We are finally home after the long grueling nearly 24 hours of travel...we started back from Victoria, BC yesterday by taking a 3 hour ferry at 10am to Seattle and our first flight wasn't until 11:35p at night (which ended up getting delayed...) and despite a few hiccups along the way home it went well because we knew we were coming home.
So the big day! It was more perfect than I had even imagined it could be. It started Thrusday when all our family started coming in...as overwhelming as it was (we had gotten so used to it just being us) it was phenomenal to see how our families, who aside from our parents had never met each other, got along so well and worked together to finalize all the chaos. The biggest surprise was my brothers...both of them were so incredibly attentive to me and helpful in every way possible, not once argueing or making a scene with my parents as they have a tendency to do after only a few minutes with them. Everyone got along ridiculously well. I told DH (eeee!!) that it was so great to get to know his family in this way, as previously I had only been in their territory. It really showed me how welcoming they were to me and how glad to have me join their family by them being here for the sole purpose of Nate and I's wedding. DH (and my!) niece was adorable, curling up with me to read books and play. His brother, who previously had only ever seemed shy and nervous to talk to me, ended up really hitting it off with me and I heard him tell Nate that he was "lucky to find a good one" (brother-in-law is 30 and never had a serious girlfriend...). The most wonderful pre-wedding moment was when my family was assembling our favors. I was 120% dead on my feet wanting to cry from exhaustion but still asked if there was anything I could do to help and they said "Just sit, you're the bride" and my parents, brothers, and one bridesmaid tediously assembled all 100 favors while Nate and I just rested on the couch
I started getting really nervous at our rehearsal, our pastor didn't run it and we had a substitute and he was weird and no one understood what was going on and I just kept getting frustrated because people kept looking to me to make decisions on things that I just didn't see what the point to it was...so when we got to the rehearsal dinner and I continued saying my mantra (It will get done or it won't get done, either way we'll be married on Sunday!), Nate's step-grandfather bought me a drink (haha kind of funny) and we started just enjoying all our friends and family...magical, folks. For those of you still planning, ENJOY the rehearsal dinner. Sometimes I feel it was even more special than the wedding since it was so much more of an intimate group. You really truly see the people you love come through for you in so many ways in the last days to the wedding.
Wedding day went flawlessly. Not a single mistake. I slept the best that night than any leading up to it, woke well rested, ate a simple breakfast and took a long hot bath to relax while my bridesmaids did a Starbucks run for me. The mother of two of my flower girls brought them by and bent overe backwards to do whatever she could to help which was an AMAZING blessing (as sometimes in the past our relationship has been strained). I was so calm the entire time, not nervous or anything, just so ready to be my husband's wife. Seeing all my girls with me was wonderful. Nate had gone to play soccer that morning, a necessary element for his nerves, and I had to share the text he sent me after the game while we were getting ready: "I didn't score but I'm planning to tonight!" All my girls got a hoot out of that, although it may have been a little ackward for his sister...lol. Then the text from my brother downstairs at the hotel telling me "Your chariot awaits!" A black hummer limo took us to lunch at a smoothie joint (where we got our picture taken with FHP officers!!) then on to the church for final touches and photos.
The first time I started to cry was when my older brother came in to see me. We have a very special relationship. He is very protective of me and though we don't always talk much and he has a VREY rough backround (in and out of drug addiction, actually found out yesterday being here for our wedding was the catalyst to help him kick a 1.5 year battle with heroin I didn't even know he was struggling with). When he walked in his eyes welled up and he just came to me and hugged me, we clung to each other and I tried so hard not to cry but it was near impossible. Little brother told me he was speechless.
Then Nate came to the door. That's when I started really shaking. He held my hand and just loved on me, even without being able to see me. It was such a special moment, one I really can't even describe with words, so I won't even try. Hopefully the pictures they took during that time will capture some of it, but no way they can capture it all.
I made a scrapbook for him of all the special moments and wrote him a letter that my MOH delivered to him...she told me he started crying when he was looking through it. He said they had no cards for a groom to his bride on the wedding day so he made his own which made me bawl of course, one of my bridesmaids just read the front "To My New Wife" and completely lost it. He bought me a charm bracelet with a heart pendant that was engraved with my NEW initials and our wedding date and the first charm he bought was of wedding rings.
So many emotions during the ceremony and the reception, but the most incredible thing to me was how once I started down that aisle, nothing else mattered. I didn't lose it the way I thought I would, barely cried, just teared up a little and my dad said he had to hold me back so I didn't bolt down the aisle...he said it was my moment, and to savor it, but I just wanted to be with Nate. At the reception everyone kept telling me how totally in love we looked and how I couldn't stop smiling and the giddy smiles I kept getting.
I could keep on writing about all the interactions with people and how great the food was and how awesome the cake turned out, but really it almost seems so special that I just want to remember it in moments, instead of trying to transform them into words. I almost feel like it would cheapen it a little. I'd rather just share the photos with you when the come. But all in all, an amazing fabulous day that led to an amazing fabulous night. It was everyting it should have been and more and I could not be more blessed to have such a wonderful man to be my husband...I am so blessed to be his wife.
Despite all the details I left out, feel free to ask about any specifics, I absolutely love talking about the day and all the people I'd normally talk about it with were there and are now most are far away again...except for DH :-D