Call me the lazy bride but months leading up to the wedding I lost all will. This wedding been over 2 years in planning and frankly I burned out the last mile. Oh well..lol Since I procrastinated on doing my exit, I just want to apologize. AAW from day one has always been my backbone for support. Thank you!!! I want to make this recap short so just doing highlights of the good, bad and ugly.
Good- My DOC rocked! This woman is a professional in every way. From the first contact by phone till the last email I received(just last week), she saved my wedding. I sometimes wonder why we booked her because she was the most expensive vendor besides the Marriott. But without her, so many things would've not fallen into place. I was running late to the hotel that morning. I suppose to been there at 10:30am but showed up at 12:15. The mua already had my girls done and was just waiting on me. Tiesha called me several times over the course of the morning to see how I was doing. I think she was worried about me passing out or being a runaway bride. When I feel nervous, anxious or excited sometimes I can get nauseated. I had a visit with my doctor a few days before the wedding and begged for phenergan(anti nausea) but he claimed this was normanl. BS! I TMI...but I started vomting the week before the wedding and of course that morning.
BAD- I procrastinated on making mine and the girls feather bouquet and pomanders. So that morning of the wedding I went to Kroger's and bought 2 dozens of red roses for $20. I dropped it on my doc at the last minute that I had no bouquet and was going to diy myself one while I get dress. Problem solved! She came back 45 mins with a bouquet for me, the girls and both mothers. The flower girl unfortunately had nothing, so she carried the broom; which worked out fine.
Next...remember my idea to do my own hair??? You girls told me but my stubborn tail thought I could do it. I forgot to perm my hair, let alone color it that week before the wedding. So my hair was a mess. I found myself the day of my wedding driving to 2 wigs store to buy myself a wig. Oh Lord! The first wig was just to much of a mess. I had to then drive to another store and pray they had something okay.
I waited also that morning to take my seating chart to Kinkos. More like 9:30am at Kinko's. I also went to Walmart to find scoops, bags, earrings for the popcorn buffet and bm. Thank you Jesus for 24 Walmart! lol I was also at Payless because I was not sure about shoes. Seriously...someone shoot me now! Also, I suppose to drop my items: containers, card numbers, menus etc...to the Marriott on Friday and found myself dropping it off the wedding morning at 7:30am. So as you read I was running all over town that morning.
I also ordered a custom lace bolero off Etsy that week before my wedding and was guaranteed it would be here in time for my wedding. I go to track my bolero that Friday and it said the bolero was delivered that Thursday. Umm...where's my bolero??? I called the rental office just to make sure they did not sign for my bolero. They did not have it. I was so upset and it really put a damper on things because I hate showing my arms. I hate my arms!! Plus I accused my neighbors of stealing it. I've been living her for over 5 years and watched furniture, computers etc being delivered weekly and never once had someone's mail stolen. I thought I could trust my neighbors and the worst time my item to be stolen. Fast forward a week after the wedding....the post office delivered my bolero. Supposedly they left me a note to pickup my bolero because they could not deliver it because signature required. It was at the post office the whole time. I felt bad for cursing my neighbors every name in the book(in my head only).
The Marriott preset the salads eventhough I told them twice not too in our previous in person meetings. I wanted the element of suprise when the waiters bring out the salads in a martini glass(Four Weddings idea). Also the Marriott agreed to serve a certain brand of vodka that was listed in the contract; eventhough the contract said items are subject to change. So I was a bit upset to find out while getting a drink later night that; the served my guests the cheap crap. I mean people drunk it anyway because we had open bar but still...they lied once again. We've been dealing with this Marriott since 2009. Yes 2009! I booked them that long ago. The banquet manager is the only person that I communicated with 100% for the past 2.5 years and here 3 weeks before my wedding she transfer and not tell me. So I called an emergency meeting with my doc and Marriott to go over every detail because that banquet manager promised me things. For instance she told me if our final numbers ended up less, then we would be refunded the difference. We had a good amount of declines and was banking on that 2k savings for our honeymoon. Well, the covering ladies did not agree; eventhough I had the emails as evidence. Pretty much they said I signed the contract to meet the minimum and that was it. I was and still livind with them!!
I did assigned seating with place cards and had certain tables positioned around the dance floor for family members. I was a bit hurt to find 6 of my relatives not come after they rsvp yes and picked a meal. Till this day only 1 apologized and the others not contact me. Besides my 6...we had around 15 no shows. My dh worked his back and butt to pay for this wedding and after all this bs with the Marriott, we lost out on a nice amount of money. I also noticed some relatives decided to ignore my assigned seating and make own table. What kind of crap is that? I looked around in the room and noticed a table full of my cousins together just drinking it up and laughing and wonder...how the heck did that happen? Now I know that I waited till the last minute to work on the seating chart but I was expecting missing some names and not wrong tables. Thanks to FB...I found out from my cousin's page that "black people don't do formal seating." His exact comment. This nut even had the nerve to do a video blog at the table about it....lmao They even booted my guest that I had at that specific table. Out of whole guest list, only 1 person brought a kid(1 year old); otherwise our remaining friends and family respect our request on our invites and website that our wedding is adults only.
Ugly- FMIL was sick on our wedding day. I mean so sick that she had to be hospitalized the next day. She was finally d/c last week and was dx with kidney failure/decline. They currently have her getting dialysis. With the hope that her kidney function might improve. Luckily, mil had reserved Friday and Saturday night a room at the hotel(they live 20 mins away) because during cocktail hour she had to be taken to her room and then brought back down during dinner. She was out of it alot during the day and fil had to help feed her.
DH alcoholic uncle that we had concerns about inviting ...well he was drunk and was taken home before the entree could be served. From cocktail hour to dinner...maybe 1hr he was so drunk. A true alcholic if you tell me. This man would not be still and kept walking around the room and talking to people table side(family members) while they ate. Even fil told him to sit his butt down and go back across the room. DH aunt got him out in time and took him home. He would not stay still. I already told some of my friends and family about "that uncle" ahead of time, so people knew that had to be him once they started seeing this man walk around. No suprise there.
We did not go on a full honeymoon but took a few days down to Charlotte. DH got the call from Charlotte Police to come back for testing, so with $$$ and his mom illness we used that time as our mini moon. We plan on taking the official late honeymoon in January. I really hope Charlotte works out because I really want to move.
Conclusion: Every one was feed, dranked till they could not take anymore, people danced, the popcorn favors and photobooth was a hit, the DJ was the BOMB and kept people on the floor, and EVERYTHING STARTED ON TIME!!!! Now you know I have more about other things that happend but .....I leave it there. I "borrowed" some teaser pictures from my photographer's site and also some non pros from guests. Would I get married again? Yes! But, I would have cut the list more or done a destination wedding. My goal is to do a trash the dress session to make up for the hair, bolero and bouquet fiasco. Moral of my experience.... stop procrasting!!!!
(you remember these?)
