Yes I know, you've all been *
dying* to read all about it!
On May fourteenth, around 4:30, I married my best friend. It was a beautiful day, a moving ceremony and a great opportunity to share our love with those closest to us. I won't give a complete play-by-play, but I'm happy to give a condensed version!
We got to bed late after the rehearsal dinner and care package stuffing we did the night before, so it was almost midnight when he got me to my mom's. I was sad to not see him until the wedding, but I wanted to stay somewhere else the night before our wedding. So we said our goodbyes and I tried like crazy to get to sleep despite the lists and details I kept checking and re-checking I did.
I woke up early, before seven, too excited to sleep. It was like the morning of a summer vacation! Despite the massive amount of details and pressure, and mostly in thanks to my mom and now mother and sister-in-law, the day was pretty calm for me. I got up early at my mother's house and finished making my fascinator. (Which I will post about later) And then spent the next three hours with my sisters getting our hair done. It was a very nice and calm time for us to just spend some time joking and goofing off. I was very thankful for it.
Then we rushed off, grabbed our dresses and ran to the wedding site to finish getting ready. That's when things started to get "real". I wasn't really in love with my wedding dress, instead letting my mom and mother-in-law pick it for me. But with my hair done, shoes on, makeup finished, I put on the fascinator...and started crying. It wasn't until that moment that I really and truly felt like a bride. It was happily overwhelming.
Then we ran outside, while the boys were nestled away inside, one of the few traditional vestiges in our day. And we had our pictures taken before the rain started. I was cloistered away in the small ladies' room which had no air conditioning and was rather stifling and had no chairs. So every time one of my female guests went inside, there I was!!
It wasn't until everyone was moved to the dining tables inside and the altar, flowers and arch were moved, did I really start feeling nervous. Moving the wedding inside meant the women had to travel down a very steep, but picturesque stairway to get to the ceremony. No pressure, right?
But our entrance music started, and I heard Joe was standing there. The song changed to an instrumental version of "He'll Make Me Happy" from the Muppets Take Manhattan. That alone was enough to almost make the whole bridal party sob! My dad took my arm, whispering "I don't know how you can be so calm right now." To which I responded, "Nothing else to be, there's nothing else to really worry about except the stairs."
One by one we made our way down the stairs and my dad passed the torch, symbolically and there I was, looking into the eyes of my best friend, who would soon be my husband.
I could write a whole separate entry on the ceremony, which was a "druish" one, celebrated by our friend and reverend, Michael J Dangler. But suffice it to say, I ended up "enflam[ing] this union with a kiss" and we were married!
After all the stress and worry leading up to the wedding, it was a beautiful service and I really am so fortunate that we got the wedding we wanted and shared it with as many as we could. It was such a relief to have it all done. (You can totally see it in our faces too!)
I can't wait to start the next chapter of our lives together!
~ <3, husband!
