April 5 was a beautiful Saturday morning. I met up with the guys around eleven in the morning. Jack was being his usual jovial self, Mike and Ted were drinking from a box of wine, while Mike played Mario Cart of the Nintendo 64. Brian showed up in a suit. He looked really sharp. Mike, who was still dressed in Jeans and a t-shirt, said something about Brian wearing something of his. I was at this point talking to Janie and Shonda, who had come in from Cleveland Tennessee, near Chattanooga. Janie and her fiancée Dillon had lived in the basement bedroom of my river guide house in Cleveland. Shonda is Dillon's sister. Dillon would've come but he was working 3rd shift at the Waffle House and had just gotten off work about an hour before they left to come to Knoxville.

About an hour later, Shonda and Janie had wondered off somewhere and the large room we were in was now claimed in the name of the South Knox Mafia. Jack, Ted, Brian and JJ were dressed in their best suits, sipping on discreet Styrofoam cups filled with wine-in-a-box. Mike and I were still in street clothes. Jayson, my friend from Perth Australia, was sporting a pair of jeans, leather biker boots, a white button-up shirt, a sport coat, and a red tie with the words "I Love You, MAN!" proudly displayed with the Bud Light logo. Slimey Dave was wearing a nice pair of khakis and a white button up.

In walked my friend Dave Scheidt, from Miami Florida. Dave was sporting a fancy suit. He's done very well for himself as a computer programmer and consultant. He's a sort of a Jack-of-all-Computers so to speak. It was great to see him. Later I saw Scott and Molly from South Carolina, and others friends from across the country and around the world. Finally Mike and I, after being told it was PAST time to be ready, decided to start dressing in our suits as well. Then came Jeanne's roommate with a spray bottle of hairspray spritz and a brush. I let her have a crack at my hair, and it did stay the way it was, the only problem is it looked crappy to begin with. Now its crappy and there to stay.

As we approached two-thirty, I greeted my photographer friend Eric, as well as our other friends Paddywagon, Willy, Gary, Randy, and many others. The South Knox Mafia was well represented that day, as was the Long Branch. John, the bartender, Jeff, Dannielle, and quite a few of the other Long Branch regulars showed up. It was like the Long Branch on location. Finally it was showtime.

We took the stage, were greeted by the girls, and began. Roughly fifteen minutes it was over, and yet it had just begun. Jeanne and I looked at each other and kissed. We turned and faced the room full of people, some who had come from as close as a block away, some who had come from England and others who came from both ends of Australia, which is just about as opposite-side-of-the-world as you can get from Knoxville.

"May I present Mr. and Mrs. Kevin D. Summitt," the Reverend said. Jeanne and I walked down the aisle together into the back of the church. All my friends ushered our families and each other out of the sanctuary. After an hour of photographs, we went to the fellowship hall for a modest buffet of food and drink. There was later a second reception at, you guessed it, the Long Branch. Jeanne even tossed the bouquet off the balcony over the main entrance. I tossed the garter in the same fashion. All the groomsmen raised their beer bottles to catch the garter "ring-toss" style. It hit Jack dead in the chest.

We laughed, smiled, and danced long into the night. Finally when it was all over, we went home to get ready to go on our honeymoon.

That was three year ago today, Saturday, April 5, 1997.

It seems like only yesterday. I know we've come a long way in three years, but it doesn't even seem like the honeymoon's over yet. Although there are some critical of our relationship, we know how we are at home, and through all the unavoidable stress of having children, we remain as loving and sweet on each other as we were that day we first flirted with each other on the steps of the white-water rafting company I worked for at the time.

I love her, adore her, and could not live without her.

It's been three years already, and we're still on our honeymoon.
I hope the honeymoon never ends.

I love you, sweetheart!!

Happy Anniversary!!!