20 Years Ago

It's hard to believe it's been two decades since the picture above was taken. That was at our wedding rehearsal and we were giggly and excited to finally be where we'd been longing to be for years. Getting married!
The vows we exchanged with each other are the same vows that appear in my book, For Better or For Granted. Those vows were some I heard my dad use in someone else's wedding, and when it was my turn, I asked him if we could use them too. he looked through his files and printed them out for us.
My father-in-law performed our ceremony (nice having two preachers in the family so you have options). You can see him in the background of this photo.

Thing is, when we first started the rehearsal, the friend we'd asked to be our wedding coordinator told us we couldn't actually stand up on stage to practice the parts. She said it was bad luck for the bride and groom to stand there until the actual ceremony.
Here's the deal. I don't believe in bad luck. Also, I had waited a long time to get married. I wasn't letting anyone take my place, even if it was a dear friend. So, I refused to let that happen. My wedding rehearsal, my way of doing things. Seems like our luck has held considering we'll celebrate 20 years of being married tomorrow.
The tradition did, however, make it into one of my other books. Window of the Heart has a wedding rehearsal scene and it was perfect to use this to make my main characters get up on stage across from each other, pretending to be the bride and groom. They weren't happy with each other at the time, so it's a tense scene, but also full of romance bubbling just under the surface. So, something good did come out of that crazy idea from my own wedding rehearsal.
20 years has been filled with eight homes, four cities, seven vehicles, four cats, two children, about seventeen or so jobs, fourteen books and counting, and so much love, laughter, memories, a few struggles, and faith. Are we the same young couple who stood on that stage 20 years ago? Yes. And no. We're a lot smarter now, for sure. But I wouldn't trade the last 20 years for anything. Here's to twenty-plus more.
Do you have any interesting rehearsal stories? Do you love finding out an author has hidden some of her real life in her books?