Phew! After being in 3 different airports, and about 6 hours worth of layovers, we made it home yesterday morning and I am EXHAUSTED!! We had a great time on our honeymooon.
Now, let's rewind to the wedding. Let me start by saying that I was so patient and calm through 16 months of planning and putting up with people, and I guess it backfired! Thursday (day before wedding) My mom and I headed to the venue to begin setting up. MIL then shows up to help, which would have been GREAT if she hadn't brought 4 kids ages 2-8. NIGHTMARE! I was so glad when they left. My dad and aunt finally got up there to help also. After over 6 hours we were nowhere near finished, but it was late and hot and people had places to be. Carmen also was texting me to not take too long, not to be too late, to make it quick, etc. He was going to stay the night at his brothers, who I don't trust, so I was in no hurry. I didn't see what the big rush was to get there if they were just ordering pizza and doing nothing all night. He kept rushing me after I got home, acting as if there weren't things to do and in the long run we ended up fighting and he left for his brothers with me home PISSED!!!!!! It was NOT a good night before my wedding!
Day of- I expected that a thing or 2 would go wrong and was fine with that. I was NOT fine, however, with just about EVERYTHING going wrong. Where should I begin:
-My mom and I got up early (so much for an 8pm wedding and getting to relax all day) and drove up to Oswego to finish setting up. The place was locked. Sat around 45min til someone could unlock it. I had to be back in Syracuse for a 2pm makeup appt, so we didn't get to finish.
-Get to my appt 10 min late and they say "he should be here soon" #1 why is the person not there when my appt was 10 min ago? and #2 HE??! I have a HE doing my makeup??!!! After a while he shows up and takes some time getting all his supplies. I tell him that the girl wrote down all of the colors and products on a chart when I had my trial. 10 or 15 min later he says he can't find it and we'll just wing it. It's my wedding!! Are you serious??!! I tell him fine because we're already running late and I am in a hurry... THIS does NOT make him work fast. It took OVER an hour, and threw us WAY behind schedule
-Was supposed to stop home to pick up all the food I bought for while we got ready, and to have the flower girl dropped off to me but didn't have time. Ended up having to go to Dunkin while my BM got her hair done
-My parents went to finish setting up while us girls were getting ready. They got back late and my mom had to shower & whatnot. By the time she got to our room to get her hair done, it was like 7:15, and my niece was still getting her hair done, and the flower girl wasn't done. My mom was trying to curl her own hair, which wasn't working.
-It was a mad dash around my room trying to help everyone get dressed. We were running so late that I was getting my hair done standing up while I was having my dressed laced. Ugh.
-We ended up being a half hour late. Apparently the officiant made Carmen go stand out in his spot around 8 when it was supposed to start, even though he said I was running late (I let him and his BM know this around 7:45) Poor guy was standing up there a long time getting nervous. Eventually they let him leave. Also, when they arrived apparently the caterer bitched at them for having beer on the bus and getting off with it-she could have told them POLITELY that it was not allowed. Also, one of the GM decided to get on the mic and tell all of our guests that the wedding was off- one of his friends even was nice enough to tape it.
-Because we were so late, it was pitch black out when we were done, which gave limited options for photos. I was so annoyed already at this point that I didn't care that much-although I had mentioned a place where I wanted to do photos, and we didn't end up doing them. I was so worked up that I didn't remember, and the photogs didn't either or didn't want to. Basically I'm kind of upset because I think we could have done a lot more, despite the fact that it was dark out
-I gave Carmen 2 jobs- #1 Please designate GM jobs of showing people where to park, and showing them around the building to the ceremony #2 Please don't let anyone get trashed before the ceremony..................... apparently these were both too difficult to handle because apparently everyone was just walking right through the reception area. Eventually my aunt who was doing the flowers closed it up and someone else was telling people where to go. And I could tell on the phone that the BM was drunk, and he hugged me when I got there and it smelled like he bathed in liquor.
-I explained our rehearsed entrance thoroughly to 1 of the DJs. When it came time, his mic didn't work so he had to go get a diff one. I was telling everyone to please tell him to start the music over. Instead, I had people yelling at me to just go in. So I walked into the reception pissed and miserable, with the fakest smile ever, and we wasted lots of time rehearsing our plan.
-I wanted everyone to eat while we took pics (because we were so short on time, and even more so since we were a half hour late) Nobody was eating when we were done with pics-even tho the caterer ASKED my mom and she TOLD her I wanted eveyone to eat.
-They did not serve the top tier of our cake like we wanted. Instead we wasted money and it went in the trash yesterday when we got home.
-When we cut the cake I wiped frosting on Carmen's nose, and then his brother decided to grab the rest and try to smash it in my face. I pushed him back and brushed it off, and then he did it again- I had cake on both sides of my face, in my hair, and IN and on my $1300 dress. I FLIPPED and ended up storming out to the bathroom in tears- my friends were like DAMN I don't know how you walked so fast in that dress we couldn't keep up in our heals! He did NOT come near me the rest of the night. I did however have someone hand me a piece of cake later in the night and tell me to get revenge, which I did. I told Carmen that there better be a lot of ass kissing and apologizing, otherwise don't expect me to be nice to him anymore.
-We didn't use our $75 toasting flutes
-Best man gave the WORST speech ever. I was truly embarassed
-We planned everything 8pm-midnight. They told us we had to be out by midnight at we could clean up in the morning whatever was left. Didn't think about the DJ/Photobooth etc needing to get their things out! So, the catering manager as sweet as she was all night (not) also apparently was very rude to the DJs and demanded that they play 2 more songs and absolutely no more than 2 and then they were to leave.
-I had a box of little cards and markers/pens, with a sign explaining to write advice, well-wishes, memories, etc instead of signing a guest book. I was so excited to see what people had written so I went to grab the box to take with me while my parents finished cleaning.... NOT ONE SINGLE ONE. I was so sad at this. I was going to scrapbook them with our wedding pics.
-Our officiant apparently is allergic to hay, and apparently there was some used at the venue the week before. I guess she wasn't feeling well, and she also was being kind of rude to Carmen and the BM about getting the marriage license signed and everything beforehand (I had it with me). She also did not have her notes and everything right from our meeting so she did things wrong, added things I specifically asked not to do. Also dropped Carmen's ring and I thought it was going to roll off the deck!
-In such a rush, I forgot the flower girl basket at the hotel. The caterers got an empty basket and took some petals off our cake table. I had ivory petals put down beforehand, and I STUFFED her basket with pink & purple petals because I wanted TONS of petals.... she ended up cying and not throwing ANY petals at all. Now, she is almost 7, so I definitely did not expect this.
-Picture time, my niece had already taken off her shoes and put slippers on. It took so long just to get everyone together that I didn't want to waste more time finding her shoes and getting them back on. I'm sure this will look great in pics
-My mom clearly did NOT bustle my dress right. It looked weird, and I also still had part of the train hanging down. It took so long that I said F it and I dragged it around all night
I'm sure there's a million more things that went wrong. In the end, I guess we ended up married which is the important part, but it is just frustrating after spending so much time, money, and effort into making it MY day. On a positive note, the food was good, everyone loved the photobooth, and we completely shocked everyone by doing a surprise dance! If I knew how to save it and post it here I would!
If anyone wants to see the video or more pics let me know and I can add you on FB (Mine's usually really hard to find because of the settings I have on) Our internet is down at home (and I conveniently started online classes today) so I may only be on once a day until it gets fixed.
Apparently nobody noticed this until AFTER the ceremony and pics..... my dad has on a black tie (I found out they gave him a vest beforehand and told him he wasn't supposed to have one so he didn't wear it..) and FIL has on black tie and vest .. everything was supposed to be ivory, and NOBODY was supposed to have a vest!
Did I mention that the BM whipped out his cell in the middle of the ceremony and took pictures? With flash? Who does that?!! (below!)
