The Wedding Entry

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The Wedding Entry

 

9/2/08

The night before.

All the girls came up to spend the evening and night getting ready. My dad had been here for a day or two already and was whisking my husband away for a last minute bachelor thing. We didn’t do much bachelorette-like, but spent the majority of the evening just talking and communing with each other. I think we all kind of felt like things were ending for us. I remember feeling that way when Sara got hitched. Like it was the end of an era of friendship and I felt really sad about it. I’m not sure the girls were feeling that way, mostly b/c I think they were all just happy that Joe and I were finally doing this, but things HAVE to change when a new element like marriage is introduced. 🙂

 

We were supposed to be getting things ready and around and done so that we could take it kind of easy the next day, but, no surprise here, we really didn’t. I think we finally crashed about 2am (Joe was home by then, b/c of a strict edict I’d imposed: No hungover grooms allowed.) and, admittedly, I was in a bit of denial about what the next day held.

 

9/3/08

Wedding Day (Ceremony @ 4pm)

 

Morning dawned bright and early… I suppose. We missed it entirely. I think we finally climbed outta bed about 10am. 🙂 We lounged about for an hour or so, before it hit us that we hadn’t done much of anything the night before in readiness, and we were now only 5 hours away from the “big day”!

Commence rushing and slight panicking. On everyone’s part, save mine, that is. I slipped into some weird Zen state and kept calming the others. The tent arrived about 1 o’clock and I sent people out to get that and the tables set up. Finally, in irritation I think, Joe required my presence to help figure out the table and chair set up. Something else we were supposed to do the night before. Yeah, we procrastinate, what?! We got all that figured out while the bridal party was showering and doing hair and make up. I was still in PJ’s at that point. Finally, about 2, I ran in to take a quicker than ever shower. As I was climbing out, I was needed to run through the set up of the ceremony one last time, so I threw on a robe and kept the towel on my hair and we did the run through. I felt very un-blushing bride, lemme tell ya. 🙂

At this point, I feel I must mention that the best part of all of this, truly, is that the wedding and reception were both in my back yard, so any ‘run here and go there’ that happened, was in and out my back door. That was extremely handy. I’m SO glad we didn’t have it somewhere else, or we’d have had disaster, I’m sure.

 

Anyway, back in the house I rushed to be attacked by 4 different girls trying to do my hair, make up, underthings, etc. Poor Joe still hadn’t showered at this point (2:45-ish) and kept getting kicked out of the house while people were in various states of undress. More family and friends had showed up to help out, by now, and it was crazy stupid chaos. Yet, I was still very very calm. My bridesmaids were starting to worry about me, I think. I kept saying things like “It’s ok! Everything will be fine. Just stay calm.” All the while, each of them was having their own panic attacks.

 

Finally, Joe was able to shower and dress and then was permanently kicked out of the house for me to finish my doings. We barred everyone not female about 3:30 and I just put myself in the hands of the crazy girls helping out. I can’t even tell you what was applied where, but I was in the bathroom while someone did the finishing touches on my hair as my soon-to-be husband came and stood at the bathroom window. With the curtain drawn, it was like a confessional as he asked how everything was coming along. He was left with the daunting task of welcoming guests who were showing up quickly and trying to figure out where they were supposed to sit. He also had to be the one to tell me there was no music, yet. 🙁 He handled it with aplomb, though. Very calm himself, he was. (you like Yoda, admit it) At 4 o’clock, when things were supposed to start, he came back to that bathroom window and asked gently “how much longer?”. I think someone (maybe me) told him that we’d be ready when we were ready. Ha.

 

I was starting to tremble a little as it began to hit me. I walked out of the bathroom in my dress and hair and make up and the best-friends-any-one-could-ever-have let me know how beautiful I looked. Jessee was trying VERY hard not to cry, but I wasn’t helping, tearing up every few seconds. My mom held me close and made me feel every bit the blushing bride for the first time in the fiasco.

 

We let my dad in the house, as we were finally ready to begin the terrifying walk down the aisle. Yeah, I was terrified. I’d NEVER wanted to walk down an aisle. Not to say I didn’t want to get married, but that stupid walk has always freaked me out. One last hug from the girls and my mom, and we sent each of them out in their own order. Piper and Maddoxx (in his little tux) made it mostly down the walkway holding hands and being beyond adorable.

 

Deep breaths and a hug from my daddy and we stepped out into the beautiful day that had been given to us for this occasion. There was absolute silence. No music. Nothing but the sound of the wind through the trees and birds and people holding their breaths as they stood. I think I held onto my dad’s arm for dear life. Partly b/c the aisle runner would NOT stay put in the mild breeze and my heels were not suited for walking on grass and dirt and partly b/c there was my groom standing by the pastor, waiting for me. He smiled and I’m pretty sure I blushed and almost tripped.

 

Scott (the pastor) spoke for a few minutes to everyone about the sanctity of marriage and the importance of serious thought regarding making these sorts of decisions. Then my father gave me to Joe, like any normal girl would have her daddy do for her. Joe and I stood there, staring at each other while Scott talked a bit more to the “congregation” seated about our back yard. Piper and Maddoxx ran crazy and picked and chose who they wanted to sit with for a minute or two at a time. Everyone seemed relaxed and calm and enjoying the weather. Scott is a very nice orator, as well. He’s so down to earth and real, it’s not hard to reall

y HEAR what he’s saying. He spoke of our family’s responsibility to help us make wise choices to each other. Then he talked about our family’s responsibility to stay the heck out of our business sometimes, too. 🙂 I think everyone giggled and nodded at that.

 

And then… the moment. The vows. My darling man choked up as he spoke his. I could barely get them out with the emotion in my chest. I could hear my oldest daughter (my Maid of Honor), behind me, crying softly too. I know my hand trembled as Scott took the rings from Miles (Joe’s best man). Miles noted in that moment that he thought mine was prettier than Joe’s. 🙂 We exchanged our rings and I think Scott made us stand there another minute and then face everyone.

 

TaDa! We were frigging married!!

Of course, we did the whole stop and greet everyone as they made their way to the tent and tables to start on drinks and food. My father had bought quite a bit of champagne for a toast. We realized about ten minutes into it that we’d completely forgotten beverages of any other kind! My step-dad, Jorge, ran to the gas station and stocked us up on soda. Thank God! We tried to make it around to tables to say hi to everyone, but I’m sure we missed some people.

 

People started thinning out about an hour and a half into everything and we were mostly left with our closest family and friends. My adopted mom, Linda, dropped a whisper in someone’s ear about a father-daughter dance, now that the music had arrived and been set up. My dad came up to me and gave me that wonderful thing. I’d spent the better part of my life believing I’d never have such a thing at my wedding, and I was fantastically wrong. I think we danced to a Louie song, but I’m not really sure. The music was all very 50’s Sinatra and Louie and Ella. It was perfect.

 

Later into the night, the crowd thinned down even more to our very closest friends, we sat around torchlight and a small fire in the fire pit and talked and laughed. My girls still hugged me every few minutes, but I tried to stay close to my HUSBAND. Yeah, I said that word about 40 times every 4 minutes. 🙂 My dad presented us with an overnight stay at the Hyatt in town and we jumped at the chance. I think he even had a “talk” with Joe, which HIGHLY amuses me. I know he told Joe at one point that he’d only just gotten his daughter back, so he was ‘loaning’ me to Joe for now. 🙂 My husband laughed and said something like he wasn’t sure he could give me back.

 

Around 10:30, I think, we left everyone who was still around at my house (weird kind of, but it’s family) and headed to our hotel. On the way, I realized that, in the excitement and chaos, I hadn’t eaten a bite most of the day. We stopped and got Taco Bell. Ha! Perfect reception food, in my opinion. Getting to the hotel, we were in awe of the bed.

 

Ok, it’s not about to get icky, y’all. Honestly, we were just t.i.r.e.d. 🙂 We curled up in the super comfy bed and watched some TV and fell asleep. The next morning we slept WAY in and then went for lunch. Amusingly, we ran into Yani at lunch. She was out with her BFF for lunch, too.

 

I forgot to mention Yani to you guys. My gorgeous 12 year old daughter pretty much outshone me during the wedding. I wasn’t upset at all, though. She looked like Snow White. She was beyond beautiful and it made me realize that one day, not far enough from now, I’ll be doing all of this for her. And she will be the most amazing thing ever. She growing SO fast.

 

Of course, Miles was a little charmer in his suit and tie. And Piper was the belle in her little white dress. She kept stealing people’s shoes and clomping around the driveway in various pairs of heels that were 20 sizes too big for her.

 

All of the bridesmaids were absolutely beautiful, as well. We’d aimed for a cocktail dress sort of idea for them and it went off perfectly. It all fell into place with the loosely defined 50’s idea I wanted. We had peacock feathers on the tables and my dress was very Greta Garbo or something. It was beautiful, as I hope you’ll see in the pictures I hope to post! 🙂

 

Ok, I think I’ve wrapped up the day for you. Sorry it’s so long, y’all, but it was sort of a long day! If I’ve left out any detail you’d like, feel free to ask! 🙂

 

Love

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