Vignette 5: Rain, rain, go away

When Econo Boy and I decided to have our ceremony outside, we of course made sure we had a contingency plan for bad weather, but we never thought for a moment that we'd actually *need* it. Colorado is bone dry in the summer. Rainstorms in the summer are short, few, and far between ...

... except, as it turns out, in the summer of 2009, the wettest Colorado summer since 1882, when they began tracking rainfall.

The forecast all week had been for "possible PM thunderstorms." And sure enough, just as my bridesmaids and I left the salon, it started sprinkling. The rain soon cut out, but three hours later, as the ceremony setup was completed, it began to rain again.

To my surprise, I was completely calm as I watched the drops fall from the window of the bridal dressing room. It was still an hour before the ceremony, and in my heart of hearts I believed that the patch of blue sky was coming towards us just quickly enough.

For the first look and the wedding party photos, our brave photographer posed us under the mansion's awning and stood out in the rain, cheerfully ignoring the drops as he called instructions to us. (I am absolutely dying to get our photos back!) I periodically shook my bouquet dramatically at the sky and told the rain to stop, never seriously considering that it wouldn't.

And then somehow, miraculously, as the guests began to arrive ... it stopped. My optimism was rewarded! Once the clear weather had held for 15 minutes, our wonderful DOC declared the ceremony a "go!"