Thursday was a day of running errands: getting my engagement ring cleaned, my haircut, Kristy's hair cut, picking up the cake server from the engraver, gathering up the last minute supplies I needed for Joe's wedding gift, buying some beads for some jewelry items Kristy was going to make, that sort of thing. And everything went beautifully, until I realized that my flowers weren't here like they were supposed to be...
The plane our flowers were coming from California on hit a really bad storm. So bad, in fact, that the windshield of the plane cracked and it had to make an emergency landing. We found this out after many, many phone calls to the wholesaler and my friend Derek who works at UPS, and it eventually became clear that the flowers would not be arriving until Friday afternoon. Since the flowers were supposed to rest overnight before we arranged them, this was a problem, but the girls at the wholesaler assured me that it would be fine to arrange them Friday night after the rehearsal dinner. This was clearly not great news, but since I couldn't really do anything about it I decided it wasn't an issue. My Mom certainly thought it was (and in the end she was right), but I did what I could to calm her down and not let her freak me out.
Thursday night Becky, Fonsi, and Chris arrived, as did Brad (B. Man), Lauren (bridesmaid), Ruth (Joe's Mom), Teresa (best friend) and Kurt (Usher/cousin). I made a huge batch of spaghetti for everyone and we all ate and drank a couple (read: Mary had like 5, oops) glasses of wine (it was from a box, therefore weak) before Crystal kicked us out of the kitchen - she had a cake to bake!! So we all did the smartest thing we could think of - we went to the Third Base.
9 am Friday brought us our nail appointments, and about....930 am brought me a ridiculous hangover. I asked Missy (sister/Matron of Honor) to get me some orange juice, she brought me champagne. By the time my nails were done and my feet were pedicured I was ready for bed and possibly an IV. I was home for about 20 minutes before the flowers arrived though, so I was kicked back into action mode (arguably the best cure for a hangover, although it never seems that way at the time...). Kristy, Missy, Julie, Erika, and myself went to the hotel to get the flowers in water, after the super team of groomsmen hauled all of the decorations, flowers, luggage, and whatever else I asked them to take to the hotel. They were great!We got the flowers in water, cut the stems (mostly Missy on that one), and peeled the outer later of petals off of the ones that needed it. We'd been in the hotel room for about 3 hours and it was TRASHED - it looked like the jungle book had puked on the floor. But we left it like that and went to the Church for rehearsal.
The rehearsal was pretty typical, minus these details: This was the first wedding the priest had done, so I basically ran the rehearsal. During the mock processional was the first time my Mother was informed that my sister was a bridesmaid. Teresa informed me that my Mother is now engaged. You know, run of the mill stuff.
After the rehearsal a lot of the bridal party went to the Landmark for a drink (resulting in a chunk of them being wasted at dinner), but Kristy and I went straight to the Villa. Honestly, I still don't know where my husband to be was at the time...which was pretty much the case until I walked down the aisle. Anyway, the rehearsal dinner was great - we ate pizza and salad and everyone got a chance to mingle. Perfect.
Back at the hotel we started arranging the flowers. At least, most of us did. One of my bridesmaids was MIA (a theme for the weekend!) and a couple of other people that were supposed to be helping out didn't come through. It worked out though, because we had some unexpecteds show up - like my Aunt from Colorado, my Mom's friend Cindy (that I've known all my life, but met for the first time that Friday?), and a few other wanderers. Turns out that I'm either a)really bad at flower arranging or b) was too distracted to actually arrange them. Thank goodness for the Moms here...they slaved away all night.Glenn came around 10 or so to put my hair into curlers, which is about the time that my Grandma showed up and told me I was too young to get married. Then there was a fiasco with the front desk being idiots, which I corrected while in my curlers and face mask (that was fun!) and eventually I went to bed. I think I slept for like....3 hours. Yeesh.
In the morning we ordered bagels and Glenn came to do our hair. 
Mine was just how I wanted it, and I can't even tell you how great my sister's was! He also did my Moms and Kristy's. This happened at everyone was still scrambling to arrange flowers and as my sister-in-law Laura and niece Brooklynne slaved on the reception space. Suddenly it was time for me and bridesmaids to go for pictures and we realized we didn't have a way to get to pictures...so we called in Steve, Mom's fiance. He bussed us to the Cemetery for pics, which were a lot of fun (especially the ones where my bridesmaids somehow got me up on a tree branch without killing me).
Then is was back to the hotel for a break before the Church.This is when things started to get sticky for me. Suddenly I couldn't remember my vows, my Mom was freaking out, and I wanted to take off my dress and sit quietly. So I did. And while I sat there, my bridesmaid stood 4 feet away talking about whether or not I was ok. Two of them were like..."wow, she's so calm"...and my sister took one took at me rocking on my heels and was like..."Yeah, not so much. Someone get her a drink"...and Kristy was already pouring me a glass of wine. Sister in law Sara (who was with us taking pictures-gorgeous ones!) ran to McDonalds to get us something to eat and then we again realized we had no way to get to the Church. So we drove ourselves...good idea for the bridesmaids maybe, bad idea for me.
I went to the wrong Church.
Kristy very calmly informed me that I was, in fact, at the wrong church and I pulled out the parking space I was working on parking in and carried on to the correct Church. Once at the Church, it felt like things were falling apart at the seams. The groomsmen didn't have their boutineers yet, so Lauren tried to pass them out, but gave the wrong ones to the wrong people...we didn't have any pins for the flowers...my hair was going flat on one side....one of my bridesmaids was being a real pain in the ass....my cousin (who was supposed to wrangle the flower people) was running late...and my Mom was missing...WITH MY DRESS. (It should be noted that she was probably late because she was arranging flowers til the last minute)
So I sat in the nursery of the Church with my Brother In Law Troy while we watch his 2 year old and our 3 year old nephew play. Sometimes I paced, sometimes I rocked on my heels, sometimes I just sat and took deep breaths, solaced by the fact that I knew Missy was somewhere on a cell phone screaming at my mother.
Literally 2 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start, my Mom could be seen running through the church with a very large pink bag (my dress). And so we were ready to start.
I was in such a hurry to get down the aisle that I really didn't wait for everyone to stand before I started. The ceremony was beautiful...Joe was as unprepared as I was when it came to stuff we were supposed to memorize, and I thought I was holding it together pretty well until HE started to cry, at which point I lost it. And the whole chuch "awwwww"ed when he pulled a kleenex out of his pocket for me. His vows were perfect, so much so that I had trouble reading mine, and I had a really hard time not leaning over and telling him all about all the things that had happened since I'd seen him last.
During one of the readings though, I did lean over and ask "Joe, did you bring the marriage license?" We sent my cousin Kurt to get it after the ceremony. :)
And then, before we knew it, we were pronounced husband and wife:
After that it was pictures, pictures, pictures.
Then we took the limo to the beach and took more pictures. 
The reception was amazing...even my sister's drunken speech! :) The food was great, the cake was gorgeous and delicious ( I have no idea how to even begin thanking Crystal for that cake...it was so amazing!), and I danced until Joe dragged me from the floor. I was rather shocked when I started crying while dancing with my Dad, but the song he picked was great (and he sung parts of it to me!). My maid of honor followed me around all night with water, and Joe and I made sure we said hello to every person there. Finally, at the end of the night, Joe informed me that I was to meet him in our room in 15 minutes. 
I went to my room and gathered up my stuff and stopped at the front desk for a key to our suite. And I would kill for a picture of me hold my train in one arm and dragging my suitcase with the other as I walked down the sidewalk to the annex of the hotel, where our room was.
Joe met me in the hallway, took my suitcase from me, and picked me up to carry me into the room (like in the movies!!). Inside the room there were no less than 50 candles lit, and the jacuzzi tub in the room was full and bubbling. I was speechless.
I think I've always had pretty high expectations when it came to the idea of my wedding and they were certainly met, if not exceeded. A few things went wrong here and there, which is unavoidable, but it was still the way I always wanted it. But what I finally figured out is this: while all the details make for great memories, the only thing that really matters is the person across from you when you say your vows. And I never could have expected to see such an amazing man standing there.
1 comment:
yaay! It's so interesting to read what happened from your point of view. We all had such a good time, and it was so wonderful to be able to attend the wedding. The church was beautiful along with the flowers! It cracks me up that you went to the wrong church!
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