Sorry it took me sooo long. I'm still recovering from my June 25th wedding and all the planning that took place. I didn't hire a coordinator it was just my mom and I so it took a lot out of both of us. Plus when I came back to work I had 700+ emails to sort through, ewwww.
In hindsight, the wedding weekend was perfect. All the little details came together. A few people were late to the rehearsal dinner and to their wedding morning appointments but it didn't really matter in the end. My husband and I decided to call out of town guests about 1 week before the wedding to make sure they were still coming and we're glad we did because we found over 25 people who no longer planned to attend. Luckily I was waiting to finalize the guest list so we were able to switch some tables around and invite people from my church who really wanted to attend to fill the already paid for seats. This continued until the day before the wedding when people let me know they weren't coming. So I was up the night before trying to finalize the list for my hostesses and working with kinko's on the escort cards. We paid for 319 plates and probably had about 300 people show up, not too bad. And guess what? They didn't drink all the wine and beer I bought so I got a refund there too. Nice surprise!
My girls wanted to take me out the night before and against my will I went. We ended up at the same club as the guys after going to a few bars. I'm glad I went in the end because who knows the next time we'll all be together again. The morning of I woke up after 3 hours of sleep and headed to the beauty shop with most of my BM's. Then back to the hotel where each girl had a scheduled makeup time. I sat around and packed my honeymoon bag and transferred things to my honeymoon suite.
We headed to the church around 2:45 and I did not get to put on my dress until 4:30 and the wedding started at 5. So I was rushing. But the wedding started at 5pm on the dot and I was super happy! During the ceremony, my jr groomsman got sick and almost collapsed. Luckily the Best Man caught him, picked him up and handed him to someone who took him out. It was pretty smooth I must say. He was ok, just had been sick and probably locked his knees (tell your WP not to lock their knees! I told mine but not the kids and then that happened).
From there everything went smoothly. I played wedding coordinator and bride a lot that day. I don't regret it because I saved money and everything was the way I wanted it. But, it sure was a full time task. We danced into the reception, did our first dance, he danced with his mom and we visited tables during dinner. We later changed into our traditional attire (He's Nigerian) and continued partying the night away. My favorite part was the slide show where we revealed we bought a house to everyone's surprise.
The next morn we went to the Bahamas and stayed at a resort in Nassau (Viva Wyndham Fortuna). The resort was nice but the rooms could have been a lot better. We were upgraded to the "best" room and it still was just ok. But we had a blast! We ate, relaxed, took advantage of the open bar, and did a lot of different actvities!
We came home to a ton of gifts, what a blessing! We're both back at work and now packing to move into our home next month.
Thank you to everyone for all your ideas and suggestions over the past year. I couldn't have pulled it off without you. It's amazing how someone else's posts can help you too.
Still waiting on pro pics, but here's a sneak peek:
Us at the altar
The Kiss
Strolling in the reception
The dress! I'm still getting compliments. All that worrying over did I make the right choice went away.
Cake topper courtesy of Tybody - thanks!!
Half of the candy buffet table
Posing with my money from my husband's family
Our Nigerian attire
The new bling. I can't believe he added a band, that was a surprise to me.
US!!