I can't believe it's already been almost 2 weeks since my wedding! I been MIA from the boards because I owe you an AW so here goes. I'm going to try to keep it relatively short!
The week before the wedding was crazy. H's family (eee!! so exciting to type that!) arrived on Monday from Ireland so we were out with them every night that week and I worked until 1pm on Thursday. I tried my best to focus at work but in reality I spent half my time day dreaming about the wedding. Oops. Thursday was also H's birthday, so after I got off work at 1 I treated him to a mani/pedi as a birthday gift. Thursday night I threw a birthday party for H at our house. It was a little stressful trying to get that put together so close to the wedding but it was totally worth it. It was the first time our families had met and I know H really appreciated it.
Friday my MOH, one of my BMs, and I got out nails done and then headed into Boston. We met up with my other 2 BMs and I treated everyone to blowouts before the rehearsal. I love any excuse for a blowout.
Anyways then we had the rehearsal back at the hotel and I brought the bottle of Moet that H had waiting at the house after he proposed. We never opened it that night, so I brought it along to the rehearsal to toast to our wonderful bridal party. After the rehearsal we went to dinner at an awesome Irish bar near the hotel and I surprised H with a cake from the same bakery that did our wedding cake. The cake was decorated like a jersey from his favorite team. He was speechless!
Friday night I stayed in the bridal suite with my MOH. We went to bed around 1 and were wide awake at 5:30. I also noticed that I definitely did not get hungover all weekend, despite drinking HEAVILY Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I think it has something to do with the adrenaline. It was awesome!!
The weather was rainy on Saturday morning but I was like a hawk watching the weather and knew it would stop in the early afternoon, which it did! It stopped about an hour before the ceremony and the sun actually peeked out for a second right before the ceremony.
I did a first look with my dad, which was really nice! H and I did not want to do one, but I liked the idea so I think this was a nice compromise. My dad absolutely lost it when he saw me, which made me cry. I couldn't even look him in the eye for a few minutes. Then the photographer got some shots of me:
After that we basically had about 45 minutes to wait in the suite. I had some champagne and was generally feeling calm until the coordinator came to get us for the ceremony. Walking down the hall I remember telling my dad that my heart was beating so fast, it probably counted as cardio. I waited in a separate area while my BMs met up with the rest of the BP. It seemed like an eternity until the coordinator came to get me and my parents for our walk down the aisle.
I was pretty nervous until I saw H at the end of the aisle. I just focused on his face and everything else melted away. When I got up to the front he told me how beautiful I looked. Our ceremony was short and sweet and I just kept focused on him the entire time. We both got choked up the tiniest bit during our vows. Before we knew it the ceremony was over and we were MARRIED!!!!! What an incredible feeling!! After the ceremony my BMs bustled me as fast as possible while H and I were just generally freaking out and crying. My 4 BMs were right behind me but it felt like we were in our own world! This was definitely one of my favorite times of the day. I showed H the engraving in his ring (I had it engraved in Gaelic to say something along the lines of "you are my chosen one" and our wedding date). He loved that and we shared some special words.
After that we had to hightail it to pictures outside during cocktail hour. We got some great shots around the city. I can't wait to see them! Here are the 2 sneak peeks we've seen so far:
The rest of the night was an absolute blur. We had a few minutes at cocktail hour, then we were introduced and we had our first dance. Even though our song was on the longer side (just under 4 minutes) it FLEW by! Dinner was delicious, though I only ate 3 bites because my dress was hurting me from sitting down. The toasts were absolutely incredible. I'm SO glad we had a videographer because I can;t wait to re-watch the toasts over and over. H's brother (BIL now!) made my favorite toast of all. Our cake was perfection, too!
We made it around to all our guests (we only had 99, and even that felt like a lot) and then we were finally able to enjoy ourselves. We didn't leave the dance floor all night! The best part were the last few songs. H had the DJ play some Irish songs and it felt just like that scene in Titanic where Jack and Rose are at the 3rd class party. H and I were in the middle of the dance floor Irish step dancing and everyone around us was jumping around and going absolutely crazy! My cousins were staying in one of the rooms below the ballroom and had left early and the next day they said they were laying in bed watching the ceiling shake from all of us dancing like crazy upstairs. I know I'm biased but it was seriously the BEST fucking party ever.
After the reception ended my sister and her BF were so generous and opened a tab at the bar next door so the party kept on rolling. I wore my wedding dress (though I changed into sneakers) and definitely got some weird looks from other people at the bar but I could not have cared less. H and I kept the party going until nearly 5am, we did not want the night to end at all!
I kept expecting something to go wrong, because it seems like at least one thing (big or small) always goes wrong at weddings. But honest to God, everything was 100% perfect!! I wouldn't change a thing!
The next morning we woke up (again, magically hangover free) and went to brunch. It was so nice to have some more time with our family and friends to re-hash the night before. Brunch was supposed to end at 2 but we kept partying until almost 8. At that point H and I both hit a wall and needed to sleep.
Monday morning we said goodbye to H's family, which was tough. I even cried. Then we headed up to Vermont for our mini-moon! We had high hopes for the hotel because the website said it had won all these awards, but we were really disappointed. The hotel was beautiful but the service left a lot to be desired, especially compared to the prices they were charging. For instance, the $50 steak was dry and bland....I've definitely had better steak at Outback Steakhouse for a fraction of the price. Also H had a terrible cold and I had a massive UTI, so we spent the first day of our 3 day honeymoon calling doctors and waiting at the pharmacy. Not fun at all. We tried to do a romantic sleigh ride one day but there were 50 MPH winds and a -17 degree wind chill, so it was pretty fucking miserable.
In that cold, it was even hard to enjoy the hot tub. Notice the snow and ice in our hair.
We made the best of it and definitely enjoyed our time together and even laughed at how horribly wrong things seemed to be going. What else can you do? We were honest at our experience during check out and the hotel comped both our dinners, which definitely helped.
Also while we were away, H's boss called to say that he had been fired and therefore H's job was up in the air. What a fucking dick to call us on our honeymoon to give us that news. He couldn't wait 2 days for us to get back? Fuck him, I'm glad he's gone. It turned out well in the end because H called the owner of the company and said he still wanted to work for her team and she was delighted to hear that. He has a new boss now, who is actually WAY better than his old boss, and he is getting more responsibility and better support. So it all worked out in the end, but it meant we spent another day of our honeymoon dealing with "real life" and not honeymooning.
We came back last Thursday night and while I was
pretty extremely depressed Friday morning to get back in the swing of things at work and in life, I quickly got back into my routine and now we are just enjoying being newlyweds!! Now we are looking forward to going through the immigration process for H, getting our photos and videos back, opening gifts (and writing thank you notes), and planning our 2nd honeymoon for March/April. Woo!