The Big Day!

Sun May 02, 2010 4:14 pm

Well, the fiasco is over and done with and went off with only the minimal amount of hitches, in hindsight!

The day before everyone took off from work to get the final stuff done. Then-Fiance and I went to Enterprise rental cars to rent a luxury car for the weekend, which is actually cheaper than a limo and I found to be just as nice for the amount of driving we needed to be doing. (not alot) We ended up with a silver Cadillac DTS with leather interior and enough bells and whistles to make the space shuttle look like a kite. He then went off to pick up his tux and suit from Men's Wearhouse and find a shirt for his new suit and I drove the Caddy to mom and dad's to meet up with mom for some last minute shopping.

We picked up pens to sign the bridal portrait matte, some gifts for my sisters and niece who were my bridesmaids and flower girl, and picked up some flowers from Sam's to make our own arrangement for the church.

We got back home to find dad asleep on the couch with John Wayne movies on. So much for taking the day off to do stuff. I went home to find Then Fiance playing video games. (sigh) While the women run themselves ragged with last minute details, the men play and sleep. And they wonder how wedding details always end up getting taken care of and why the women always look so frazzled at these things. I then remembered I had forgotten to invite the priest, Father Mike, to the rehearsal dinner and reception after the ceremony, so I emailed him.

Then Fiance couldn't figure out how to tie his tie, so we end up being late to the rehearsal because I attempted to find a video on YouTube to demonstrate. No luck. And at 6:30 on a Friday in our city, you will be 30 minutes at least getting anywhere. We live on the other side of town from everyone else and the church so we were 50 minutes getting there from our house. Everyone was already set to go when we got there.

The wedding coordinator, Kendall, was on the ball. She had everyone lined up and running through the whole thing in a matter of minutes. Turns out my ring bearer, Sammy, was a tad shy about being around all these strangers, and even less happy about being put in a small back room away from his mother with only me as the familiar face. My 2 year old niece Maddie, also back there with us, decided the altar boys' vestments and rope belts were awesome play things, declared she wanted them, and started taking them off hooks. She ended up getting fussy when we stopped her. Meanwhile I'm trying to keep Sammy from starting to cry himself. His face looked like he was about to at any minute. I advised his mother later that she might want to sit int he row behind the groomsmen because Sammy was supposed to stay with them the whole time and he didn't know either of them.

And for the superstitious, no I did not walk all the way down the aisle with my dad at the rehearsal, I took a shortcut down the side. Some folks laughed. Some didn't. Father Mike ran through the ceremony with us and we signed all the documents. Kendall then told us the story of why she agreed to become the parish wedding coordinator. Apparently her own wedding was thrown into a turmoil when the priest didn't show up. It seems there had been a death at the hospital and he stayed to console the family and it totally slipped his mind. 30 minutes later from the start time, they realized the priest wasn't coming and frantic phone calls ensued to find one who could come do the mass. Finally one was located who said "I can do it, all I need is their names and about 10 minutes to get there and some prayers that I don't get pulled over by the cops..."

Because of that, Kendall's wedding was able to commence, and she now has the cell phone numbers of every priest within a 30 mile radius. The Diocese office calls HER when they need to get ahold of one of them fast.

So we finish up about 7:30pm and head over the restaurant where my chef cousins work for the rehearsal dinner. We had the back room to ourselves. I had warned my cousin Scott that my Fiance's father was an extremely picky eater. He's 86, grew up on an isolated farm and if his mother didn't fix it, he won't eat it now. That means anything other than pork, chicken, beans and cornbread are iffy to him. His explanation? "I'm just a country boy, I don't eat all that fancy stuff." His wife then snapped at him that she was a country girl who loved "eating all that stuff." (so that's no excuse) And apparently 2 of the 3 nephews are turning into picky eaters too. This nearly derailed us having the dinner at an Italian restaurant, until Fiance's mom informed all of them that they would indeed eat whatever was put in front of them and she better not hear any complaints from any of them. She meant it.

So my cousin came out to talk to the picky ones to ask what they wanted to eat. I had told him some form of chicken would probably work and and to not get fancy on any sauces or glazes. After a game of 20 questions, he found a vegetable they would eat...french fries. So he made chicken and french fries for them and Sammy and Maddie, the little ones. The rest of us got to enjoy an awesome Italian dinner like no other! I gave the bridal party their gifts: engraved pens and card holders for the groomsmen and ushers, Mignon Faget crosses to my sisters and niece and a silver train engine piggy bank with his name engraved on it to Sammy. A few toasts went around and some funny stories from the family about me and Fiance as kids. Scott even came back to check on us from the kitchen and offered a story about me of his own that involved something that would have gotten us both grounded had my parents heard it earlier.

It was 9pm by the time we all left. Sammy had fallen asleep in his chair, his father had had to take the baby home earlier, so I carried him out to his mom's car half asleep. Fiance went home with his parents. (ended up sleeping on the floor since his brothers and nephews all crashed there too) I went home to a very quiet night with just me and Jinx the kitten.

Fiance called the next morning to make sure I was up, but he didn't have to. Jinx woke me up at 5am wanting his breakfast and attention, something Fiance usually did. I plugged the ipod into the stereo and started to get ready to go while "Going to the Chapel" played int he background. Mom picked me up and brought me and all the stuff I had gathered the night before to their house. I went with my sisters to the hair salon to have my hair styled. That took 40 minutes of styling and pinning the head wreath in place. Brother in Law was supposed to bring little niece to the church later. Once we were done, we drove to the church to get into the "getting ready" room.

I fired up the netbook computer to get the webcam going and sent my cousin, a photographer, into the church to make sure none of the guys, especially Fiance, were hanging around so I could get set up. I had asked my cousin to get some shots of us until the actual photographer showed up, so she had come to snap shots of us at the salon and at the church getting ready. As I was setting up the webcam, brother in law's aunt who was doing the video showed up and I helped her get set up and ran back to the ready room.

I found the place in chaos. Apparently my brother in law had showed up with my niece, dressed in flannel pajamas in 90 degree weather with rain and humidity outside after feeding her a breakfast of animal crackers and chocolate milk. She didn't just throw up, she projectile vomited. Thankfully her blankie caught most of it. But some got on the floor and we had to strip her down. Then we had to hide her luvie because she wanted it and it was all nasty. Then she wanted her mother to hold her but my sisters didn't need her vomiting on their dresses either. THANKFULLY her other grandmother showed up in time to take her under wing and get her lying down and cooling off. She was burning up but we couldn't tell if it was a fever with the weather being what it was. Then my mother's sisters, my aunts, showed up. The one who was my godmother and her girlfriend helped me get into my dress while my other aunt and mom helped with my niece. Eventually we got it all sorted out.

Then the actual photographer showed up to snap some shots and we had to explain to her that my niece simply was not in any condition to put her dress on and pose for shots. We managed to get her dressed, though I gave the room key to my sister's mother in law and told her that if she had to, take Maddie back here to the room after we get her down the aisle and let her lie down. Then the photographer was getting irritated with my cousin taking all the pics and asked if she was going to be shadowing the whole time. After smoothing her feathers, I had to tactfully ask my cousin to hold off on the shots until the reception. (Though I will admit, my cousin got all the good "before" shots because the hired photographer was late.) I think my mom slipped my cousin some $$ but she's getting a coral necklace from Hawaii from me. Her younger sister, my other cousin, had rounded up the older girl kids, the 12 and 13 year olds, and had gotten them handing out ceremony programs. She's getting a necklace too. (She also got people singing the bridal portrait matte at the reception when I noted nobody had signed it yet)

Kendall showed up to herd us all back to the small room at the church. Thankfully Sammy was in a much better mood. His mother had essentially promised him a shopping spree at Toys or Us, and my brother in law's mother was able to hold a very woozy and unhappy Maddie and keep her calm. She's also a kindergarten teacher and was asking Sammy all about his learning centers and school and what he liked the best. I was struck with an idea. With my niece feeling bad and Sammy taking to her, I asked my sister's MIL to walk down the aisle with the kids. She said she wasn't really dressed for it. After assuring her she looked gorgeous, she carried Maddie down the aisle and held Sammy's hand. Crisis averted.

I honestly don't remember much about the ceremony itself, not even walking down the aisle with dad, since I was sort of in a haze. I do remember noting that my Fiance looked VERY yummy in a tux! He later said he was caught off guard by how beautiful I looked. He joked that it was a good thing we were in a crowded church or he might not have been able to show restraint.

The ceremony itself actually went pretty fast. Father Mike incorporated some personal tidbits into the sermon, including how we met because we both like to play Dungeons and Dragons. An uncle who was supposed to be a reader had to run off down to the coast to help with that nasty oil spill since he works at the Environment Department, so his wife, my aunt, stepped in a read in his place. After the ceremony, we took some shots on the altar. Then Fiance's middle brother drove us in the Caddy to Mount Hope Plantation. Everyone was waiting for us on the porch and applauded!

Wedding receptions are a case of being on a roller coaster for the couple. EVERYONE wants to talk to you. I've never been so popular. I know I missed saying hi to a few people, but I got to meet all of Now Husband's friends from school he talks about and he got to meet some of mine. I was glad to see several people I don't get to see that often, though disappointed some I was hoping to see didn't show or RSVP. (got a text from one of them though) I was also quite happy to see how well some of our gamer friends look in suits instead of the Star Wars and ThinkGeek tshirts.

We ran through the usual wedding reception staples, meet and greet, cutting the cake and toasting, couples first dance, parents' dance, money dance (Got $150!!) and the bouquet and garter toss. One of my cousins caught the bouquet and the nephews held up Sammy the ring bearer to catch the garter. My family got to do our favorite girls only dance to "We are Family" on the lawn.

Now Husband's brother then drove us off in the Caddy. We switched cars at the church and gathered up what we hadn't gotten out of the back room, then headed back to our house to drop stuff off, feed the kitten and pack for the night. We were staying at Mount Hope's honeymoon cottage in the back. When we got back to Mount Hope, everyone had left.

They had boxed up some of the food for us in a small refrigerator in the cottage and my youngest sister had packed some sodas for us. Being the geeks we were, we fired up the History channel on the TV.

We were so tired, we were asleep by 8:45. It's odd sleeping at a 300 year old Plantation. You keep expecting to see ghosts. Didn't though. Darn.

This morning we finished off party food leftovers for breakfast, headed to my parents' house to pick up the gifts people had brought and leftover wedding cake. (there's ALOT) Somehow we managed to get it all home, unpacked and unwrapped and whatnot. I have my bouquet in a glass vase that was a present and I'm bringing it to work tomorrow with the rest of the cake.

So Fiance is now Hubby!

We are married, we are sick on party food, wedding gifts have been put away, kitten was glad to see us (and has been sticking close all day) and we are exhausted.

And we're finally married!

Next up....the honeymoon trip to Hawaii!