The trip had been cancelled because of a tropical storm over Florida. So, we sat there for the longest time trying to decide what to do. We could not wait until the next week because we were both trying to hurry to get to graduation day. And we would have missed too much time since the wedding day. We finally decided to just get away from the house by staying at a local hotel. Sounds like a good idea, right? Wrong!
We had gone out to get dinner and got settled in our room for a long night. Out of nowhere we hear this loud alarm. An emergency had been reported in the building, and everyone was ordered to find the nearest exit!
My husband and I were both in utter shock. Unbelievable! We got up, put on our clothes, and proceeded to the stairwell. The good thing was that we were safe and together. But it completely ruined the mood. From the airport to the hotel catastrophe we were done. But we did not get angry and we laughed hysterically about it once that week was over.
Lynn Taylor
***
The day after our wedding, my husband and I took a flight to Cancun, Mexico. On day number two of our honeymoon, during the evening my husband said he was not feeling well. We both figured that maybe it was a combination of the heat and alcohol he had taken in. Hours passed and we were back at our resort resting from a long day when suddenly I was awakened by my husband gagging. We thought this would be something that would pass rather quickly, but it did not.
On that same evening we contacted the resort doctor who came to our room and give my husband an injection and some other medicine and charged us $175 cash. The next morning we got up and found the resort doctor to share with him that my husband was getting worse. The doctor contacted the emergency room and set up a taxi to take us there. Several tests were performed on my husband, and it was determined that he would need to stay in the hospital.
During the first 24 hours of the hospital stay, my husband’s was progressively getting worse. It was later determined that he would need to be there longer.
The nurses at the hospital did not speak English at all. The doctor wasn’t too fluent in English himself, but he was able to speak some for us to understand. Dialing back to the U.S. from the hospital was difficult as well. So I had to call whoever I could reach and have them conference our family and friends that were involved in trying to come up with a solution.
At this point I was scared and desperate as a new wife to get my husband back to the U.S. so that he could receive proper medical attention. The doctor advised us that my husband had three different types of food poisoning.
On Wednesday, I knew deep down in my heart that we would not be returning to the resort, so I took a taxi and went back to pack all of our stuff and reduce our carry-on bag to one just in case I had the carry the load by myself, with a sick husband.
My husband laid in the bed in so much pain, vomiting all over the place, and losing weight at the same time. He was praying for God to take him because he was in so much discomfort from his pain. I freaked out and had to walk away … I was not ready to be a widow.
On Thursday, my husband felt that he would work up enough energy for us to fly back early. The doctor tried to convince us to stay because my husband was too weak to travel. We trusted God and took a chance.
I arranged for my husband to have a wheelchair at the airport once we arrived back to the U.S. I prayed so hard and so much that God would protect us during our flight home and that my husband would be able to cope with the flight without being sick. Upon arrival at the airport, and after claiming our luggage, our friends were waiting and we took him straight to the emergency room. He was there for a few hours and walked out feeling a lot better and was asking for food by this point. So we knew that God had definitely worked a miracle in our lives.
This past July we did our honeymoon “re-do anniversary” (as I call it) in the Dominican Republic. Everything was lovely and great and we are both doing well to this day. All praise and thanks given to our “Heavenly Father” who is watching from above and protecting us.
Rostosha Foy
***
We will celebrate our 30th anniversary this year. What a roller coaster ride it has been. My wedding day should have been a clue to the life ahead!
On my wedding day I was at the hair salon getting my hair done. At the time I wore hard contact lenses and while the hairdresser was pulling and brushing my hair, it caused one of my contact lens to pop out of my eye. We searched for over an hour and could not find it. I did not have a spare pair so I had to go through the wedding and honeymoon with one contact. You might say I entered the ceremony blindly!
Our wedding was in August on the hottest day of the year. Imagine my shock when I finally arrived at the church and discovered the air conditioner had stopped working that morning and could not be fixed by the wedding. I look like a drowned rat in the wedding pictures!
God sure has a sense of humor. He has taught us to preserve and trust him through many trials and has blessed our marriage with four beautiful daughters.
Julie Gulley
***
What could be more perfect than going camping and boating for your honeymoon? My new husband and I took off to Big Lake, Alaska (about five hours from our home), hauling our boat and tent.
Other than our queen-size air-mattress being a little too big for the tent, the first day was great.
The next day we decided to rent a jet ski. The last thing I said to the rental guy was “Don’t worry, we will return it as good as new.” I’m sure you can guess what happened next.
We were out on the water with a boat (I was steering it) and a jet ski. When my husband took off on the jet ski, I was feeling a little competitive, so I took off after him in the boat with a 75 horsepower motor.
He did a 180 degree turn and I guess it turned off the jet ski motor. I remember looking at him eye-to-eye and waiting a split second to see if he was going to take off. Well, he didn’t move.
When the water started to get calm around him, I realized it was too late. I didn’t want to make a sharp turn because I didn’t want to flip the boat. But, at the same time, I knew if I didn’t do something fast, I would run over my husband of only six days. So, at the last moment I turned as much as I could … but it wasn’t enough.
Although my husband tried jumping off the jet ski, I still ran up over the side of it and caught the top of his foot, slicing it open. It took me a minute to compose myself and turn the boat around to see if my husband was dead or alive. As he climbed back onto the jet ski, I noticed the blood pooling in the water. I knew we had to go to the hospital.
My husband got into the boat and I took the jet ski, just in case he blacked out going back to camp. I took off, but was so distraught that I soon realized I really didn’t know where I was going. When I looked back for guidance, my husband was sitting in the boat trying to wrap up his wound with a red cloth and electrical tape to slow the blood flow. He was also pointing wildly in the opposite direction. I had been going the wrong way.
I didn’t completely lose it until we got to the hospital, and while he was being treated I ended up on the gurney next to him dry heaving, light-headed, and dizzy. The doctor working on his 17 stitches assured my husband that I wouldn’t be reacting this way if I didn’t really love him.
Now, five years later, I’m able to laugh about this.
Virginia Bouton
***
After we left our wedding, we drove for about an hour to eat dinner at a restaurant where I started to feel that I had to go to the restroom. It wouldn’t stop! My new husband was saying “Are you okay?” Never being sick a day in my life, I said “I don’t know, I just feel like I have to go to the restroom!”
I guess he thought I was having second thoughts, but I assured him I was okay. We headed the hotel and by that time, my urine was basically blood. I didn’t tell my new husband because I didn’t want to ruin our first night together.
Finally, the next morning I told him what was going on. We were supposed to head to Florida that morning for a week at the beach (which I had never seen). He said, “Let’s go home (about five hours away) and rest a day and see how you feel.
You can only imagine what this young groom was thinking! “We have got to go on this honeymoon that I’ve waited all my life for!”
We called our parents and both of them said “It’s honeymoon-itus.” They didn’t realize, this all started before the hotel.
By the next morning, I was throwing up and had a fever. My poor husband didn’t know what he had signed up for. We ended up going to the emergency room because the pain was excruciating. I stayed three days in the hospital and my hubby never left my side for a minute.
After about a six-month recovery, we finally made it to Florida for our “honeymoon!” My husband jokes that he spent his honeymoon on a hospital recliner. Fifteen years later we have two wonderful kids and my health is normal! Praise God!
Sharon Thomas
***
My husband, Mark, and I were married Sept 23, 1989. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the date, it was the day after Hurricane Hugo roared through the Carolinas. When we saw the news that the hurricane might actually make landfall on the South Carolina coast, we were a bit concerned that we might not get to Charleston for a honeymoon. But never did we imagine the destruction and devastation that Hugo would have on our own community. Power outages, trees blown down, roofs destroyed—they were all the results of 140-150 mph winds that did not diminish once the hurricane made landfall.
Because Charleston was under eight feet of water, we delayed our honeymoon. But we did not delay the wedding.
Our church family repaired a church window blown out by Hugo and picked up fallen limbs. Although we didn’t have air conditioning for the wedding, we were grateful that we had a church building.
The wedding was wonderful, even without power, air conditioning, and videotaping. It was a beautiful Carolina-blue day.
We can laugh about our wedding day now. It has always made us determined to let God carry us through our marriage, raising our children, and of course—hurricanes!
Kara
***
Dale and I married very young. So young in fact that the state of Indiana would not allow us to marry even with our parents’ consent. So we loaded up our parents and eloped to Gallatin, Tenneessee, on Friday, May 13, 1977. He was 17 and I was 16. My parents allowed us to get married that young because Dale was going into the United States Marines and would be able to support me for the rest of our lives. We were also going into the ministry of singing and evangelism at the same time.
After we purchased our licenses at the courthouse we went off to find a preacher and a church. We ended up with Pastor Fisher at the brand new Assembly of God Church in Gallatin, Tenn. We had both sets of parents and his sister, Linda, as our wedding party. After we said “I do,” we went downtown for our wedding reception with our parents. We had a small cake and we celebrated in a downtown drug store (It had tables and booths). Then we sent our parents and his sister home so we could start our lives as husband and wife.
We drove off to the caves of Kentucky, but it was too late and they were closed. We then drove on to Cincinnati, Ohio, to the great park of Kings Island. It was about 2 a.m. and we were tired. But Dale wanted to bless his new bride with the gift of his body. I was scared to death to come out of the bathroom. His mother had bought me a sexy nightie for this night. I was very much a virgin and had never allowed anyone to see my body. So I covered the nightie up with my sweater and went out into the room …
Well it has been 31 years this May. We have had many storms. Many disappointments, but many more blessings. We have four children and six grandchildren. We are no longer in the Marine Corps but we are still in the United States and Kingdom of God worship and service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
P.S. I finally gave up the sweater.
Sherry Rhodes
***
My husband and I were middle-aged when we met. He had been married before and had two grown sons. I had never married, and at 40 had decided that marriage was just not in the cards for me.
So, when we walked down the aisle, we were not dazzled by fairytale images of perfection. We were thankful that God had sufficient mercy to join two imperfect people together. We celebrated with friends and family, and then drove off to our honeymoon cabin on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
I had found the cabin on the Internet. It looked perfect—rustic and secluded, comfortable and peaceful. When we got there … although the cabin was very pretty, we noticed a disagreeable smell. It turned out that we were smack-dab in the middle of a major chicken farming area.
The outside of the cabin smelled. The inside of it smelled. The smell was unmistakable and unavoidable.
We had a good laugh, stayed one night, and drove home. I remember taking pictures of all of the modern chicken facilities that surrounded us. (Chickens hold a special meaning for us, even today.)
I thank God for starting us off with a humorous honeymoon. I think a “normal” honeymoon may have been too much for us.
We both had a lot of baggage from separate lifetimes. Several truckloads. Six years later, we are still unpacking that baggage, in patience and in love, and the process can be both rewarding and painful. I thank God for the humor that allows us to see that God works in all things for the good—even the smell of a chicken farm encircling two nervous newlyweds.
Emily Talaga
***
Right after Keith and I got back from our honeymoon, I got a bladder infection, otherwise known as “honeymoon-cystitis.” Well, I’d never had a bladder infection before, so I just ignored it. That’s why I ended up in the hospital with a temperature of 104, and two kidneys on the verge of failing. I was in the hospital for a week.
Right after we were married, the house we lived in had these dimmer switches in the bedroom. Well, it was a real hot summer, and the heat temperatures would make the light switches connect, so the lights would come on. It would wake Keith up, but it would never wake me up. Consequently, Keith would wake up, the lights would be on real bright, and he’d look over and see me sound asleep.
He’d get up, turn off the lights and go back to bed, only to wake up again a couple of hours later with the lights on full blast, look at me and see me sound asleep again. The only logical conclusion he could reach was that he had married a crazy woman who was afraid of the dark who would jump up, turn on the lights, jump back in bed and pretend to be asleep rather than admit she was afraid of the dark!
We laughed when we finally figured out that I’m a hard sleeper and that the lights came on because of the heat and light connection.
Suzanne Thomas
***
It all started about two weeks prior to our wedding. John was still working at the steel factory at the time. In a freak accident, a piece of steel hit him right between his eyebrows, creating two black eyes.
One week before the wedding: I moved into the new apartment we’d share after our wedding. He also moved some of his furniture in advance. I was not used to his headboard, which had shelves. When I lay down to sleep the first night, an ill-placed lamp flew off the top shelf and hit me in the eye. John and I both had black eyes at the wedding, which made it look like we had “duked it out.”
On our wedding day: We both had to work until noon, due to no vacation time. We were to meet at the clerk’s office at noon to get our marriage license. By 12:45 p.m., John hadn’t shown up and nobody knew where he was. I left the clerk’s office and was heading for my car when he passed me on the road. His boss had intentionally made him wait for his paycheck, which John needed to pay for the marriage license and honeymoon. If he hadn’t passed me on the road, we wouldn’t have been married that day!
An hour before we were to be married, the flowers still were not at the church. John called to see what happened to them. The florist had the wrong date. Luckily, the florist had not closed yet, so we got flowers just in the nick of time.
Because of tremendous flooding in Missouri, my parents arrived within an hour of the ceremony. Then, minutes before it began, one of the guests arrived—drunk. She came into my dressing room and was so obnoxious we had to ask her to leave.
During the “you may kiss the bride” part of the ceremony, John was so nervous he dropped the veil off the back of my head.
And to cap it off, after the reception all of the ladies who served during the reception just left the mess and John and I had to stay behind and clean up the church ourselves!
Linda Treadway
***
My husband and I were both 19 years old when we married 19 years ago. Just one day into our marriage, my avid golfer husband decided that we should play a round of golf. We were on Jekyll Island at the time and it has some beautiful golf courses.
So, being the wonderful wife that I am, I said I would drive the golf cart while he played. Since I didn’t know anything about golf or golf carts, the plan was that I would stop the cart and he would get out, hit the ball, and we would go to the hole.
Well, on one particular hole, he got out to get his club and I accidentally put the cart in reverse and started backing up. He screamed because I almost ran over him. He was not happy with me!
Amazingly, 19 years later, we are still happily married … and the owners of a golf cart.
Michelle Kullman
***
We were married in September 2006 and decided to go to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon. Although I had dreamed of a romantic getaway to Hawaii, my husband is not a huge fan of airplanes.
We had a wonderful time at Walt Disney World and discovered something about Florida. Every year, love bugs (harmless looking flies that fly in pairs of two and procreate before dying 72 hours later) swarm the Sunshine State in both May and September. When we arrived in the Orlando area, it was teeming with these creatures and we were covered with them. They were in our hair, crawling on our legs and their guts were splattered on our rental car and the shuttle buses that took us to the theme parks.
Whenever we stepped out of our hotel resort, love bugs were everywhere—dead or alive. Amazingly, by the time we left Florida at the end of our 12-day honeymoon, we were almost used to them. Each morning hotel workers would use a blower to blow the dead bugs off the balcony.
I thought to myself, “This is definitely an interesting beginning of our life together,” but it did not put a dent in our joyous mood. We decided to make the most of it and had a fabulous time through it all.
Christine Spina
***
My husband and I were married in Boston on a beautiful but extremely humid August day. After the late evening reception we found our car covered in shaving cream with a special message on the hood that read “Just Married.”
When we arrived at the hotel we asked the parking attendant if he would get the car cleaned up for us since they offered auto detailing on site (how lucky). Well, when we picked up the car the next day we found that everything was clean except for the “just married” written in shaving cream on the hood. The attendant said he thought it was cute.
When we arrived at my parents’ house later that day, my husband cleaned the shaving cream off. Because of the heat and the type of finish on the car, the shaving cream removed the paint. Needless to say, we had people in parking lots and auto shops for years later asking us if we were “just married.”
After we left that family party, we drove a few hours up to Maine to start our “official” honeymoon. We were to spend a night in a very nice inn and then board a ferry to Nova Scotia the following evening. We ended up getting to the inn much later than expected (about 1 a.m.) when we realized that the ferry tickets read 6 a.m.—not 6 p.m. Needless to say, we were very tired during the ferry ride and ended up sleeping instead of enjoying the scenery.
Over the years we have found other things that have not gone as planned, especially with my husband being military. We have learned to “roll with the punches,” and have had many unexpected deployments, moves, and “now funny” moments.
Although we have sold our honeymoon car, I miss not being asked if we are “just married.”
Mrs. Thomas Cooper
***
Gail and I met as single missionaries in the country of Kenya. After working together for a couple of years, we felt a life together as husband and wife was in the Lord’s plan. A wedding was arranged at Gail’s home church in Toronto followed by a return trip to Kenya the day after the wedding. Since we had a stopover in Europe, we thought we’d take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity for a European honeymoon.
All went well with the wedding and we arrived in Zurich, Switzerland, after an overnight flight. As the day began we were excited to start our first full day as a married couple touring this beautiful country.
We checked through the immigration gate and were excited about our next few days of travel and discovery. We anticipated fabulous views of the Alps from our hotel window. Then it happened. I discovered that the travel wallet containing our passports, onward flight tickets, hotel vouchers, travelers checks, international vaccination certificates, and cash was missing.
In a state of shock we figured we were the latest victims of a pickpocket. We prayed for the Lord’s help and scampered from one location in the terminal to another, hoping to find the wallet on a table or counter. The thoughts of spending our honeymoon in an airport terminal; seeking replacement documents from the U.S. Embassy, bank, and airline; and having to sleep on lobby chairs with no money for food, were frightening.
As my bride and I passed by an information booth, we reported the missing wallet and asked for advice. The first thing someone suggested was to work our way back to the terminal police post where we could register the lost items. As we stood at the counter of the police post, one of the officers held up a plastic bag and asked if the item inside was ours. You guessed it. It was!
A Good Samaritan had turned the wallet in with everything intact. With tears of joy we thanked the officers, the unknown honest person who turned the wallet in, and the Lord for the way He answered our prayer.
Don Schuit
***
We were married on Maui then honeymooned on Kauai in February of last year. It rained more than just the “Hawaii drizzle” each and every day of our week long trip, but we were bound and determined to enjoy our new life together and the beautiful island. The last day of our honeymoon it rained significantly from morning through late afternoon, but had stopped for a few hours prior to dinner hour. So we decided to go into the next town to a little cafe for our last dinner.
As we pulled up to the cafe it started to rain again and it seemed the restaurant was flooded with customers. Our dinner service took quite a while, but just after 7 p.m. we finished up and started to head back, [and saw] a police truck blocking the road. I jumped out and went up to the officers to see what was happening—the road had flooded due to the heavy rain and incoming tide. It would be no earlier than 10 p.m. before we could pass.
This road was the only way out of this town as the other end drops into the ocean. My tears welled up instantly as this was not the way I had intended to spend the last night of my honeymoon! I returned to the car to deliver the news to my new groom, who was a bit more than frustrated to learn of the news and then to discover we hadn’t brought a thing other than his wallet.
Cars began to line up behind us with people spilling into the street to discuss the situation. A few locals were among us and informed us that the previous year the road had been flooded numerous times, and once closed for three days! Time passed and the rain became heavy sheets of water and the surrounding town shut down around 10 p.m. As the time went from 10 to midnight to 2 a.m., the silence grew and our compact rental car seemed to get smaller and smaller.
People were missing their flights home, children were crying, women were struggling to find enough wilderness to use the restroom—all while we sat in silence. About 3:30 a.m. we developed a plan for me to walk the coastline back to our room, gather our things and at least make phone calls if we were not going to make our room check out or flights due to this road closure.
Just after 5 a.m. we were allowed to drive out of the town and return to our room to get two hours of sleep and spend a day of traveling.
At the time, there was nothing positive or funny about the situation. However, today we are both able to look back and have a good laugh, as well as, see that we were given a taste right off the bat to what real marriage would look like—roadblocks, rain, and potential for blame, but we persevered and learned to tackle our problems together.
Malia Oliver
***
My wedding day was everything I ever dreamed about. It was a beautiful ceremony and my husband and I were surrounded by many family and friends. They all wished us luck as we left that night for our honeymoon.
I had won an all-expense paid trip to the Dominican Republic. I was so excited to go. I couldn’t wait to get on the beach. Well, my excitement bubble soon burst. We landed in La Romana at a small airport. We stood watching everyone’s luggage go by on the conveyor belt waiting for our luggage to come across. It was left in Miami.
We arrived at our resort and realized that not many people spoke English. We didn’t speak Spanish, so communicating was very difficult. We didn’t get our luggage until around 5 p.m. the next day, so for the first two days we walked on the beach in rolled-up jeans and tennis shoes.
On the third day, we got up, put our swimming suits on and headed to the beach. We hadn’t been in the water for more than ten minutes and it started pouring rain. We only had one more full day there, so for the next day, we planned to go on this boating/snorkeling trip, an all-day outing. We got up early and headed to beach only to find out that the Domincan Guard cancelled the trip. We were totally bummed.
Well, the next day was check-out day. We boarded our flight and headed home. We didn’t get home until about 1:30 a.m. We were so tired and ready to crash. It was then when I noticed our roof was leaking … onto our bed! So then we had to move furniture before we could even go to bed.
It’s been a little over a month now since we got married and we still laugh about it!
Katrena Mueller
***
Because my husband, Travis, is in the Navy, he wasn’t able to get enough time off work for our honeymoon until 9 months later. In March of 2006, we took our first trip to Rome. Neither of us had been there before and it was an amazing city. It was chilly and rainy most of the week, but we carried our umbrellas and enjoyed the sites, architecture, food, and culture wholeheartedly.
We did have quite a few mishaps. Being in an unknown city and not being able to speak the language always seems to invite some sort of crisis. Our very first evening, we were learning how to use the bus system. We decided to just ride around and see where we might end up. Well we didn’t know that the buses in Rome only go one-way. Once they reach the end of their route, you must disembark and find a new bus and usually a new bus stop to catch a bus headed in the direction you wish to go. We weren’t expecting this, and after an hour we found ourselves at an empty bus stop far from the center of the city … and our hotel.
We didn’t start to panic until we realized that the city bus service was about to completely shut down in less than 30 minutes. We were going to be stranded miles from our hotel. We started to walk and look for a bus stop that might have a bus headed back towards our hotel. And then it started to drizzle.
After watching a few buses go by that weren’t headed anywhere near our hotel, we managed to get an empty one to stop and begged the driver (who spoke a tiny bit of English) to abandon his route and take us to our hotel. Since the bus service was about to cease in a few minutes anyway, he agreed to help two poor, stranded, stupid Americans and drove us to our hotel. That was our first and very important lesson about public transportation in Rome.
The second problem occurred when I developed a cold early on in our trip. After a few days I found a pharmacy and asked the woman at the counter for a cold medicine that would help me sleep. She sold me a syrup that had no English anywhere on the package. It did include a dosage cup, so I filled it and took one cupful that night. The next thing I remember is that when I finally regained consciousness, it was 6 p.m. the following evening. My husband was sitting next to me, reading, with a few empty bags of snacks that we had brought with us for the plane flight. He never tried to wake me, and never left the hotel room. He said he figured I needed the rest. I guess maybe he was right, but it was quite a disappointment to realize we’d lost an entire day of our vacation due to my cold and Italian cough syrup that was way too strong.
Brigette Chapman
***
My wife and I were married in Miami, Florida, on a hot Saturday night. After our small wedding party ended, we had to move furniture from my wife’s apartment to my apartment as a part of the end of her lease and my parents staying at my apartment.
I had an old car, which my friends had seriously decorated. To drive it I had to wash all of the toothpaste, soap and shaving cream. But I had rented a car to drive to our destinations. When we finally cleaned my car and got the rental car, we discovered that it had a partially flat tire and a plug in it. It took forever to get the replacement car.
When we arrived at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale it was about 2 a.m., and the champagne bottle, which our best man had ordered for us, was floating in the water instead of packed in ice.
The next day we headed for St. Augustine to stay at a condominium resort. My wife was slowing becoming quite ill with a bad cold and slept the entire trip. About half way up the state, the air conditioning went out in our rental car. When we arrived it was approaching dusk. There were no lights on in the office. We could find no one to help us to our room. We were locked out. Fortunately we found a nearby hotel and spent the night.
After discussing the problem with the condominium staff the next day and seeing the now wilted flowers I had ordered for my wife, we decided to go to other destinations. My wife’s cold was really bad and I was coming down with the cold too. By about the third night we were both on cold medication and sleeping in separate bedrooms, coughing and hacking away. We did have a nice stay of a couple of days at Amelia Island recovering.
However, we survived, have had four wonderful children and have been married 27 years. By the way, the first honeymoon was so much of a challenge, about 15 years later we went on a second honeymoon to New York City, stayed at a nice hotel and had a really perfect time.
Bill Wicks
***
My wife and I were married on July 24, 2004. After the wedding we drove from Frostproof, Florida, to Jacksonville, Florida, where we would be staying for the next week or so—we thought.
We finally got to the condo that we were going to be staying at around 12:30 in the morning. Which, by the way, belonged to someone neither one of us had ever met. The owner was (and still is) a good friend of my grandmother. By the time we finally got everything unloaded, it was closer to 1:00 and we were both exhausted from the long day.
The next morning my wife of not even 24 hours was taking a bath when low and behold there was knock at the door. The first thing that came to my mind was who in the world knows that we are here, besides Grandma and her friend and they wouldn’t be bothering us. So I went and opened the door and it was the maintenance guy. He told me that the people below us said that water was coming down the side of their walls. After he looked around the condo he couldn’t find anything wrong. After that we tried to regroup ourselves and we went out to enjoy the day.
Well, the next day the same thing happened. But this time we discovered that the bathroom was flooded and that it was leaking into the rest of the condo. I had to call the lady who owned the condo to tell her that her condo was flooding. She came over with her son to clean up the mess. We felt horrible about messing up her condo, and she felt bad that this was happening on our honeymoon so she put us up in a very nice hotel for two nights while the tried to fixed the problem.
After the two nights in the hotel we went back to the condo and the next morning it happened again, but this time we discovered that the overflow valve in tub was broken. So we called the lady back and told her what the problem was and said that we were just going to go home. We just told her that we were glad we had the chance to stay there for a few days and were very grateful for everything she had done for us. On the way home we got a flat tire and realized that the extra money we thought we had was going to have to go to the car to fix more than just a flat tire.
Looking back at that week all we can do is laugh and realize that God was showing us in a very humorous way that marriage can be very trying at timed. If you allow him to be Lord of your marriage, then when life throws you those curve balls you can handle them a lot easier. You will also be able to look back one day and laugh and realize that God was just trying to show that he has everything under control.
Joshua Pierce
***
Our honeymoon was going to be the greatest adventure. We had invited our bridal party and close friends to join us on a Caribbean cruise. But first we were going to spend two nights in Miami, Fla. Being the planner that I am, I searched the Internet for quite a while looking for a reasonably priced hotel that would accommodate all 16 travelers. The hotel needed to be able to transport us from the airport to the hotel, and then from the hotel to the ship dock.
Finally one day, I found it! I sent the link to many girlfriends for approval, and it passed everyone! The pictures on the Internet looked fantastic. It had a pool, entertainment, and a restaurant, and was directly across the street from a mall. We called immediately to make reservations. They promised to pick all 16 of us up from the airport and deliver us to the ship like we needed.
The wedding went off without a hitch. The following Friday we all boarded our flight to Florida, ready for a vacation (getting away from wedding madness). Before we left St. Louis on our flight, my husband diligently called the hotel to confirm our reservations and the shuttle from the airport. Everything was in place.
We arrived in Miami as scheduled. When we got off the plane, we called for the shuttle. They said it was on the way. We all grabbed our baggage and headed outside to await our ride. 20 minutes passed, 40 minutes passed, soon an hour had passed and we were still waiting. My husband called the hotel again. They were on their way. Another 20 minutes passed, another 40 minutes passed, we called again. Finally, about two and a half hours after our flight landed [the van arrived]. The hotel had sent a van that could hold around eight people and some luggage.
The driver eventually shoved 12 people into the van, and most luggage. Four people had to catch a cab and follow behind.
Finally, to the hotel. The driver pulled into the parking lot of a hotel and kept going. Our hotel was behind the somewhat nicer looking hotel on the road. The fun could not end there.
We went to check in. There was no entertainment restaurant. The only pool was a giant puddle (literally) in the parking lot. We all went to our rooms. My room with my husband and two friends was disgusting. It was the type of room you expect CSI investigators to be in. It looked like the bathroom hadn’t been cleaned in years. It looked like a blood stain was on the floor.
The boys were scared to leave us alone. And yet another room had a stranger walk right in with a key! It didn’t take long for us to leave our rooms and get out front. By this time it was 9 p.m. What were we going to do? We actually had a police officer tell us that he wouldn’t recommend us hanging outside!
Hungry and frustrated, my husband talked to the front desk. They were refusing to refund our money. After talking for quite some time, we finally got our money back. After three hours of trying to find somewhere else to go, we were picked up by cabs and taken to the Hilton. By the time we reached the Hilton it was after midnight. The front desk was nice enough to give us hotel chocolate bars for dinner.
Although our arrival and first night in Miami were not as planned, the following days couldn’t have been any better. As much as tempers flared and frustrations rose that first night, we all look back and laugh now.
Elizabeth Jackson
