I wanted to post in this forum because we are a much smaller group and it's more personal.

If everything goes as planned, Matthew and I will be married 28 Oct 04.:p I am very excited and am anticipating "our" moment.

Has anyone had a prison wedding? Ours will be at Tucker with Chaplain Threat officiating. For anyone that knows Chap. Threat, what is he like? Is he REAL strict on following the rules? Etc.

Any info, opinions, or advice welcome.

Congratulations!! on your upcoming event. That is really great.

Congrats! I hope it's great! Sorry i have no info though!

CONGRATULATIONS!! :) Don't know any info on getting married in prison, but I wish you the best. You'll have to tell us how everything goes!

Congrats!!! I do not know anything about getting married in prison. But I wish the both of you the very best.

I am like the others, don't have any info. on a wedding but sure want to hear about it, and I know ya'll will be very happy, bless you both
pods

Just wanted to post an update.

I'm going to walk ya'll through my 90 days of waiting for our wedding.

Matthew made me wait to get married because he wanted me to be sure that this is what I wanted. Finally the end of July, he submitted the paperwork for us to get married. Oct 28 was set for our wedding at Tucker.

Then in September, he got into a 309 at Pope County. So we had to make sure that we would still be able to keep our wedding date and see how they perform their weddings. After a few weeks, everything was ready to go. I looked all over stores and the Internet for the perfect ring for him. I finally found it! I bought it.

Then the begining of October, he was sent back to Diagnostic. Again, we had to make sure that we were good to go. They could not find our application with the warden's signature and without that we could not get married. We would have to reapply and wait another 90 days. Now I'm getting really worried. Finally they located the paper by mid October. Checks were issued by his account to pay for marriage lis. and transportation.

That same week, he gets sent back to Tucker. Now I'm FRANTIC! They explained that due to the fact everything that we have went through so far, they have agreed to let us keep the same date. But, now the amount for transportation is more so they need another check. I was told everything is ok though and it will be taken care of. I am to be at the courthouse in Pine Bluff at 11 am on 28 Oct. FINALLY!! I was sooooo relieved!

I was told that he could only have a plain wedding band. The ring I bought had diamonds so he could not have it. So again, I'm looking all over for another ring and I only have about two weeks left. I find another one that I LOVED on ebay but had to bid and win. I won the ring on Monday the 19th. Then I could not get ahold of the seller to see if they will overnight the ring to me. I finally got ahold of them Tuesday afternoon. Yes they will overnight it to me. Yippie! I got it Wednesday afternoon. Whooh. That was a close one.

I made all the arrangements for my kids and job and getting everything ready for the BIG day Wednesday. Then I get a call from the Chaplain. There was a problem with the checks. They have lost one and without it - no marriage. After many phone calls between me, Tucker, Pine Bluff, and Central Banking, the check was located by 4pm. But now, that since they did not have the check earlier, transportation canceled the run to the courthouse and scheduled other things in its spot. The Chaplain wanted to know if I could postpone the wedding until next week. By then I had lost it. I'll just say, yes you can upset a chaplain and I'll leave it at that. He said that he would talk to the Warden in the morning and see if there was anything that could be done for us to continue our wedding. He told me to wait for his call (I live 4 hours away).

The Chaplain called me at 8:30 this morning and said that they don't have a way for Matthew to get to the courthouse so we would have to postpone it until the next week. By then I was over the shock and heartache and accepted the fact. I asked him if this was a "sign". Through his explaination, he said no he did not think this was a sign.

So to end this LONG drama, we are rescheduled to get married next Thursday the 4th. But then again that gives us a whole 7 days for something else to happen (knock on wood) and overcome.

SHEESH! I guess is the only word I can use to describe how I feel about all of this right now. Sorry so long.

I am so sorry! Boy have you been thru it. I think by now i would be bald. I hope everything works out for you all. Its gonna be ok!! Post us some wedding pics if you can. I love looking at pictures.

ONE

I read your post, and I see the frustration. But I also can see you have a sense of humor. This will be a great story to tell the family.:p

You know, most all wedding plans include frustrations and glitches, but y'all will remember back on how y'all handled it, and they WILL become fond memories! Consideraing they system and legalities, and stuff, it COULD have been worse, but I KNOW you felt SOOO devastated!! At least when you had really bad news delivered it was by the chaplain!! and it gave you an opportunity to be counseled a bit (asking if it was a sign). Bless your heart! So are you visiting this weekend and the wedding is next week?

***UPDATE***

Well.................We finally got married!!!!!:D But ya know I have a drama story to go along with it (but I'll try to shorten it).

I left an hour late, so I kept trying to call Tucker to make sure that Matthew (and crew) would wait for me at the courthouse. These mountains make it almost impossible to get a strong enough cell signal. By the time that I got ahold of Tucker, I had made up 30 minutes :eek: . Yeah, I was driving pretty darn fast. But, thank goodness, transportation left a little late also.

As soon as I turned onto Hwy 65 my truck starting messing up on me. It did not have any power. I had to drive real slow until I could gradually speed up. I'm sure the people behind me were not too happy. But I was not going to let a little car trouble stop me after everything I have went through to marry this man. (Yesterday I had to replace my battery because it died while I was in town)

Well, we all got there and signed the paperwork. I felt soooooooo bad for Matthew. They had his feet cuffed together, his hands cuffed, and his hands cuffed to his waist.:( You could hear the chains clanking on the tile floor.Everyone was staring at him.

Once we arrived at Tucker, we had to wait about an hour. There were Parole Hearings going on and then there was some class scheduled in the Chapel. We finally had our cermony in the Chaplains office.

I had written our vows and what I wanted the Chaplain to say. It was short and sweet. After our ceremony (if you can call it that), we had about two minutes to say good-bye. That is when it REALLY hit me! I just married the love of my life and I have to leave him and go home alone. I would have been happy to just stay in the Chaplain's office and hold onto him forever. Needless to say, there weren't any "after ceremony" pictures - we did not have time and all my make-up was running down my face anyway.

Was it worth it to spend my wedding night driving 4 hours home, taking care of kids and pets, and going to bed alone? ABSOLUTELY:D !!!!! I love that man with all my heart and I would do anything for him.

Looking into his eyes while we were reading our vows to one another, is something that can not be described in words. For that moment, I was in Heaven and life was purfect.

They had another inmate take pictures so I'm not sure what he took or how they will turn out. He only took 15 out of 27:( . Hopefully atleast ONE of them will turn out decent enough to post. I'll finish off the film tomorrow and do the one hour photo.

We want to thank you for sharing this most blessed experience with us!!!

Take care!

:) Once again, Congratulations!!!! :)

Wow, you went through a lot, but so good to hear that you're finally married!! Can't wait to see the pics!!!

CONGRATS! I have been waiting to hear the outcome of the wedding, because it has been an adventure, for sure. we finally got an ok,and will be married on 1-26-04. my guy is at tucker max., i know your husband is at tucker, is it max? (doesn't "husband") sound good? oh yeah!, it surely does and i can't wait till i can say it too. now that you have gone through it, i hope you won't mind me asking questions.
thank you for including us in your wedding
pods

I will be married in Jan. at Tucker max, was your wedding at Tucker? or Max? Did you have to have any witnesses? did you have to give the social security numbers of everyone invited to the chaplin? I know they have to be on the visitation list, but i'm not understanding why? the chaplin needs to know their social security numbers.
I would sure appreciate the details.
thanks
pods

pods,
Our wedding was at Tucker. It was only he and I. I did not have any witnesses per say. I think they need the ssn to check to see if they have any warrants or if they are a convicted felon. I know when I worked at the Sheriff's Office, that was a very routine thing (to get ssn). If you have any more questions, fire away.

Congratulations and Good Luck.