So.....we did it! I'm a married woman!
We tied the knot on the 19th. Everything was just beautiful! What people say about your wedding day is absolutely true-it goes by SO fast, and the little things DON'T matter. It seemed to go by quickly, but I was able to absorb everything and have so many fond memories from our day. There were so many little things that went "wrong". We had to delay the start of the ceremony 15 minutes because my mom and sister were late. My SIL was creating all kinds of drama that I'm still hearing about. Poor H was running around doing all these last-minute things, and during that time, he 1.) tried to start the car with no keys, 2.) took a wrong turn and ended up 2 towns over instead of at the church (good thing he had plenty of time!), and 3.) almost got in a head-on collision while he was driving the 2 hours from his parents house. Meanwhile, I was completely calm, which is so odd for me! Ushering the parents/grandparents in didn't go as planned at all, but I didn't care-I didn't even know! It was SO hot and humid in that church! Hour-long ceremony, in 90+ weather with ridiculous humidity, and no AC makes for lots of sweat! But we didn't care at all! Right before we were supposed to enter the reception, either the MOH or BM stepped on my dress, and the bustle broke, so that was lots of fun. Safety pins are your friend!
ANYWAY, my point is that we had several hiccups throughout the day, but everything was just wonderful! DH and I are so pleased with how it turned out, and the guests had a BLAST! And just as I predicted, my dry wedding was AWESOME! The key is having great music. It really makes all the difference and everyone had a great time! It really made us happy that we spent all this time planning, and were able to pull together a great wedding that not only made us happy, but made our guests happy as well. Some of them said that ours was the best wedding they ever went to! It made me so happy to hear people say that!
I'm still sort of in shock! It still hasn't set in yet-I'm MARRIED. We got our marriage cert in the mail, and it still doesn't feel real! It feels like it was just some crazy-awesome dream! I'm still amazed with how calm I was! I was so anxious about being the center of attention, but it didn't bother me one bit! DH and I were nervous about the first dance, because we knew everyone was watching! But when we got out there, it was like there wasn't anyone else there. It was just amazing.
Sorry about the rambling! I'm just so excited that everything went well! Thank you all SO much for your help! I've learned so much from these boards, and guests noticed that we put a lot of thought into the planning. You helped keep me sane! I'll certainly be sticking around, I love it here!
And to thank you for your time, some AW for you. We don't have the pro pics yet, so this is the best I can do for now!
The pics are being stubborn, so unfortunately this is the only one I can put on right now. When I can, I add more pics of the gorgeous dress my aunt made! I wish I could AW more! But this will have to do!
ETA: Ha! Someone added more pictures! And I can actually get them on here! Here are a couple more!