Short story:
My husband and I were married on May 12, and the wedding was AWESOME! Totally worth all the headaches, stress, and money spent over the past year and a half (particularly the last month!). It was better than I dared to dream of and was nearly perfect - I had so many guests tell me how well we (and H was very good about deflecting all praise on wedding planning towards me, haha) planned the wedding and how much fun they had. A lot of people told me it was the best wedding they'd ever been to, and my aunt even said that it was the most fun she'd had in 20 years!
Long story:
My mom and I spent the night before the wedding at my house, and H slept at the hotel. We got up, showered, and were at the hair salon by 8am. All the BMs met us at the salon and everything went relatively smoothly, and we had breakfasty snacks & mimosas to munch on. The only thing that annoyed me was that my stylist must have totally forgotten what I actually ended up liking during my hair trial. I only wanted 2 small pieces of hair pinned back (and the rest all down) mainly for show that so that we'd have a place to stick my veil and hair comb without it looking strange. Well, first go around she put half of it completely up. I kept asking her take more and more of it out, and eventually I just asked her to take all of it down and just re-do it. It worked out in the end, but my mom and I ended up having to go back after we got back to the house and re-curl some of the strands because it just didn't look right. Not super impressed, but it turned out alright in the end.
After that I was running a bit behind - we went back to my house to get dressed & have our makeup done. Our makeup artist did an AMAZING job. I told my H several times during the day to take it all in now, because I was never going to look better than I did on our wedding day
The limo picked myself & the BMs up, and we headed to the chapel for our first look photos. We got there about 30 mins later than I wanted, but it worked out okay. The first look was great, we took some photos of just H and I and then some with the wedding party, too. It was great to be able to sit and relax with everyone before the ceremony.
Then it was time to line up for the ceremony. My dad and I were waiting behind closed doors while the last BM processed down the aisle. My family & H aren't super emotional or anything in general, but I found myself looking at the table we had in the chapel entrance in memory of our FBIL. We had his photo, his bout., and a candle. Looking at that right before my dad & walked down the aisle is something I won't forget about the day. Then the doors opened...I've read a lot of posts on TK over the past year and a half, and I can't remember reading anything that prepared me for the moment those doors opened! All of a sudden there were over a hundred smiling faces of our friends & family looking at us - it was just an awesome, awesome feeling knowing that they were all there to support us and share in our happiness. Between that and H, I didn't know where to look! We got to the front and my dad handed me off. My mom said that she hasn't seen my dad cry since his dad died (28 years ago) and that she could tell he was choked up. The ceremony went really well, I had SO many compliments after about how lovely the ceremony was and how great of a job our officiant did.
So before you know it, we were married! We had a quick receiving line (Just H and I) outside of the chapel - all 150 guests done in about 35 mins. Then we took a few more photos by the chapel, and then everyone (WP and their dates) got into the limo. We drank champagne on our way to the reception. H and I got some alone time (and some awesome photos!) by just taking a walk with our photog. onto the golf course. We caught the end of cocktail hour, and then had our grand entrance, cake cutting, and first dance. I have to say that we had the most GORGEOUS cake I've ever seen - we had buttercream frosting, and it was SO smooth you couldn't even tell. I was talking to my boss at his table as he was starting to eat his cake, and we were on the subject of it - I mentioned how impressed I was with it and how they were able to make the buttercream so flawless, and he said he was just about to peel the frosting off because he thought it was fondant! Our dinner was delicious and everyone commented on how fantastic the food & cake was, which I was relieved about because you never really know....
Anyways, my MOH gave a lovely toast, and my dad did as well. Like I said we aren't a super emotional family but he said a lot of very nice things...one of those situations where you know they feel it, but it just never gets said. The only snafu that kind of pissed me off happened when H stepped on my dress and tore out like 2/3 of my bustle! I was pretty pissed. It took about 20 minutes for my MOH to safety pin everything back up, so I didn't relish missing that much of the reception. Plus, it happened literally right before we were going to do the father/daughter dance so it kind of was a hiccup with the flow of things - luckily the DJs just started playing some other music, and people were starting to dance already even though it was right after dinner. We got the father/daughter, mother/son out of the way and it was all party from there on out. Our DJs were awesome, the uplighting they did looked AMAZING, and they kept the dance floor packed all night long. We had open bar so let's just say everyone was having a real good time
I danced for about 3 hours straight, I was a hot mess by the end! My grandma commented that it was the best wedding she'd ever been to in 83 years worth of weddings, and that it was so nice to see a bride actually enjoying her wedding for once. My dad was pretty drunk by the dancing part of the evening, and even took the mic for 3 impromptu "let's f#ckin' party" speeches throughout the rest of the night - my dad is usually a pretty reserved guy, so everyone was dying when that happened. I've never really seen my dad dance before, we we even ended up dancing in front of everyone in a big circle to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga in a spur of the moment, totally unrehearsed swing dance. Besides my dad, there were 2 of my uncles that I've never seen dance before EVER so my jaw pretty much dropped when that happened - and I knew that our rehearsal was an official success. It was pretty awesome =]
By the end of the night, after drinking all day/night, getting up early, and sleeping really poorly for several nights leading up the wedding....I faded pretty fast. I knew that I was getting to that go to sleep OR get sick point, so we pretty much just snuck onto the shuttle bus and went back to our room. It felt SO GOOD to get that corset off! We'd both been enjoying our open bar, so I passed out in full makeup, and not wearing my wedding night lingerie. At the same time H decided he needed to have a pizza, and the last thing I remember is him calling somewhere on his iPhone....fast forward about 3 hours. I wake up, full face of makeup still on (false eyelashes and all). FI is passed out next to me, in full tux regalia (minus his jacket, which did not make its way back to the room with us that night) - vest, tie, shirt, pants, everything still on. iPhone on his stomach. (Apparently the pizza place was closed!) I got up, took all my makeup off, and then undressed H who was definitely still 85% asleep. Probably not the most romantic wedding night, but we have the rest of our lives for that - we only had one wedding reception to enjoy!
The next day we got up pretty early and greeted guests as they were eating breakfast & leaving the hotel. Then we had to go pick up the rest of our stuff from the reception site and bring it back to our house. Between that, finishing packing for our honeymoon, and leaving for our honeymoon, I was EXHAUSTED. I've seriously never been so tired in my entire life. But the honeymoon was worth it - 12 days at Sandals Grande in St. Lucia. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen! I'll do a honeymoon post later.
Anyways, I hope everyone has had a wonderful couple of weeks finishing wedding planning/honeymooning/as newlyweds. Looking forward to seeing everyone's recap posts!
I am totally in love with my photos from the day, so if you want to see them she's put together a nice collection on her blog, or you can look at all of them on her website (there are a lot!)
The blog:
And if you are really bored and want to see all of them, here is the link:
Enjoy!