A Wedding Story

Been down with the flu the last couple of days, so I've been thinking about how I got so old and decrepit. It didn't help that my daughter got her first college admission acceptance -- that is one sure way to make you know you're not all that young anymore. Anyway, a posting by Dan at Transparent Thought about how to tell if you're a Texan caught my eye, particularly one of the examples: Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date. Although I'm not a Texan, I do know this person: me.
So there I was -- finishing up prototype training here in Idaho in June 1985. I had just decided to marry the most wonderful woman in the world, but we had to figure out a good wedding date. I'd been picked up for the Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Program, and was going to be starting school at the University of Kansas in August. We decided that logistics wouldn't allow a wedding before September, so the ceremony would have to be in Lincoln, Nebraska, where my family lived (and still does). So, I called my mom, and asked when the first open Saturday would be in September. In Nebraska, the phrase "open Saturday" in the September through November time frame means "one without a home football game". She said that the season opener, against Florida State, wasn't until the 14th, so the 7th was open. I called my bride, and we set the date.
A couple of weeks later, my mom calls to tell me that the NU-FSU game had been moved up a week for television, but that left the 14th open. So, I called my bride, and told her the bad news, but that it would be OK, since the wedding would only be delayed a week. For some reason, such as that she was from Idaho and didn't understand Nebraska, she wouldn't move her wedding for a football game -- something about the "invitations already being at the printers". Luckily, we had planned an evening wedding, and the game was in the afternoon, so we would have guests.
The day of the wedding arrived. We had scored tickets for most of my wife's family, so most everyone went to the game. (Some people had offered me tickets as a wedding present, but my bride said that if I went, I could forget about the wedding.) We were driving around doing last minute reception preparations, along with my brother, and listening to the game when the NU fullback busted up the middle for a long TD run. My brother and I started screaming (luckily, it being during the game, the streets of Lincoln were deserted) and my bride inexplicably starts crying. Yes, I understand it was emotional (the TD broke a scoreless tie) but I was still surprised by her reaction.
It turned out that the wedding party had to leave at halftime (they didn't miss much -- there was no scoring in the 2nd half of a 17-13 FSU win) and I took my bride to her hotel so she could get dressed. Unfortunately, by the time the bride's party left their hotel, the game had finished, and the church was on the other side of town, which meant they had to drive through all the post-game traffic. In the end, they arrived at the church at 6:58 for a 7:00 wedding, so everything worked out great... even if she still roots for Florida State whenever they play Nebraska...

Going deep...