Our wedding night was spent with me sobbing in my husbands arms. I can still say to this day that I have never experienced such pain as bad as the day of our wedding and after. Jimmy left the hotel at 3am to buy me an ice pack, orajel, anything to relieve my pain. We left a few hours before the official check-out of our hotel in the morning and went back to his parents house, and our new home. All of his family were there and as soon as they saw me, they were extremely concerned and urging us to go to the emergency room. As I looked in the mirror for the first time in a few hours, I was in shock. The swelling had gone all the way up to my eye and my left eye was almost completely swollen shut. Shortly after, Jimmy and my mother-in-law took me to a University with a school of Dentistry because we didn’t have the insurance to afford a dentist. As we waited in the lobby, I laid the right side of my head on Jimmy’s shoulder and tried to cover my left cheek with my hair so that I wouldn’t get stares. When it was my turn to get called in, I held his hand and walked in the room full of dental students, and dentists working on patients. Then the stares came. It was like a ripple effect. One by one, heads turned and eyes were widened. The poor dental student who sat me down and got everything ready for the actual Edodontist was so nervous his hands were trembling as he tried to look at the inside of my mouth.

A while later, the Edodontist came. After he gave me what seemed like 50 shots to numb me, he was able to see what the problem was. I had an absessed tooth. Apparently it’s quite rare for someone’s face to swell up that much from an absessed tooth, but we were told that if we waited even a day or more longer, the infection could have gone to my brain and I could have died. The whole surgery for that day took 4 and a half hours. And during all that time, Jimmy sat on the other side of me and never let go of my hand. It probably sounded like I was getting tortured, but I didn’t care. I was squeezing his hand as hard as I could, and trying my hardest not to scream at the top of my lungs due to the excruciating pain. this next part is graphic, so if you get disturbed easily, you might want to skip over it.

Due to the amount of fluid in my cheek, he had to cut a slit into my gums, and it had to stay an open wound for a few days to get all the puss and fluid out and to bring the swelling in my face down. Disgusting, right? My dentist sympathized with us when Jimmy told him that we got married the day before and were actually supposed to be on our honeymoon. He ended up knocking off the price by a good amount, which was such a blessing because we had to blow most of our wedding money on my surgeries. In total, I had to make three trips to the dentist to get my tooth fixed. Each trip took about 4 hours.

My husband took care of me and was there throughout every surgery. He was so used to being there, that him and my dentist started to chit chat and bond while working on my tooth. When I think of all this and the days following my recovery, I can’t help but smile and be reminded of how amazing he is and how lucky I am to be his wife. He (with the help of my mother-in-law) made all my food and brought it to me in bed, he helped change my bandages on my gums and checked to see if stuff was coming out (I know, I’m sorry…I’m getting grossed out just typing it), he did so much for me. And let me tell you, Jimmy doesn’t handle that stuff very well. He gets light headed at the sight of blood. But I don’t know how he did it…he never even made a face or showed any type of disgust when taking care of me.

He laughed with me and poked fun at me when I was drugged up and kooky on the meds. He made light out of a situation that was really hard for me. And when I was all better and the reality hit me, the fact that I didn’t get to feel or look beautiful like every bride should, he consoled me and let me grieve and cry. He gently assured me that he didn’t see a swollen face on our wedding day, but the face of the woman he loves and can’t wait to spend the rest of his life with. Tears of happiness and gratitude are welling up in my eyes as I type, and I’m reminded of how much God blessed me when he put Jimmy in my life. After a few weeks had passed and I was recovered, we pressed the play button on our newlywed life and enjoyed our honeymoon up in the mountains.

As we say goodbye to our newlywed days and welcome two years of marriage, I know that marrying Jimmy was one of the best things I’ve ever done. God has been so good to us and I can’t wait for all the years to come and all the memories we’ll make together.

(Here are some photos that my sis-in-law Jhen took of me a few months ago. I’m wearing the hair garland that I wore for my wedding, and my original wedding dress. The one in my wedding photos I chose later and decided to go with that at the last minute, but looking at this dress I wish I wore this one instead! These were really fun to take and I’m glad I have photos in my wedding dress that were taken later…after my cheek shrunk

Thanks so much for reading my story! I loved writing it out and finally being able to share it with you all

In light of mine and Jimmy’s 2 year anniversary today, I thought I’d share the story and the things that happened on this day two years ago. I can say with confidence that mine and Jimmy’s wedding day was definitely unique. Not because of how perfect and special it was (although it was those things) or the look on his face when he first saw me walking down the aisle. I’m sure every bride probably thinks that her wedding was pretty much the best and most unique wedding ever, which is totally justifiable. Your wedding is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life! However, our wedding day was unique for a different reason. It’s taken me a long time to be able to talk about this without getting emotional, and since today is such a meaningful day to us, I wanted to share our story. In detail.

In order to start this right, I’m gonna have to take you a few steps back before the wedding to our rehearsal dinner. After our rehearsal, the bridal party and us went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. While we were there, I was in the middle of eating a nacho chip when I felt a sharp pain in my top left molar. The rehearsal was on a Thursday, and our wedding was two days later, the following Saturday. From Thursday night and on, the pain never subsided. In fact, it only got worse. My tooth was throbbing and I was miserable. With hardly any time left, I didn’t think I should risk going to a dentist and just prayed that the pain would subside for our day. During that time, I downed pain killers like nobody’s business and mostly slept. On the night before our wedding, Jimmy was busy enjoying his last night as a single man with all his groomsmen and friends, having no idea about how much worse the pain was. I’m sure if I called and told him, he would have dropped what he was doing to come take care of me, but I didn’t want to take away his bachelor party. So I called my mother-in-law in tears, and I prayed with my MOH’s mother, who’s house I was staying at because that’s where the wedding was to be held.

On the morning of our wedding, I woke up at 7am and looked in the mirror. My left cheek was starting to swell. I called my sis-in-law Jhen in a panic and asked if her and my MIL had any suggestions on how to ease the swelling that was growing gradually by the hour. Jhen called a dentist she was friends with and thanks to them, I was able to get a prescription to pick up at a pharmacy to help with the pain. It helped, but unfortunately the swelling wasn’t getting any better. By 1pm, when the wedding was officially starting, my left cheek was VERY noticably larger than my right. I remember getting my makeup and hair done. My friend Jenny did it and when she came to the house to start, I had to tell her there was a change of plans, and that because of the swelling, my hair needed to be down. I had planned on getting my hair done into a low, side, updo. But I knew that if my hair was up, my cheek would be way more noticable. As I held back tears while she worked on my hair, I asked God why He would let this happen to me. Why, of all days, on my WEDDING DAY, when every single eye would be on me? I winced as she put my makeup on my face because my cheek was so sensitive and painful. I took one last look in the mirror before it was time to get married…and I didn’t feel beautiful in any way.

When the time came to finally walk, I took a deep breath, tried my hardest to be confident and forget about my swollen face, and I went. Everyone stood up, and as I glanced at the crowd, I saw nothing but beaming smiles. For the majority of the morning, I was terrified that I would get strange looks and see people whispering about my face. But I saw nothing of the sort. I looked to my left and each one of my bridesmaids had tears in their eyes and the same smiles that the crowd had. I was comforted knowing that if people were wondering about my face, they were at least not showing it. Then I saw him. He was smiling from ear to ear. At that moment, I realized that it didn’t matter how I looked to him. He still found me beautiful, and he made me forget about my biggest distraction. We said our vows and that whole time, the pain in my tooth was forgotten. He was the only person and the only thing on my mind. Our ceremony was beautiful and the look on his face as we became husband and wife will forever be burned into my memory. After we said our vows, I prayed that even if my cheek swelled to the size of a tennis ball, that God would give me peace about it, and not let my mind be distracted from enjoying my new husband and our wedding.

Taking our pictures surprisingly wasn’t that hard. We had so much fun goofing off with our bridal party and posing for photos. The swelling was still growing by the hour and me being slightly embarrassed, I hid my face in most of the photos and even smiling was starting to be too painful. But still, we made the most of it. Naturally, my husband was concerned and was asking me every half an hour how I was feeling. I told him that it hurts, but I just want to enjoy this day and see how I’m feeling by the end of the night. So we did. We enjoyed our day. We laughed, danced, and enjoyed the first hours of our newly married life.

I wish I could say that by the end of the night, all ended well and my health was not in danger….but the rest of the story will continue on tomorrow, so hang tight and until then…