Have You Seen My Roots?: Happy 11th Anniversary!

Rick and Cherie Cayemberg

On April 29th, 2000, just 11 short years ago, my husband and I were married at Nellis Chapel on Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. We actually married 7 months earlier in a civil ceremony, but needed to make it right with the Catholic Church (and I think our families appreciated it too!).

My husband and I were both in the Army. He was from Wisconsin and I was from Pennsylvania, so the question was, where would we have the wedding? Going to either place seemed to slight the other family (in our opinions) so we decided to have the church ceremony on Hawaii where we were living. After all, it was a chance for our families to come out to the islands and enjoy themselves!

It was a wonderful time having family out there, especially all at once! My aunt and uncle, retired Army officers, actually lived on Oahu and were generous enough to have the rehearsal dinner at their beautiful home. This was particularly challenging for my aunt who broke her feet stepping on a dog-toy as she came down a short set of stairs in her home just days before the wedding! In fact, it was the day my mother arrived at the airport. When we told her why her sister wasn't there to greet her she thought we were joking! The photographer was a friend of my aunt's and she did a great job hiding her feet under the train of my gown!

The hubby and I with our parents

It was a simple wedding. We had a mass, but no limos or anything fancy like that. When we arrived at the church there were old fashioned WWII era military vehicles set up along "General's Row" just down from the chapel. You could actually see many of them from the front of the church. Most of us took a quick glance to see them before heading into the church.

During mass Father Olczyk jokingly said that if we heard the sounds of bombing during the ceremony to not be worried. Hollywood was there and would be filming scenes for a movie that day. Which movie was being filmed outside the chapel that we were being married in on our wedding day?...Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck (although he wasn't there...just camera crews)!

I walked down the aisle to "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera and had both my mother and father give me away. Leis were given to the mother of the bride and groom, and instead of a veil, I had one of the wonderful ladies at the Honolulu Airport (Martha) that we had been buying all our leis from to make a head-leis for me to use instead of a traditional veil. I loved it (and it only cost me $20.00)!

We looked around at various places to have the reception and everything was so expensive and formal. Formal isn't exactly what Hawaii was all about either, so we opted to rent a small pavillion at Bellows AFB beach at Waimanalo. We bought a keg and grilled...now that's the way to have a reception. Even our priest, Fr. Olczyk showed up with some Green Bay Packer's gear on. As it turned out he was originally from Wisconsin like my hubby and was my priest when I was stationed in San Antonio. Such a small world!

The families of the bride and groom

During the homily in mass Fr Olczyk kept talking about having babies, so much so that after mass many of the guys from my unit asked if I was pregnant. Ironically, I would be one month later!

Happy Anniversary to the best husband a woman can ask for...oh and good luck to William and Kate! It's a great date for a wedding!