My wedding was July 2 and it's taken forever and a day for me to sit down and do a recap because I've been so lazy it's ridiculous. Sit back and relax because this is long.
Friday
For me, Friday was all about relaxation. I picked up my dress from the cleaners where it got steamed and checked into the Marriott. I had a chance to lay down and relax for an hour before going to my spa appointment with my mom, MIL, and 2 of my aunts. Ladies, let me tell you, if you can afford it, I highly recommend a good massage the day before. It was so good I nearly fell asleep. After that I had a manicure and a pedicure. I got the OPI Axxium gel nails for my manicure and I loved it. My nails were shiny and chip free for a full 2 weeks before I took it off.
After the spa appt, I headed to the rehearsal at the venue and was so happy to see some of my BMs who I haven't seen in a while, as well as some of the GMs and their wives. We got through rehearsal and then headed to dinner. My dad surprised us with a DVD where he did interviews with people from both sides of the family where they congratulated us and gave us advice. Most of those fools had no business giving us marriage advice, but it was still nice. Then after all of the interviews, there was a slideshow with pictures of H and I growing up to now. I'm so glad my dad decided to play it at the rehearsal dinner and not at the wedding because it was kind of long.
Saturday
I had a very unpleasant rude awakening at 7:30am with a loud crack of thunder. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the window and saw that it was pouring rain and the clouds looked gray for miles. I was soooooooo depressed! My family and I had been looking at the forecast for the past week because we had to decide whether or not we were going to get a tent for our outdoor ceremony. My parents really didn't want to get one because it cost $2000, so when the weather report kept saying that it would be a 30% chance of rain we decided to take our chances and opt out of a tent. So of course when I saw that it was raining I was so down in the dumps. All of my BMs came over to the room at 9am to get their hair done and they all kept trying to reassure me that the rain was going to pass and it would stop raining in the early afternoon. The ceremony didn't start until 5:30pm so I was keeping my fingers crossed that they were right. My BMs did a good job of keeping my spirits up by telling their favorite memories of our times together and we had a good time reminiscing on the crazy times.
My MUA came at 11am and my MOH was straight hating on her because she's white and she was afraid that she wouldn't do a good job. I told her that I wouldn't book someone who would make us look crazy and that any good MUA will know how to make anyone look good, no matter what race they are. The MUA and her assistant did my mom and MIL first, so after they were done, my MOH felt better since both moms looked amazing.
Once they got started on my makeup, my photographers and videographer showed up and started filming and taking pictures of me getting ready. At this point, the sun had started to come out and the rain stopped. After makeup, I copied my vows from my computer, got my dress and veil on and waited for the limo to take us to the venue. On the way over to the venue, one of my BMs asked me if I thought H would cry and I said I don't think so, he's not really a cryer, although he did shed a tear watching The Notebook! When we got to the venue, we immediately went into the catering directors office because I didn't want to anyone to start talking to me. Our bouquets were waiting for us and I was so happy with how they turned out.
A little drama ensued because from where I was sitting in the office, I could see people arriving out the window and I saw that one of my cousins and his wife came with their grand daughter who's only 8 months old. The invitation clearly stated that it was an adult event and I even talked to my cousin on the phone and told him that his daughter couldn't bring her baby. So why did the daughter, who's the mom of the baby, not even come when she rsvp'd yes, but her mom brought the baby anyway? I was so pissed off because the last thing I wanted was to have a crying baby in the background while we're giving our vows. My MOH went out and told them that they could stay, but someone's going to have to stay in the clubhouse (venue was a golf club) with the baby because I didn't want her at the ceremony. My cousin threw a fit and had the nerve to say that I said it was okay that the baby could come, as long as the baby is nursing. I did tell my cousin that a NEWBORN was the exception to the rule, but this baby wasn't a tiny newborn, and how could the baby be nursing when the mom isn't even there??? She had an attitude but she stayed in the clubhouse.
Next thing I knew, it was time for the processional so I walked out of the office and finally saw the reception room. I was blown away! The florists went above and beyond my expectations for the flowers. I had tall and short centerpieces and they made the room look amazing. I also saw the cake for the first time and it was so gorgeous! At this point, I finally started to get a little nervous because all day I'd been so mellow and hadn't shed a tear about anything. It wasn't until I heard the music change to my song that I got a little jittery, but I still didn't cry. I finally made my way down the aisle and all of a sudden the wind started blowing my hair in my face! I literally couldn't see a thing because my bangs were in my eyes and I kept trying to fix it. I'm so nervous to see those pictures. I was so distracted by my hair that I couldn't really take it all in like I wanted to. When I got to the front, I finally saw that H had one single Denzel tear running down his face (that was a Glory reference for those who've seen it). I thought, aww he's crying, and then when he came to take my hand, he just lost it and BAWLED! I absolutely didn't expect for him to cry, but it was sweet. When we got to our personal vows, I had a hard time getting through mine since I finally started to cry for the first time, and H shed more tears while I was reading my vows. Then when he read his vows he cried again. I heard later that there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd and even some of the GM lost it too. Overall, it was a really sweet, heartfelt ceremony. We jumped the broom at the end and then immediately took pictures.
After that point, I swear everything went by in a blur. The reception was fun and the food was amazing. We cut our evening short though because we were supposed to have the venue until midnight, but we left at 11:15 because pretty much all of H's family left since they had to drive back to Dayton, OH, which is about an hour away from Columbus. We wanted to have a sparkler exit and if we would've waited until midnight, we wouldn't have had anyone there to do it, so we chose to leave early. It was okay because by that point, I really wanted to go back to the hotel and get my dress off because it was soooo heavy and I was sweating the entire time. My feet were killing me too so I wasn't comfortable at all. We did our sparkler exit and got in the limo, but had the limo driver do a loop because we wanted to get some night shots with our photographers. I'm so glad we did this because we didn't get as many pics as I wanted during the cocktail hour. After the pictures, we went back to the hotel and, um...ahem...did what married people do.
The next morning we went to my parents house for breakfast and some out of town people were there. It was nice to catch up with people because it was hard to really talk to people at the wedding since we were constantly on the go and tried to get to everyone and thank them for coming. After the breakfast, we flew to Seattle where H left the car at the airport and then drove up to Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada. It was so gorgeous! It wasn't the relaxing on the beach honeymoon that I wanted, but we still had an amazing time and hopefully we can take a big trip for our anniversary.
Some mishaps
-Our DJ totally screwed up our entrance at the reception. He introduced H and I when he was supposed to be introducing our BM and MOH. The catering director ran over to him and told him he skipped them, and the DJ corrected it and introduced them, but it was set to our music since he was introducing H and I. H was not happy about that.
-I worked so hard on my blinged out cake topper, but since we had more guests than originally expected, we needed anther tier for the cake, and that last tier made it too small for the cake topper, so the topper sat on the table next to the cake. The cake looked really nice even without the topper since there were flowers on top, but I wish I would've known that there wouldn't be room for the topper or I would've just told them to not even put it on the table.
-I wish someone would've told me to get my sew-in weave a week before the wedding instead of 2 days before! I've never had a sew-in before, so I thought that if I got the weave 2 days before then it would be more "fresh". This was a HUGE mistake!!! I got a full sew-in since I have a natural and I didn't want to leave any hair out. I had a silk based closure so I could part the hair on the closure and it looked like a scalp. The problem though was that my hair was braided kind of tight so my eyes were pulled like I was Asian. I looked like I could've been Kimora Lee's cousin! Also, my hair didn't have time to relax so the closure had a little more puff to it than I wanted. It looks perfect now, but I really wish I would've gotten my hair done the week before.
-I can't believe the amount of women who wore white!!! Most of them were over 40. Don't people know that this is a major DON'T?!
All in all, the wedding was beautiful and I couldn't believe how fast it went. I can't wait for the video and my pictures. I'll post the pics when they're ready, but for now here's some pics from my dad and my uncle.
H walking down with my uncle the officiant
Hair in my face!
Ceremony site
Stupid wind!
H losing it!
H losing it again while I'm reading my vows
I worked hard on this runner
On our way to take pics
Me and my parents
Our gorgeous cake!
Waiting to eat
Can't wait for the pro pics!