Hideaway Marriage

We decided to elope. We had not yet received blessings from his side and we were fearful of what the INS might send him back to Pakistan. At the time there was a “special” investigation for all men of a certain nationality and age as a result of a clean-sweep after 9/11.

We did not tell anyone of the elopement including my Mother and my friends. We did not want anyone to think that we married just for legal reasons. Matter of fact, my DH pretty much left the planning all to me. He kept saying that he wanted me to be sure that I wanted to go through with this. He did not want me to ever feel like he was pressuring me because of his situation.

So I scheduled a justice of peace ceremony in a small town two hours away from where we were. I scheduled it in the middle of the week and called in sick to work. The night beforehand, I bought a new dress from a department store. The dress was short and black with red flowers.

The morning of our marriage, there was a huge blizzard. All of the schools and major highways were closed. The State Highway patrol issued a warning and urged everyone to stay off the roads. We waited until three hours before we had to be there and decided to go ahead with plans. It took over three hours to get to the bed and breakfast in which we had scheduled our ceremony.

The officiator and our witnesses (the owners of the bed and breakfast) were waiting for us. We literally drove in and rushed into the ceremony. I had to wear boots with my dress because the snow was so high.

The ceremony was so intimate and beautiful. It was held in front of a fire place in a log cabin that was over 150 years old. The readings that this stranger picked were beautiful. It is a night that I will cherish forever. After the ceremony, we were served a private dinner with just the two of us and the warm fire.

The next month, my DH’s parents came to visit. They stayed in OUR new condominium while I stayed elsewhere. This time I was going to meet his parents, but I had no idea where or how the situation would transpire.

The night we were to meet, I was asked to show up at our nightly hang out which was the local coffee house. The goal was to make the situation as casual as possible. So, all of my friends were ordered to be at the coffee shop acting like this was any other night.

My DH brought his parents in as a drop in. They did not even know that I was to be there. So there I am waiting to meet my father-in-law for the first time ever and he didn’t even know it.

My DEAR, sweet hubby introduces us and then conveniently disappears by sitting at another table with our friends. So there I am sitting at a table with my mother and father-in-law who had just been ambushed. THANK God that my mother-in-law is the most awesome person in the world. She took charge and took a hold of the situation. It was so brief and awkward. I know, not quite Bollywood style, but that was it. At the end of the night, Abu said something along the lines of, “so you want to marry my son…” and gave me a laugh and smile.

I felt so bad for them. They had never dreamed that their only son was to marry this white Christian woman. Worse off, I was a couple of years older than him and an American.

So now what? How do we transition from this point into the married couple that nobody knows that we are????