I recently got married to a fellow racetrack “kid,” Daniel Hood, and we were surprised at how similar planning a wedding was to driving and working on a race car!
This was helpful to me, since for most of my 2008 race season I was attempting to successfully do both. The first similarity between my wedding and a race was the teamwork involved in both. Dan and I had to really work together. It was stressful, crazy and exciting to plan this wedding, but we really worked hard to not procrastinate on stuff.
We each gave a little so in the end we could have the wedding we really wanted. My family also really helped out. They were like my team, too. My sisters, Adria, Brittany and Courtney, and my mom all helped so much. I couldn’t have done it without them.
Every driver handles pressure differently. When I have to deal with a lot of pressure or stress, I don’t perform very well.
I planned this wedding for almost the whole season, and I think that was probably the best thing I did. I didn’t wait to start planning. I got engaged to Dan in November of 2007, and by the first week of December we were already picking out a lot of the major details. I had so many people saying I was kind of early, but now, looking back, I am glad I started that early because it let me be a little more laid-back with it all.
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I couldn’t have waited until a couple of months before and gotten everything done. I had almost everything taken care of in the first few months of the season. When the summer races hit and we were on tour for weeks at a time, weeks would go by that I wouldn’t plan or do any wedding stuff. I was glad I started as soon as I did, even if it seemed a little funny to some of the vendors.
It was great to see so many of our family and friends at my reception. It was kind of like a winner’s circle.
Seeing all the race people that make up our second family was extra special. To be there celebrating with some of the other drivers and their families that we are friends with—like the Wilkersons, Del and Connie Worsham, and Brandon and Tracey Bernstein—was pretty neat, especially given that many of these people are my competition on the track!
It was snowing on our wedding day, but our photographers told us to suck it up because we were going out to take pictures in the snow, whether we wanted to or not, because this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
I am glad they did that now, but at the time I was freezing and I would have liked to have been in my firesuit. It was kind of fun to wear a big, white dress, though!
I thought I might not like it as much as I did. I loved the dress I picked, but I was kind of dreading being in a dress and heels all night. I was thinking, ‘This is going to stink’ and ‘I am going to be so miserable and uncomfortable,’ but I think that since it is the one day in your life that you do that, you try and enjoy it. After the ceremony was over, I did sneak away and change into UGG boots, which are kind of similar to race boots. Taking off the heels after a while made it a lot easier to get comfortable.
It was really my dream wedding. I look back, and there is not one thing I would change.
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