I'm back, and on the other side! DH (!!) is OOT today thru Wednesday (boo) and I went back to work this morning
Real world sucks compared to wedding world.
Our day was nothing short of the best day of our life. But what everyone says is true... it goes by way too quickly! We were very lucky, we got through the day with no major bumps or snafu's.
Thursday we had a great night at the Rusty Scupper for our rehearsal dinner following the wedding ceremony rehearsal. The food was to die for and the view of the city was amazing. All of our guests loved it (we had about 55 people in attendance). It was so fun, and many of us went out to Federal Hill for some drinks afterwards... I think we stayed out a little too late but oh well, you only live once!
Friday morning we headed bright and early back to Bel Air to hit the hair salon by 9 AM... my mom, grandmother and aunts were there waiting for us with egg casserole, homemade blueberry cinnamon muffins, a Box 'o Joe, Munchkins, and mimosas. I was VERY calm all morning, even though one of the stylists was taking forever to do hair and was only able to do 2 girls in a 3.5 hour period... luckily there were many stylists who we hadn't originally booked with who stepped in and offered to do hair. Everyone looked gorgeous.
We got back to the hotel around 1 PM, just as Nicole Palermo, our makeup artist, arrived... and not too shortly after, our photog Jenni (Forever-Yesterday Photography) arrived so we were right on track. We were a few minutes late for the blindfold reveal because of makeup. I went right smack in the middle, as was the plan with Nicole... but I started my makeup at 2:30 when we were suppposed to do the blindfold reveal at 2:40. We ended up doing it around 3:10 instead. I was in my dress by 3:45 (or earlier) and we were on the trolley within an hour. Jenni got a chance to take some pictures of the guys around the Tremont and also us girls around the Tremont before all the girls, my parents and grandparents and I boarded the trolley for CND.
We made it to CND with about 45 minutes to spare, and we were able to get some pictures outside prior to the ceremony of just the girls. The only "snafu" the whole day I think was that there were many VIPs who were late arriving to CND: the deacon arrived only 10 minutes prior to the ceremony (thank GOD no one told me until after), and my grandmother and aunt, cousin and his wife, and MOH's parents and BF all were sliding in the door right at 6PM because the valet took so long at the Tremont. But the ceremony was great, and went off without a hitch. My dad always says he "invented" the self portraits where you hold the camera out in front of you with your arm... right before our coordinator opened the doors for us to walk down (she literally had her hand on the handle of the chapel door) my dad pulled his camera out of his pocket and said "one last time?"... I said "sure!" and we took a "self picture"... then he kissed me on the cheek and I cried the whole way down the aisle because I was feeling so sentimentaland emotional. Other than that, I did not cry during the ceremony or vows like I thought I would.
The reception was nothing short of amazing. We were a little late getting there since we started the cermony about 15 minutes late and my deacon never shuts up... managed to squeeze 2 homilies into one ceremony. We didn't get to go to the cocktail hour, although we really hadn't planned to, but everyone said it was amazing. Our flowers (bouquets and centerpieces) were out of this world. My florist went above and beyond all my expectations. The band, Radiant... was, well, RADIANT. They were fabulous and no one ever left the dance floor the entire night. Our father daughter dance to Jimmy Buffett's "Little Miss Magic" sent everyone into tears, and my dad and I sang to each other the whole time. We ended the night with "Sweet Caroline" and then an after party in my parents' room. Hubs and I only stayed until 3 AM (reception ended at 12:30), but our bridal party said when the 30 or so people all started leaving at 4 AM Dad kept saying "Where's everyone going? The party's not over yet!" My dad truly loved every second of being the FOB.
The day after the wedding we had a delicious brunch at Shuckers in Fells Point, and it was a great time. Then DH (!) and I headed to Annapolis to the Westin for our mini-moon (we took a 3 hour nap when we got there!). We dined at Carroll's Creek Cafe for dinner (highly reccommend) and at Pusser's for Sunday's all-you-can-eat buffet brunch (highly reccommend them and their eggs benedict, as well!). On Sunday we came home and had dinner with my parents, brothers, aunt and cousins at my aunt's house, where we opened the rest of our gifts and recollected the entire wedding weekend. Surreal...
All in all, it was an incredible weekend. A great way to start our marriage after 8 years of dating. Going back to work this morning was so hard! Can't wait until our Hawaiian HM on Aug 31st!
There are many pics on FB already so if you aren't my friend and want to check them out, feel free to friend me
