A Wedding Story

Y’all, Rebecca has started another fun way to mosey down memory lane. Since I’m a sucker for that sort of thing and a sucker for weddings, you know I had to participate in

Our wedding day was April 14, 2001. I woke up at 5 a.m. after having a nightmare about my mother agreeing to move the time of the wedding but not telling anyone so we had no flowers, no cake, no vendors of any kind and no guests. In my dream I was screaming at her. Thankfully that was just a dream and I went back to sleep. I woke up for real around 8. I sat on the front porch with my mom and we remarked on the weather, which looked rainy but the rain had ended the night before. It stayed cloudy all day which kept everything cool but it didn’t rain again.

After a light breakfast, I showered and then my MOH came over. I went to eat lunch with her and my mom before getting our hair and nails done. A few other bridesmaids were also getting their hair done at the same place so it was a lot of fun. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the Galleria (where my hair stylist Timothy used to work in a salon) and discussed the fact that HOLY SHIT! I was getting married in a few hours. I wasn’t nervous about getting married, I was nervous about the details all coming together. I am a control freak and I hated the fact that I had to put my faith in the cake vendor and the florist and the DJ and all of that. If I could have accomplished all of those tasks myself, I probably would have done it just so I could control it.

While all this was going on, Jake and his groomsmen went to Dave and Busters for lunch and video games. I figured Jake needed some distraction that day, and he also needed to be forced to eat so he wouldn’t end up with a migraine on our wedding day.

We got back to my parents house, my hair was done and my veil was attached to my head with lots of spray and pins. I brushed my teeth while my brother kindly held my veil so I wouldn’t get toothpaste on it,  then I gathered my bag of stuff to get ready and my honeymoon suitcase and was ready. My dad was dressed in his tux pants and an undershirt.

Oh, did I forget to mention that there had been a tux shirt snafu the day before? They tried to give the groomsmen black shirts. Now I can appreciate that some people like that look of the black shirt with a tux and I like it too if you are going to the Oscars and are George Clooney. But I don’t like it for weddings and sadly was that Bridezilla who put my foot down about it. I didn’t insist on colored ties and cummerbunds (in fact would have put my foot down about that had Jake wanted it) and I didn’t care whether Jake wanted a straight tie or a bow tie. But black shirts? Sorry, that was where I drew the line. Anyway, Jake’s dad was picking up all new shirts for everyone and bringing them with him. So my dad was without his tux shirt at the moment.

He carried my dress to the black town car he had rented to drive me to the wedding and off we went. The rest of that part is kind of a blur. I know I scheduled the photographer way too early because she did my pictures first and I had to stand around for a looooong damn time. It was hot in my dress and I didn’t want to sit yet because I didn’t want to wrinkle my dress this early in the day. So my girls brought me wine and told me jokes.

Mostly to take my mind off the bow debacle. My dress had a bow on the back. Say what you will, but I like the occasional bow on a wedding gown. Now, mine was very square and tailored but when it was flat, the corners of it poked up to the point that you could see the bow on the back when you looked at me from the front. My seamstress had assured me that when she pressed it for the final time, she would not flatten the bow, and instead would stuff if to make it a bit fluffier and less pointy. I guess she forgot. And since it was my mom who picked up the dress for me the day before the wedding, it was too late by the time I noticed it. I wasn’t going to chance scorching my dress to fix it myself. Here’s the best picture I could find of the bow. It looks like it could take flight, no?

Here’s a picture of Jake I love even though it’s not of his face. You can tell that outwardly he looked calm, cool and collected, but check out his hands. A dead giveaway to how he was really feeling.

All of a sudden it was time to go! This is my dad and me right before turning the corner to go in after the last bridesmaid and the flower girl had gone. I remember saying to him that I had never been this nervous in my entire life. But really only about tripping or crying so hard I couldn’t get my vows out.

So here’s where it gets funny. You know how brides do that lovely slow walk down the aisle, giving everyone a chance to ooh and aaah and admire her gown and lovely bridal glow? Um, yeah. I think I pretty ran up the aisle dragging my poor dad with me. But I had been so nervous and when I saw Jake up there, I just needed to get to him.  Because of my hasty path down the aisle, I had lots of Trumpet Voluntary to listen to as I stood there with my dad and Jake. And I realized that it was the wrong version. Our wedding space did not have room for live musicians so we had to rely on our DJ. I specifically asked for the trumpet version of Trumpet Voluntary and told him if he didn’t have it, I did. “Oh, no, don’t worry, I have it,” he assured me. But he chose to play the organ version of it. I was a little annoyed at that moment, I have to tell you.

Amazingly, I made it through my entire wedding day without crying that much. I credit that to the advice someone gave me,which was this: I gave myself permission to cry as much as I wanted to in the days leading up to the wedding, and then no more. So I think I got teary when my dad saw me for the first time that day in my dress, and then at one point in the vows but other than that I was ok.

The ceremony went smoothly, except for the minister mispronouncing my last name, and the names of my deceased relatives that we chose to remember in the ceremony. But I was used to my last name being mispronounced - I’m Italian after all. And it was hot. We had about a zillion candles up there and I had on a big dress with two petticoats. I could really have used a good breeze under that dress.

After that it was all a blur. We did a receiving line, which I was hesitant about doing because it seems so stuffy. But the event coordinator convinced me for two reasons. First, they needed the time to turn the room from ceremony to reception. And second, it would ensure that we got to at least say hello to every single guest one time. It was the best decision I could have made They passed drinks and hors d’oeuvre to the guests in line so it all worked out. Pictures, dinner, dancing… it all went by so fast and even though I tried to slow it down in my head so I could remember it all, some of it is just a blur. But I can say one thing for sure. I had a great time at my own wedding and I honestly didn’t expect to. I thought I’d be walking from table to table greeting everyone, looking longingly at the dance floor. But see, we had done that at the receiving line so I was free to dance with my family and friends as much as I wanted.

Oh here’s another ooops moment. See this?

That would be the seating chart that I spent at least a month on. I’m not kidding. I think it’s important to do a seating chart or place cards because it tends to take 135 people a long time to get themselves seated when they aren’t sure if they should sit here or if this is supposed to be for family only at this table… It’s just easier if you tell them where to sit. They can move around if they really want to, but a chart makes the seating go faster and everyone can get to eating faster. I didn’t assign seats, just tables. This bitch cost me about $100 to blow up and get mounted on foam board to make it stand up. Anyway, the oops moment is this. We wanted the minister and his wife to be seated with the bridal party in the balcony. But their names are on the last line of the chart. The line that is apparently hidden by that lovely floral garland at the bottom of the easel. Nice, huh? I wondered why they didn’t sit with us upstairs. And I never knew why until we got our proofs back and saw this photo.

Here we are leaving, on our way to our hotel for the night before we left the next day for St. Thomas.

Such a great day. All in all, mistakes were minor and the day was lovely, better that I could have imagined it. We had fun, I think our guests had fun and at the end of the day, we were married, which is really the only truly important part. But I am wedding obsessed and I am dying to get a do-over. I still want to marry Jake, but I just loved planning the wedding. I actually thought about doing it as a career. But you know, most people want to get married on the weekends. And I’m just not sure I’m willing to give up my weekends for someone else’s wedding. Plus it would be hard for me to let them do tacky things like dollar dances and cash bars.

Filed under General Sappiness |