I Stole the Bride

When, some years ago, one of my former roommates got married, I went on honeymoon with the newly married couple. And, being directionally challenged, got the bride lost.

A group of friends met at Liz and Ed’s wedding. As so many of us were from out of town, the newlyweds invited us to join them for a couple of days of their honeymoon. Although they were keen to start their new life together, they wanted to enjoy their friends after the frenetic lead-up to the wedding.

Photo credit: JD Thomas, Creative Commons

And so a bunch of us decided to head over to the condo they were renting in the mountains for a few days of skiing and relaxing in the hot tub. Ed graciously let Liz come in my car, so we could have some girl-time together, and said I could follow him. Liz and I were chatting and talking through who danced with whom at the wedding when we slowed down at a stop sign. The sun was in my eyes but I saw Ed’s blue car turn right and take off quickly. I put my foot on the pedal, wondering why he was going so fast.

We followed the blue car for over an hour, me wondering silently why Ed was making it so hard for me to keep up with him. Finally I asked Liz why she thought he was going so fast. She couldn’t figure it out either.

I sped up, trying to close the gap between the cars.

Liz said, “Amy! That’s not Ed’s car!”

My stomach dropped and I wondered what I had gotten us into. “Oh man. I knew I was bad with directions, but I never thought I’d follow the wrong car!”

We slowed down and stopped in Cripple Creek, finding a restaurant with a pay phone to try to let him know where we were – this was way before mobile phones were invented. I felt so bad that I kept saying sorry, until I realized that my profuse apologies were probably beginning to annoy Liz.

After making some phone calls to tell friends whom Ed might call, we figured out where we where and realized I had driven us completely in the wrong direction. We now had to backtrack the sixty miles, plus drive the next hundred miles we always had in front of us. But at least now Ed would know that I hadn’t intentionally stolen his bride.

When we finally met up with Ed and the other friends, I was exhausted and burst into tears. After calming down, we all were able to laugh about the incident and my stupidity. For in a moment of blindness, I followed the wrong car and got seriously off-track.

The spiritual lessons are clear.