The Beginning

Some of you may be wondering the meaning behind the title of our blog--"Perfectly Blended". Following is a story that B read at both our rehearsal dinner and wedding reception (over 5 years ago)! This will help you understand why B and I are Perfectly Blended!

UPDATED 3/14/13:  Obviously my blog is no longer called Perfectly Blended.  This is what my blog was originally called.  I started our blog before we got married to keep family & friends updated on our lives and we decided to call it Perfectly Blended because that was our theme for our wedding! 

"On the 24 of January 1942 a young couple was married. This is there story....

It was the end of December 1941. The couple had been engaged for a little while now and they were looking to get married. With the recent bombing of Pearl Harbor the groom knew that his draft # would soon be up. The bride was a school teacher. In that time school teachers were not allowed to wed. So this couple decided to wait and have the wedding after the groom returned from war. This decision was made around the 1st of January. However, two and half weeks later the bride came to get the groom and they took a trip to Minneapolis, KS to get a marriage license. Shortly after that they went to Salina, KS to talk to a pastor. That very same day the groom bought a ring and they were married that evening--on January 24, 1942. For their honeymoon they stayed at the Warren Hotel. The next day the married couple returned to Galva and told the groom's parents of their marriage. The following Monday the couple both went about their lives as if nothing had changed. The following weekend the couple went to visit the bride's parents and informed them that they had been married the weekend before. That following Monday the groom left for war. He was gone from February to June. Then the bride moved to be with him at Camp Crowder, Neosho, MO. To this day they are happily married...The couple I speak of is the happily married Chet and Dorothy Kimble. (grandparents of Andrea)



Carrying on with tradition Harold and Kathy Harris....

They were dating about 5 months when they decided to get married. So after a long time of being engaged (about 27 min. and 43 seconds), the phone call was made to spread the news of their engagement. The first call was to Kathy's parents. They told them the news and I am sure her parents were very happy for the two of them. Then they told them the date of the wedding would be December 9, 1972--about 2 weeks from the current date. So they were indeed married on December 9, 1972. They have been happily married for over 30 years now. (Andrea's mom and dad)



Now this is our story......

Andrea and I met at a coffee shop in Manhattan, KS. I was currently stationed at Ft.Riley, KS. She was in college when we met. I was with a couple of friends and I asked her and her friends if they wanted to play Scrabble with us. I am sure they were all thinking (ugh army guys). Well I asked Andrea out after we finished playing. I asked her because she was the quite one. We dated for about a month and then she moved to Wichita for the summer to do an internship. When she got back from Wichita in August I left for Kuwait (the first time I was there). After being in Kuwait for 5 months and having a long distance relationship we could start dating again. I got back from Kuwait in December 2001 and in December 2002 we got engaged. Soon after that I found out that I was going to be shipped out to war. Iraq was heating up and my unit was one of the first to go.

Andrea and I wanted to get away from the tradition I have just told you about with the two generations before us. That is why you are all here today (August 19, 2003). To break that tradition with a big old fashioned fancy wedding. Thank you all for coming and celebrating our marriage with us.

Unfortunately that did not happen. We were planning on getting married in August and here we are in August and we are already married. But, as of January 16, 2003 we are a happily married couple. I was getting ready to go to war and I wanted Andrea to be in the "know". If we were not married while I was gone to war she would have no idea what was happening or had already happened to me. Since we were married, if something happened to me she would have been taken care of. Once again, we thank you all for coming!"

1. B and Andrea, outside where we met, Radina's Coffee Shop in Manhattan, KS

B and Andrea at our "actual wedding" January 16, 2003

B and Andrea at the August 9th wedding--when everyone found out we were already married!

So, that is our story! We decided for the theme of our wedding in August be Perfectly Blended since we met in a coffee shop and it was meant to be! Hope you all enjoyed the little ride down memory lane.