It's been a while since the wedding, and I still love theknot. I thought I'd come in a post a recap.
We were engaged for almost 2 years, so I had a lot of time to plan and save for our dream wedding. He said it was mine. It is our second time around so we did a lot of things differently. I had no bouquet toss, or garter toss, it wasn't missed. I had no father daughter dance. Both of our fathers are deceased. Since we both have son's, I did a mother and son dance with all of our relatives too, it was very cool.
I was married in the courthouse the first time so I never had a wedding. My fiance had a big wedding first time around.
We had been dating for 6 years to the day when we married.
I planned the whole thing myself (no drama) and paid for the majority of it. The fiance pitched in and gave me money in the end (without complaint) when I fell short. A few thousand, oops, I had a dress debaucle that set me back about 1800, another story.
We married on Oak Brook IL at Mayslake Peabody Estate in front of the Chapel.
Our reception was steps away in the Estate Mansion immediately following the ceremony.
The Weather:
I lurked on the weather websites, because it was an outdoor wedding. My dream ceremony venue. They called for scattered storms for 15 days. I refused to believe it wouldnt' be beautiful. The rehersal day Friday was gorgeous, perfect, but the weatherman said the rain was coming.
Friday night the storms came in but we knew it was coming so I mentally prepared myslef for rain for the morning of the wedding, but it was supposed to clear up and sunny for the late afternoon.
I had the rehersal and the dinner early. We had tons of family in town and everyone was in a hotel. At the last minute I asked my groom to spend the night with me on Friday night so I wouldn't be alone.
We went back to my house about 9pm and worked on framing some pics of us for the venue and went to bed. Made love on the morning of the wedding when we awoke to soothe our nerves and love each other up.
He packed the car for the honeymoon. Talk about backwards, I loved it and wouldn't change that night and morning for anything. Tradition, be damned. I loved it. I otherwise would have been alone.
It was raining when we awoke and when I left for my hair appointment. I went to my sisters house after my hair appt, her house was bride's central. The 2 moms and 2 maids got their make up done there, the morning was quiet and serene. A soft rain fell. I refused to believe it would be anything but beautiful for our wedding at 4.
I stepped into my gown about noon. The photog and videographer arrived and started shooting. I had just my 2 sisters as bridesmaids and they were perfect and wonderful and supportive and fun. Everyone was very quiet in the morning. We were worried about the rain, but no one mentioned it.
I saw a shooting star Thursday night and prayed for no rain. When we arrived at the venue the sun broke through and it was a gorgeous gorgeous day.
Here's a stock pic of the chapel
This is just before the wedding. Blue skys and sunshine, the angels were watching over us.
That is a REAL MOSAIC on the chapel. We had 95 white chairs set up in front of the chapel. Here they are:
My gown was an Allure Lace Gown, with sweep train created by my seamstress with a bustle technique. This is me and my precious son who obviously walked me down the isle.
My son was at the hotel the night before with his cousins and my sister.
My son (14 years) was a groomsman and escorted me down the isle. Not a dry eye ..... except mine, he didn't want me to embarras him by crying so I kept it together and smiled and smiled and smiled the whole time. My groom's son 17 was best man..
My girlfriend called me in the morning while I was at the salon. She was crying and telling me how happy she was for me and now she didn't have to worry about me any more, I cried my eyes out too, so I got it all out before the wedding. I also cried saying the prayer at the rehersal dinner, while thanking God for the wonderful man he brought into my life.
So at the wedding I smiled.
!!!
The necklace was worn by my grandmother to my moms wedding and it was an honor to be able to wear it. My gorgeous boy walking me down the isle. So poised!
My groom's son and my son did a fabulous job. Both of our boys made us very proud.
Both boys made remarks at the reception. My stepson on the left wrote his down. My son forgot his written remarks, so he told everyone he'd have to "speak from the heart" he said some very nice things for a 14 year old. Both were incredibly poised. My sister the MOH also gave a speech. Those were the only speeches, except my other sister spoke for about 2 minutes to welcome everyone on our behalf. She said "it's days like today that make life worth living" I did tear up then too....
Here's my beautiful sister's, my bridesmaids:
This was during the ceremony and my MOH was holding my bouquet too.
I just love this pic so I had to add it:
My gorgeous groom escorting his mom to her seat with his son following.
The cake cutting, I was so excited, it was right after the intros and my hands were shaking. I was getting cake on my hands and I was nervous about it. Funny things happen with your emotions at weddings. We didn't smash cake of course.
The kiss. He was under strict orders not to slap my behind, but the hand slipped down during the kiss:) My girlfriends said the kiss was good and long and not too passionate, they loved it.
The reception space was full of stained glass windows and that was the inspiration for our colors which were all the jewel tones of gold navy fuschia and purple. My florist was a GENIOUS she did a fab job helping me with all the decor including the textured gold tablecloth on the family table.. it was stunning. I was blown away and cried when they revealed the room to me.
I did a long family table in the center flanked by 3 ten tops on each side. The family table seated 40 family members the rest were good friends, and we had one table of co workers. We were at the head of the table I made the place cards for us:
Our boys and thier dates were next to us and then we put all of the teenaged cousins close to them. It was a hoot. The older relatives were toward the middle and the end of the table.
The meal was served, and the dancing started. We danced to "Thank You" by Led Zeplin. Listen to it if you've never heard it. It's a beautiful song. Then we had the mother son dance. There were a lot of moms and sons at our wedding!
When I think back on it, it was so fun, a wonderful event. My groom had NO IDEA what the room was going to look like, we were both blown away when we saw it, my vision was executed with perfection by my DOC and my vendors.
The wedding was over about 10 and I had totally forgotten to mapquest our hotel.
So my groom and I were driving and I had to call my girlfriend to ask her where the hotel was, so funny. It was just a few minutes from the reception and I knew the general area so she directed me. We got together in our suite with our very good friends and drank and laughed until late into the night. They left our suite and we stayed up and opened all of our cards. We went to bed at 2 am and got up early at about 7 still excited. We ran into our OOT cousins at the hotel and had coffee and chatted with them for about a half hour then packed the car with our overnighters and left the hotel and had breakfast.
We left for our honeymoon, drove to the east coast, to Hilton Head Island over a few days. It was glorious not to have to deal with airports and security and luggage. My wonderful husband was in charge of the travel and had packed a cooler with great food. I insisted upon taking my top tier of the cake with us. We ate it all week. I'm not one for tradition. It was yummy, and I didn't get any at the wedding. Too busy dancing!!!
I am so glad we drove, it was relaxing and fun and we relived the entire wedding for the first 4 hours of the drive. I was skying for the rest of the day and so was my hubby.
Here we are on the honeymoon: If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me as I relived the wedding again.
I have a lot of advice to give, but this has been long so I will just say this:
Treasure your husband, treasure your family, treasure your new in laws. Treasure your children.
They are truely what makes life worth living.