The Wedding, Part 2

Part 2 – October 10, 2009!



Kristi and I woke probably way too early that morning. There had been a horrendous thunderstorm that night that just shook the walls. I wouldn’t say the skies looked “clear” that morning, but there wasn’t rain pouring from them so I awoke pretty optimistic.

We threw on some clothes and went down to meet everyone for breakfast. I still wasn’t nervous – I don’t know if it just really hadn’t hit me yet or what but we enjoyed our delicious breakfast of sweet potato pancakes, fruit, and bacon. We all chit chatted for a little while after I picked at my breakfast a little (okay, maybe I was more nervous than I let on) and then decided to go upstairs and take my shower.

Fast forward another hour, Kristi and I arrive at the hair salon down the road around 9:30. The hair stylist fixes a pot of coffee, starts on my fingernails and then we’re off to the hair! Another hair stylist comes in around 10 and starts working on Kristi and not long after that, Tara shows up ready for the day. I think it was around noon when we finally left. Still a lot of clouds, but so far, no rain.

Amber and Cinnamon met up with us around 12:30 and had picked up some fruit, veggie and cheese trays – I realized at the salon that we probably wouldn’t have time for lunch so I thought maybe we needed *something* to tide us over. After our quick snack, Amber went to work on my makeup – it was perfect! Every time I’ve had someone do my makeup (professionals), it’s always been way too heavy…but I have absolutely no talent on putting makeup on. She did a fabulous job though – just enough that you could tell I had some on, but it was very natural looking and I looked like myself! Brad hates me wearing any type of makeup but he even told me that it looked beautiful on me.

Between 1:30 and 2, everything started happening. The baker showed up with the cakes (yes, cakeS), someone spotted the photographer walking up the driveway and if you can believe it, people started showing up (people from back home didn't know how long it would take to get there and wound up being SUPER early)! I got into my dress around 2:15 – as my mom was zipping me up, I looked up and out the window and saw….rain. It was a minor freak out, but a freak out nonetheless and ended soon thereafter. Once we got all that taken care of we went out on the front porch with my family and bridesmaids for pictures. At some point someone had called and said that Brad and the boys were on their way over – minor freak out occurred until the photographer had the brains to tell my brother to set up a roadblock at the end of the driveway so the boys wouldn’t see me. Crisis averted.

A little before 4, I have my final pee-break (ps, anyone who is not married yet – I discovered the best and most efficient way of peeing in a wedding dress. I kid you not. Call me when you get married, I can walk you through it.) and then we head down the stairs and to the courtyard. I hear the flower girls didn’t go peacefully, but I didn’t have to watch it so it didn’t really bother me. I didn’t think they really wanted to do it anyway, but figured I should probably not fight this one. Once they got to the front they didn’t cause a scene and peace during the ceremony was all I really wanted.

Coming up the 2 steps to the ceremony courtyard I definitely tripped over my dress and almost faceplanted. Thank goodness my father was holding onto me for dear life – a few people got pictures of it too, hooray, hooray.

I honestly don’t remember the music from the ceremony. I’ve heard it was beautiful, but I was just concentrating so hard on not bawling and not falling that I really didn’t hear it. The ceremony flew by – Brad’s uncle told me later that we were officially married at 4:19pm – so our ceremony was about 20 minutes long. The groomsmen were thrilled – someone had told one of them it was going to be an hour-long ceremony, so they had never been so happy in their lives.

The photographer kept his word and kept the “posed family pictures” to half an hour or less. Everyone else had been herded towards the tent in the front yard and after the family pictures were finished, Brad and I were taken inside to get ready for our “announcement” as husband and wife. It took a few minutes for them to get ready outside so we looked at the wedding cake, some pictures of our parents and grandparents that were set up and I took him in to see my surprise for him – his groom’s cake.

The groom’s cake had a story. About 6 months before the wedding, Brad had sent me an email with a cake topper he had found – appropriate for us as it was a hiker couple – but not something I would want to put on “our” cake. I never responded to his email but I secretly went ahead and ordered the topper and hid it away. When I went to the baker to order our wedding cake, I talked to her about doing a groom’s cake that was an “outdoorsy” theme. It came out fabulous. Brad isn’t the type to get really excited about things like that, but I think he was pretty surprised and pumped to get his own cake - he was upset that they had to cut it up so we could transport it home.

The coordinator/owner’s husband is from England and he announced us in his “proper” voice. After Melanie (the coordinator) gave me my champagne flute and Brad his flute with Miller Lite (hey, nobody knew the difference), my dad, Kristi, and Brad’s brother all gave speeches then we headed inside to cut the cake before the dancing started. The photographer was great about giving us directions on how to do everything – I sweetly fed my husband a piece of cake and he, being the turd he is, smashed his in my face. :) We made sure to grab a plate of food and dash off to a corner (we had resolved to not be one of those couples that didn’t eat at their reception) and then the dancing began! Our first dance was George Strait’s I Cross My Heart – Brad’s choice and I’ll be darned if he didn’t sing every last word. Then my dad and I danced to Four Tops’ I Can’t Help Myself and then to Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale. I asked to do Four Tops (it was “our song” when I was younger) and I have no idea what the meaning behind A Whiter Shade of Pale is, but he wanted to do a slow song. Brad and his mom danced to Celine Dion’s Because You Loved Me and then the real party started! By this point I had changed into my Just Married flip flops that one of the guests had given me at a shower and it pretty much saved the reception for me.

The bouquet and garter tosses were big hits – we actually had a crowd on the floor for each and there was some hard core fighting going on with some of them. I can’t wait to see the photographer’s pictures on those. My friend Amanda from back home caught the bouquet and I think Nick Stoddard (one of the groomsmen's brothers) caught the garter.

After that it was just general madness and fun. At some point I grabbed my brother to do a sibling dance - of course, it was one of the cheesiest songs the dj played - I want to say it was Aerosmith's Don't Wanna Miss a Thing but I can't remember. I just wanted to dance with my big brother! I didn’t even think about the time until the coordinator came up to ask me about how we were leaving. We had a huge crowd stay until the end (I think ending the reception at 9 helped a lot). I had recruited Kristi and her boyfriend Mike to be in charge of handing out the 3 foot sparklers (yes, 3 foot – Brad saw the box and thought I was nuts. Not nuts, just thought the sparklers were stacked and didn't bother to open the box earlier). We came out of the house and down the driveway to where Brad’s uncle was waiting with his SUV. It was absolutely beautiful and we had so much fun, we came around the circle driveway one more time (heck, the sparklers had a 4 minute light time, it’s not like we were pressed for time). Then his aunt & uncle drove us up to the Hampton Inn where we would be staying so we could check in – and then drove us back down to the Mountain Lodge where his family was staying. They were all gathered in the lobby with signs and welcomed us to the ‘after party.’ I had told all my friends there would be an after party there and they all showed up too. Yes, I was still in my wedding dress. I get one day in my life to wear that dress and I was going to make the most of it!!! I got a lot of random people telling us congratulations but I think the best part was when they ordered pizzas. Who doesn’t want pizza the night of their wedding?

Around 11:30, Brad and I decided it was time to head back towards our hotel and end the night. As we were falling asleep we both talked about how we don’t know how anything could have gone more perfect – we couldn’t think of anything that went wrong whatsoever. It was just the perfect way to start our lives together.

Coming soon….the honeymoon recap!