My Story: Getting Married - My Way

It's been a little while since I last wrote a blog but with good reason. I very fortunately managed to marry the most perfect woman and go on a short break with her afterwards. Its safe to say that it was madness leading up to the wedding and unfortunately the blog had to be neglected.

I wanted to speak about the wedding and how I managed to get through it with my current ability level. For those who don't know, I can stand, walk very short distances with some assistance, a walking frame or someone's arm and a stick. The rest of the time however I get about using a mobility scooter. Leading up to the wedding,I was filled with nerves and apprehension. Not because I was getting married, but because I couldn’t do things the ‘normal’ way.

My first worry was standing at the altar. Although it's not moving, there's only so long I can stand for until my muscles start to falter. Nevertheless the venue were very accommodating. They set me up a seat at the altar, I stayed seated whilst everyone came down the aisle and whilst our beautiful little flower girls scattered their petals. They were so good and brave, they really did us proud! Then I knew it was the moment that Sharn was due to come down the aisle. So I tried to get up the most graceful way I could and put everything into making sure that when I turned around to see my beautiful bride to be, that I didn’t become weak at the legs. I don't quite know how I did it, because when I saw her, the words really cannot describe how amazing my wife looked. She genuinely made my heart melt at the instant of seeing her.

My second worry was certain segments of the wedding breakfast. Firstly, it was decided prior, we wouldn’t have the traditional walking into the seated guests to be welcomed as the new Mr & Mrs Kendall. We decided to be seated first and the guests would come in second, logistically trying to get between seated guests tables on a mobility scooter and around the back of the top table. It was never going to work. While it didn’t play on my mind the same as being able to do something physically as it was pre planned, it did play on my mind the fact that my wife wouldn’t get that moment and as always in situations like this, I can't help but think if she had chose someone else then she wouldn’t have to deal with that predicament. Then obviously I was nervous about the speech, but I think that it’s pretty normal for anyone to be nervous about this.

Another point I was worried about initially were the pictures. The fact that I would be pictured on my scooter. It might seem silly to some, but when you think of a fairytale wedding picture, who exactly pictures someone disabled sitting on a mobility aid!? Then I was worried about having my walking stick in the picture. The thing that I think settled my mind with this was thinking that, when I look back in 5 years time, when I’m full time in a wheelchair, I will be grateful that I was able to have any photos in a standing position at all. So I tried to relax the best I could and enjoy the moments that me and my new wife were sharing together.

The last thing, and the thing that had been playing on my mind basically every single day leading up to the wedding, was the thought of having to do a first dance. I mean, I am a massive introvert anyway and the thought of having to do a first dance fully able scares me to death. I didn’t want to deny my wife of this moment though, so you can’t exactly call what I did dancing, but I did use up every last ounce of my energy to stand there in the middle of the dance floor clinging onto my wife for dear life. At least I had an excuse for terrible dancing on this occasion!

I think theres is probably so many more moments throughout the day which I could recall, but hopefully that gave you just a snippet of what we went through as a couple with a disabled person in it. There was so much stressing throughout the day and leading up to it. I know everyone goes through that, but I can’t help but feel that we must have gone through it more than most.

Thankfully we both absolutely loved the day and in the grand scheme of things, everything went absolutely swimmingly.

Be Kind.
Love,
Jonno.

P.s. My friend is running a fundraiser for me and my family in order to raise money to try and make my home more accessible. If you have time, please head over to the go fund me page to check it out and then if you can, please consider leaving a donation and sharing the page within your networks. Anything and everything you can do will help out massively.

Go fund me: https://gofund.me/b3a4cb7b