My day as a bride
The last month has been a whirlwind of activity, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed that it all went by so quickly. I'm a married woman! Craziness. Everything went beautifully and we couldn’t have been happier. But because it came and went so quickly, I want to hold on to every detail of my life as a bride. So this is my attempt at capturing them as they are still fresh in my mind, solely for my own keepsake. For you lucky readers, you may want to skim through what is bound to be a lengthy and very detailed account. Don't say I didn't warn you. :)
The morning after my last post (where I lacked focus and felt stress-free and calmer than ever) was the day before the big day...when all things turned crazy! Jon had to work that morning, so off he went, while I sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee to print our programs. Of course that didn't go as quickly as I'd hoped, but after a few formatting changes I had the printer busy at work. I then moved on to placecards. Oh boy, did I miscalculate how easy they would be to make! Why in the world I left this to the day before, I asked myself over and over. But I got it done. The rest of that morning was a craze of running up and down our stairs a zillion times, loading the car, making phone calls, making payments to our vendors, printing schedules and lists, and a quick trip to the gym. I was in full panic mode, feeling so ill-prepared and frantic.
Luckily, Jon had enough forsight to realize that I would not be able to fit all of our linens and a giant punch fountain in my already packed car, so he ran those errands and met me at the hotel. I had been previously told by our wedding coordinator that we could not leave items overnight there, so I made other arrangements to store our linens and decorations in a storage room at the hotel. However, shortly after those items were unloaded and stored, a hotel manager came out to inform me that she had just spoken to our wedding coordinator and why in the world weren't we storing everything right there? Grrr. It turns out we could store there the night before, just not the night of. Lovely. So, when I was ready to just check into the hotel and relax before my pedi/mani appointment, we had to load everything back up into our cars and drive them over to the wedding site. AND unload them again. Believe me, the bell boys were not pleased with us (nor was Jon, for that matter). Fortunately Kristen and Angela arrived at the perfect moment and were a huge help in unloading the second time. Unfortunately Jon got a parking ticket in the interim, causing even more stress in our already chaotic afternoon.
Once all of our decorations and wedding items were neatly stored in the proper place, us girls left for our nail appointments. I hate people touching my feet, it's no secret. But I can suck it up and act like a normal adult every now and then, especially when it makes my feet look a little prettier. It was a perfect dose of "chill time" after a stressful morning.
Later that evening we all met at our wedding site. I had wanted to show the space to everyone involved in the wedding so that they would be familiar with the space. Ok, fine. I wanted to show it off. There, I said it. But who can blame me? We invested a lot to have that location, and it was by far the part I was most excited about (aside from marrying the man of my dreams, yadda yadda yadda). As our luck would have it, there was a gala there that night, so we were limited to talking over music and crowds in the corner much of the time. We finished up the night at rehearsal dinner, where we enjoyed delicious food, many great drinks, and good conversation. It was nice to see both of our families and friends there, intermingling and getting to know each other. Everyone we love – it doesn’t get any better than that.
I actually slept quite well that night; I don’t think reality had set in yet. Kristen, Angela, Minh, and I walked to Subway for a delicious breakfast, and then headed over to start setting up the wedding. I was SO excited to get there and to start unpacking the boxes of decorations and items I had spent probably 5+ months gathering. It was finally all coming together. Unbelievable! With the generous hard work of all my favorite ladies, as well as both our parents, everything was set in record time. Skirting seemed to be a breeze (so I am thankful we did not pay $95/table to have it done for us), tables were decorated in the blink of an eye, and everything seemed to find its place. I was sad to have to leave in the middle of it all to get my hair done, but I knew it was in good hands. My favorite parts: the cocktail tables by the bar with the ribbon ties and vases of flowers; the placecard table with the lime green cards positioned in perfect rows; the table centerpieces (goes without saying, I’m quite proud of them); and the sand ceremony setup.
Fast forward several hours of bobby pins, hair spray, and makeup galore, and we were almost ready! Bridesmaids were dressed and flowers had arrived. They were prettier than I could have ever imagined (both bridesmaids and flowers). I cannot thank my aunt's friend enough for convincing me to have her do our flowers. Best decision I may have made, as there was no way my own creations would have turned out that lovely. By this point, I was so anxious to get in my dress and get the show on the road. I had waited almost 11 months to finally be "the bride." Who am I kidding, I had waited my whole life. Once the dress was on, veil in my hair, and flowers in my hand, it was official. I was the bride. :)
I was told that Jon was waiting for me in the park outside, facing away. So I made my way out to meet him as the photographer snapped pictures of our first moment seeing each other. I will never forget that moment when Jon turned around - he had one of his huge adorable grins, a twinkle in his eye, and looked sharp as ever in his tux. He loved my dress, but I already knew he would. He had essentially described it to me numerous times before without having known anything about the dress I bought. We kissed, we hugged, the sky turned a ridiculous hue of bright blue, and we got some of the best pictures we could have imagined. It was a perfect moment.
And then...time seemed to pick up speed exponentially and the day flew by. We took awesome pictures out in the park and around the whole location, with just about every combination of people imagineable. Looking back, there are some that we sadly missed and I wish I had better organized my photo wish list... Everyone involved was a true champ and we ended up with some great shots. At some point I managed to get pigeon do-do on the underside of my train. Is that good luck? I surprisingly was not too bothered by this, and proudly found a way to laugh it off at the time. After all, it was not visible from the outside, and the girls did a great job at cleaning it up as best as they could.
Shortly before guests started to arrive, we did a quick rehearsal with our pastor. I loved our pastor. He married my cousin 10 years ago (let me clarify, he did not marry her himself, he just officiated), and he has such a positive and fun spirit. I knew he would have a really great sermon (which he did - though I reluctantly admit I don't remember much of it now - who can remind me??), and while he is religious and spiritual, he wasn't all old-fashioned.
I remember the moments before the ceremony was to start, looking over the railing and down to all the people arriving and taking their seats. I had butterflies, but not the giant bad kind - they were the little fluttery kind, like when you see the love of your life walk in the room. I watched the girls walk down the aisle ahead of me, in perfect pace, pretty as ever in their purple dresses and green bouquets. I seriously love those girls - can't say enough about them (but will probably try in another post someday). And then, the moment was somewhat brutally interrupted with a as the DJ not so smoothly tried to transition from the bridal party processional music to my processional. Ah-NOYing. Seriously, he couldn't transition that better? Oh well, it seemed it was quickly forgotten about. That, or people refrained from telling us how much our DJ sucked.
Walking down the aisle was overwhelming. All those faces looking at me, smiling, taking pictures. I didn't know where to look! I found myself glancing back and forth across the aisle, trying to dutifully look at every guest, but as soon as I caught sight of Jon I decided he was the only person I needed to focus on. And man, I was so glad to reach Jon and grab his hand. The ceremony was just perfect. Not too long, not too dull, a little bit of humor, and very relaxed... Our pastor asked us to turn around and look out at all the people that care about us, love us, and support us, and I have to admit that was overwhelming as well. Again, all those faces looking at us, smiling at us...we are truly blessed. We said our vows, which I thought fit us perfectly, we had no major issues with getting our rings actually on our fingers, our pastor wrapped his arms around us in an embrace that totally caught me off guard but made me smile, my uncle read beautifully, and our sand ceremony went without a hitch. I cried a little during our vows, as I expected, but I think grinned from ear to ear most of the time. Walking back down (err, up?) the aisle was much less overwhelming. I felt like we were on cloud nine!
The rest of the evening was wonderful, but again flew by so quickly. There was dinner (after the mishap where the caterer started the back tables for the buffet line before the head table had even entered the room), great speeches, and a lot of visiting, drinking, dancing, and laughing. Pretty darn perfect. Before dinner, I wanted to announce that the bar was open, as I figured people would be stoked about that. Right? I had trouble with the microphone, so after many attempts that got as far as "The ba-", I tastefully shouted sans-microphone "The bar is now open!" and got a lot of laughs. My two embarrassing moments of the night were: 1) during our speeches, I forgot to specifically thank our parents until Jon whispered in my ear after I was done speaking (got quite a few laughs on that one too, thankfully), and 2) Jon tried to spin me on the dance floor during our first dance and we fumbled, crashed, and probably looked ridiculous. We had not practiced either of these things beforehand, so lesson learned there.
Overall, I loved my day as a bride, and I couldn't have asked for it to have been any better than it was. And, if you made it this far reading this post, congratulations on surviving this novel. You're probably late to an appointment or something now. :)
The morning after my last post (where I lacked focus and felt stress-free and calmer than ever) was the day before the big day...when all things turned crazy! Jon had to work that morning, so off he went, while I sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee to print our programs. Of course that didn't go as quickly as I'd hoped, but after a few formatting changes I had the printer busy at work. I then moved on to placecards. Oh boy, did I miscalculate how easy they would be to make! Why in the world I left this to the day before, I asked myself over and over. But I got it done. The rest of that morning was a craze of running up and down our stairs a zillion times, loading the car, making phone calls, making payments to our vendors, printing schedules and lists, and a quick trip to the gym. I was in full panic mode, feeling so ill-prepared and frantic.
Luckily, Jon had enough forsight to realize that I would not be able to fit all of our linens and a giant punch fountain in my already packed car, so he ran those errands and met me at the hotel. I had been previously told by our wedding coordinator that we could not leave items overnight there, so I made other arrangements to store our linens and decorations in a storage room at the hotel. However, shortly after those items were unloaded and stored, a hotel manager came out to inform me that she had just spoken to our wedding coordinator and why in the world weren't we storing everything right there? Grrr. It turns out we could store there the night before, just not the night of. Lovely. So, when I was ready to just check into the hotel and relax before my pedi/mani appointment, we had to load everything back up into our cars and drive them over to the wedding site. AND unload them again. Believe me, the bell boys were not pleased with us (nor was Jon, for that matter). Fortunately Kristen and Angela arrived at the perfect moment and were a huge help in unloading the second time. Unfortunately Jon got a parking ticket in the interim, causing even more stress in our already chaotic afternoon.
Once all of our decorations and wedding items were neatly stored in the proper place, us girls left for our nail appointments. I hate people touching my feet, it's no secret. But I can suck it up and act like a normal adult every now and then, especially when it makes my feet look a little prettier. It was a perfect dose of "chill time" after a stressful morning.
Later that evening we all met at our wedding site. I had wanted to show the space to everyone involved in the wedding so that they would be familiar with the space. Ok, fine. I wanted to show it off. There, I said it. But who can blame me? We invested a lot to have that location, and it was by far the part I was most excited about (aside from marrying the man of my dreams, yadda yadda yadda). As our luck would have it, there was a gala there that night, so we were limited to talking over music and crowds in the corner much of the time. We finished up the night at rehearsal dinner, where we enjoyed delicious food, many great drinks, and good conversation. It was nice to see both of our families and friends there, intermingling and getting to know each other. Everyone we love – it doesn’t get any better than that.
I actually slept quite well that night; I don’t think reality had set in yet. Kristen, Angela, Minh, and I walked to Subway for a delicious breakfast, and then headed over to start setting up the wedding. I was SO excited to get there and to start unpacking the boxes of decorations and items I had spent probably 5+ months gathering. It was finally all coming together. Unbelievable! With the generous hard work of all my favorite ladies, as well as both our parents, everything was set in record time. Skirting seemed to be a breeze (so I am thankful we did not pay $95/table to have it done for us), tables were decorated in the blink of an eye, and everything seemed to find its place. I was sad to have to leave in the middle of it all to get my hair done, but I knew it was in good hands. My favorite parts: the cocktail tables by the bar with the ribbon ties and vases of flowers; the placecard table with the lime green cards positioned in perfect rows; the table centerpieces (goes without saying, I’m quite proud of them); and the sand ceremony setup.
Fast forward several hours of bobby pins, hair spray, and makeup galore, and we were almost ready! Bridesmaids were dressed and flowers had arrived. They were prettier than I could have ever imagined (both bridesmaids and flowers). I cannot thank my aunt's friend enough for convincing me to have her do our flowers. Best decision I may have made, as there was no way my own creations would have turned out that lovely. By this point, I was so anxious to get in my dress and get the show on the road. I had waited almost 11 months to finally be "the bride." Who am I kidding, I had waited my whole life. Once the dress was on, veil in my hair, and flowers in my hand, it was official. I was the bride. :)
I was told that Jon was waiting for me in the park outside, facing away. So I made my way out to meet him as the photographer snapped pictures of our first moment seeing each other. I will never forget that moment when Jon turned around - he had one of his huge adorable grins, a twinkle in his eye, and looked sharp as ever in his tux. He loved my dress, but I already knew he would. He had essentially described it to me numerous times before without having known anything about the dress I bought. We kissed, we hugged, the sky turned a ridiculous hue of bright blue, and we got some of the best pictures we could have imagined. It was a perfect moment.
And then...time seemed to pick up speed exponentially and the day flew by. We took awesome pictures out in the park and around the whole location, with just about every combination of people imagineable. Looking back, there are some that we sadly missed and I wish I had better organized my photo wish list... Everyone involved was a true champ and we ended up with some great shots. At some point I managed to get pigeon do-do on the underside of my train. Is that good luck? I surprisingly was not too bothered by this, and proudly found a way to laugh it off at the time. After all, it was not visible from the outside, and the girls did a great job at cleaning it up as best as they could.
Shortly before guests started to arrive, we did a quick rehearsal with our pastor. I loved our pastor. He married my cousin 10 years ago (let me clarify, he did not marry her himself, he just officiated), and he has such a positive and fun spirit. I knew he would have a really great sermon (which he did - though I reluctantly admit I don't remember much of it now - who can remind me??), and while he is religious and spiritual, he wasn't all old-fashioned.
I remember the moments before the ceremony was to start, looking over the railing and down to all the people arriving and taking their seats. I had butterflies, but not the giant bad kind - they were the little fluttery kind, like when you see the love of your life walk in the room. I watched the girls walk down the aisle ahead of me, in perfect pace, pretty as ever in their purple dresses and green bouquets. I seriously love those girls - can't say enough about them (but will probably try in another post someday). And then, the moment was somewhat brutally interrupted with a
Walking down the aisle was overwhelming. All those faces looking at me, smiling, taking pictures. I didn't know where to look! I found myself glancing back and forth across the aisle, trying to dutifully look at every guest, but as soon as I caught sight of Jon I decided he was the only person I needed to focus on. And man, I was so glad to reach Jon and grab his hand. The ceremony was just perfect. Not too long, not too dull, a little bit of humor, and very relaxed... Our pastor asked us to turn around and look out at all the people that care about us, love us, and support us, and I have to admit that was overwhelming as well. Again, all those faces looking at us, smiling at us...we are truly blessed. We said our vows, which I thought fit us perfectly, we had no major issues with getting our rings actually on our fingers, our pastor wrapped his arms around us in an embrace that totally caught me off guard but made me smile, my uncle read beautifully, and our sand ceremony went without a hitch. I cried a little during our vows, as I expected, but I think grinned from ear to ear most of the time. Walking back down (err, up?) the aisle was much less overwhelming. I felt like we were on cloud nine!
The rest of the evening was wonderful, but again flew by so quickly. There was dinner (after the mishap where the caterer started the back tables for the buffet line before the head table had even entered the room), great speeches, and a lot of visiting, drinking, dancing, and laughing. Pretty darn perfect. Before dinner, I wanted to announce that the bar was open, as I figured people would be stoked about that. Right? I had trouble with the microphone, so after many attempts that got as far as "The ba-", I tastefully shouted sans-microphone "The bar is now open!" and got a lot of laughs. My two embarrassing moments of the night were: 1) during our speeches, I forgot to specifically thank our parents until Jon whispered in my ear after I was done speaking (got quite a few laughs on that one too, thankfully), and 2) Jon tried to spin me on the dance floor during our first dance and we fumbled, crashed, and probably looked ridiculous. We had not practiced either of these things beforehand, so lesson learned there.
Overall, I loved my day as a bride, and I couldn't have asked for it to have been any better than it was. And, if you made it this far reading this post, congratulations on surviving this novel. You're probably late to an appointment or something now. :)
Awesome post! And when you go back and read this on your 1st Wedding Annivesary and your 5th Wedding Annivesary and your 10th and 20th and 50th Anniversary's you will smile and remember the day when it all began!! You looked amazing as ever on your wedding day - everything was awesome and I bet the pictures turned out more beautiful than you could have imagined (I can't wait to see them)!
ReplyDeleteYup, it was a kick ass day buddy, thank you for letting me be a part of it! I'm sorry you were so stressed out the day before, but I suppose that's kind of par for the course. I was a mess over my flowers the day before, my mom making me cry... the whole shebang. I'm sure you remember.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the wedding, you, the decorations, everything was BEAUTIFUL! I'm so happy it was everything you were hoping for.
It's amazing how quickly the big day goes by! I remember waking up the day after my wedding thinking, "It's all over?!?" Everything about your wedding was lovely and perfect...Andy and I had a great time!
ReplyDeleteYou'll be so glad you did this post! I LOVED your wedding and thought you were such a gorgeous bride!! I wish we had more weddings coming up in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you asked me to be part of your day and I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help. I felt very honored that you thought of me to be a personal attendent and am so thankful that everything went smoothly (minus the stupid caterer part - I swear that was ALL their doing and I made sure to go over and yell at the people to go back to their tables!!). Anywho, I digress...
Loved your wedding:)