Hello, my lovelies.
I'm back, and married, and come bearing pics! DH (squee!) and I didn't go on a HM, so I've actually been around for the last two weeks, but between tidying up our lives post-wedding, spending some time together before he left for Vegas for two weeks' job training
and catching up on my schoolwork, I haven't felt like I had time to sit down and post until now. But here I am now....
The wedding was...um...eventful. And a whole lotta things went wrong. Like...a LOT. Some could have been prevented if we'd planned better, and some were completely out of our control. Which is difficult for me, because I'm both a control freak and a perfectionist. But I take comfort in the fact that, despite the fact that things did not go at all according to plan, (a) people keep telling me that it was the most enjoyable wedding they've been to in a long time, (b) I really remember almost nothing about it except a long, long series of greetings and thank-yous anyway, and (c) one of my favorite parts about the whole wedding experience is actually that we kept our cool and rolled with the punches and let it all go when things started falling apart, instead of being
those people and throwing public fits and spending our wedding day crying. I'm proud of us.
So here's what happened: Besides all our artsy-craftsy projects, we made the food for the wedding. So we were just working 24/7 for the week leading up to the wedding. Which I was expecting. But we definitely ran out of time anyway, and I didn't make everything I wanted to, including some of the showstoppers I was most excited about (hi-hat cupcakes, anyone?). I had horrible guilt that I was not serving our guests enough food, but we actually ended up with TONS of leftovers, so clearly I had overestimated anyway.
The flowers, ordered from 50flowers.com, were absolutely GORGEOUS. Most of them. Unfortunately, they messed something up in the order and the ranunculus, which were meant to be my bouquet, the corsages AND the boutonnieres, didn't show up with the rest of the flowers. When I called, they immediately overnighted them and they came the next morning, but they had clearly sent some older flowers, hoping that they'd open in time for our event. Instead, the edges of the petals were browning and starting to get slimy by the time I opened the package. They were completely useless. Given that we had all this food to make in the next 24 hours, we decided to just let it go instead of frantically looking for a vendor to take care of it, and we just told our loved ones that there was a flower disaster with their personal flowers, they forgave us, and we had no corsages, boutonnieres, or bouquet. Disappointing, but not the end of the world.
For the day of, we rented a truck from Budget and packed it with all the decorations, tablecloths, food, utensils, serveware, drinks, etc. That morning, we finish last-minute packing and leave for the site. It's GRAY and freezing and, while not raining, just feels wet anyway and looks like it's going to rain any second now. Downer. But we have hope. And we're excited for the day. The plan is, we've got a team of my sister's friends coming in (who we'll be paying handsomely) to help with set-up. The tent company is coming with the tent and chairs and we paid for them to set them up. FI will direct tablecloths, food display set up, decoration-hanging and stuff, while I do the floral arrangements/centerpieces. Then we'll leave for the hotel to get ready while the team finishes last-minute prepwork.
But when we get there, our helpers aren't there yet.
THEY NEVER SHOWED.
They also won't answer their phones. Now, instead of having everything under control, it's just the two of us staring at a full moving van full of supplies. But it's okay, cuz our parents will probably show up to help, right? We weren't planning for it, because we didn't want to impose, but they'll probably come anyway, right? Nope. Various family members have had surgeries, etc. and need help getting to/around the wedding, so the parents are busy helping them prep. They're not coming until start time.
With no other recourse, we start hauling boxes off the truck ourselves. But with an hour to go until we're supposed to go get dressed for our wedding, all we've accomplished is having gotten the boxes OFF the truck - now they're piled on various picnic tables, unopened. And my hands are numb, because it's unbelievably cold out here. Plus, we've been so busy that we didn't notice that they've set the tent up wrong. They put it where we wanted (at the ceremony site, where we'll be standing in front of the beautiful tree line), but they put it at, like, a 30-degree angle to the tree line. Now no matter how the chairs are set up, either not everyone is covered by the tent, or they're all facing one directions and craning their necks to see us off to their right. What???
I look up because I hear the vendor's truck start moving - only to see them pulling away, without having said a word of goodbye. Rude. And then I see the problems. The tent is wrong. And apparently, the "set-up fee" for the chairs meant that they'll take them off the truck. It did not mean that they would actually, you know...SET THEM UP. They're lying folded on pallets under the tent. So now we have to figure out an entirely different site on the picnic grounds to have the reception. And we have to carry the 100 chairs over there and set them up. And the chairs? Not white wood like we were guaranteed when we specifically asked. White plastic. Again, not the end of the world, but on top of all the other stuff, I'm pissed about it. But since I don't have the luxury of time to be pissed, I let it go.
This is when the cavalry rides in. My brother, his boyfriend, my sister, and her boyfriend's brother, all show up within a ten-minute period. "Hey, can we give you a hand?" "Um...YES!!!" It is now 40 minutes until we're supposed to be leaving to get dressed. We start ripping the boxes open like madmen. We work feverishly for 30 minutes, at the end of which we have the ceremony site chosen and the chairs set up, lawn games set up, tablecloths on the tables, beverages out and in their ice tubs, and some decorations hung. But now it's time to leave. We have no centerpieces, no flowers, half the decorations not up, no food out, etc. The four of them look at each other and tell us to go. Instead of coming to the hotel and getting ready with us and relaxing, like they were supposed to, the four of them stayed and completely set our wedding up for us. Seriously. It was unbelievably heartwarming and amazing.
When we arrived, fully dressed and photographer in tow, it was like a miracle had happened. All our friends and family were there, milling around and socializing. The food was all set up, they had found some decorations in their boxes and figured out a decorating scheme on their own, and my sister had even put together some makeshift floral arrangements for the end of each ceremony aisle. Plus, the sun had come out at it had warmed up. The rest of the day is a complete blur, but what I DO remember is that we didn't hate it and it wasn't a disaster.
I'm definitely disappointed about some things. The centerpieces that took me weeks to make? Never made it out of the boxes. My sister saw the components, but had no idea what to do with them. Our absolutely gorgeous flowers that I was in love with? Most of them never made it onto a table. At least, at the end of the day, most were taken home by various family members. I'm glad that someone got to get enjoyment out of them. But everyone raved about the food, and everyone seemed to have a really great time. And I managed not to bawl through the ceremony like I expected to, so that's an extra-huge plus. Plus, I'm married now!
Pics in a second post, I promise.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the dinosaurs. When we first arrived at the site, there were two cranes standing there as if they were there to greet us. Um...cranes are big. And they are birds. Which are basically dinosaurs. And as it turns out, these cranes wanted to mate, so they were making crane mating calls...which sound EXACTLY like dinosaurs. Screaming, screeching wails that echoed through the trees and the morning fog...I was pretty sure that none of the disaster stuff mattered, because we were going to get eaten. Thank God they went away before the ceremony starte!.