There's Something Sexy About the Rain- Keith Urban

Hey guys!

If you're reading this, I'm in Sedona with my new hubby.

If I had to bet, I'd bet I couldn't be happier!

And it may be a little drastic, but I'd also be willing to bet I don't really miss you guys, sorry.

While I'm gone, you'll hear from some other lovely bloggers.

Today's guest post will be from Kara.

Take it away girlfriend!

It rained on my graduation day. It poured, in fact. So much so, that my graduation was rained out. I graduated in the damp, musty, claustrophobic school auditorium while my family sat in another building and watched my ruby red high heels click across the stage and accept my diploma. After the ceremony there was not congregation of family and friend in the middle of the football field. There was only running for cover to avoid the rain and keep graduation curls intact. I don’t have the traditional parent-flanking-the-graduate picture. I have no pictures with anyone in my family except my mom, in fact, because she was willing to brave the downpour to celebrate my milestone.

It rained on my wedding day, too. After the ceremony I sat in my ivory dress and purple tennis shoes in the bridal room and waited for news of the weather- waited to find out if there would be anyone waiting outside the temple doors as Scott and I greeted the world for the first time as husband and wife. They waited, of course. Family and friends, bridesmaids dressed in impractically thin purple dress, all smiling at us from underneath umbrellas. The plan had originally been to take all the bridal party pictures outside immediately after the ceremony. Instead, our photographers hastily snapped a few pictures while my mom unsuccessfully tried to keep the hem of my dress dry. The revised plan became indoor pictures an hour before the reception started. The resulting pictures are of the bridal party and families crammed into a corner of our reception hall in front of some fake ivy instead of on the sunny temple grounds like I’d spent the last 3 months envisioning.

The day after the wedding Scott and I hopped a San Francisco-bound plane. We spent the next 5 days hiding from the rain in our hotel room, bundling up occasionally to brave the weather. We were brave in long enough bouts to ride the cable cars, eat in China Town, and go shopping on the pier. One cold drizzly afternoon we tried and failed to get into the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, so we immediately went back to our hotel and spent the rest of the day having food delivered to our room and watching Jersey Shore. During the trip the camera came out a couple of times, but mostly we just laughed and kissed and enjoyed running away together- something we had dreamed of doing for far too long.

I think my love affair with the rain began when I was 6 years old, the summer my family got caught in a thunderstorm while cruising in our speed boat in the middle of Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania. The sky and the water raged around our boat, threatening {it seems} to swallow us whole. And yet. There was not a trace of fear in my 6 year old body- just the most alive feeling I’d experienced in my then very short life. And wouldn’t you know, it was all thanks to the rain.

That perfect rainy week spent on the lake, that one memory of a thunderstorm, even, is enough for me to know- to recognize a sign from the heavens when I see one. I was told countless times that rain on your wedding day is good luck. But the people who told me that had no idea how right they were.
At my graduation and at my wedding I stood on the precipice of a new life, excited and anxious and positive of what was before me. And so the rain was my secret sign, and it has taught me two things. The first is that no matter what, life will be wonderful, just like it was that day on the lake. Second, it will not be what I expect or plan- not even close. Venues will be changed, plans will be scrapped, and pictures will be ruined, like it or not. Life after graduation did not go at all according to plan. And married life? Different than I expected in a thousand individual ways. But it is also better. So.much.better.

Every time it rains on our desert town, I am reminded of that, and I cannot help but smile.

p.s. Good luck Alexis & Clint! I am so excited to hear about all your newlywed adventures!