This scarlet fever burns my soul.
Where do I even begin with all of it?
The two days off before the wedding were SO so SO needed. There were about a million things that we had to do at the last minute. Thank god we had everyone in town on Thursday and Friday to help us out. We had people doing everything from windex-ing records for the centerpieces to reformatting the programs for Kinkos to print out to folding tent cards to picking up kegs and wine to gift making/wrapping for the wedding party to just about anything. Friday was definitely the most stressful day, just with all the details and boxes of things we had to pull together for the next day.
Friends and family that were in town came over on Thursday night and we drank, laughed, grilled and talked. We had quite the full house. Dad got into town a little early and was actually having a great time talking with everyone that night. I was glad to see him having a good time and not having awkward Dad conversations (ugh, although those did come later).
Friday we ran around like chickens with our heads chopped off. The rehearsal went really well, especially considering that we weren't at the venue and we had a weirdly-shaped room to navigate the procession. After that point, I handed over all responsibility with the wedding. I washed my hands of the details and was ready to just get married. Brendan and the men had a few things to do the next morning, but us ladies would be occupied getting our hairs and faces did. So we would be busy.
Rehearsal dinner at the Little Dipper was amazing and so much fun! It was the best possible place to have dinner with the group of people we had. Everyone was sharing foods and exchanging plates and having such a blast. I loved looking around and seeing our parents, family and friends with these huge grins on their faces and enjoying everything so much. Oh my god, the food was so amazing, how could you not? The company just made it absolutely picture perfect.
We joined a bunch of family and friends after dinner over at Reel Cafe for "wedding day eve" drinks. We packed that bar like they couldn't have been prepared for. I think at the end of the weekend, someone went over to Eileen and Mike and thanked them for the business boom that weekend from the wedding and all. I went back to the Inn kinda early with every intention of finishing the seating bulletin board for the reception and then hitting the hay. But I was having too much fun catching up with everyone that arrived Friday night to do that. I quickly put the board together with Kaitlyn and then went back out to the Inn's porch for drinks with everyone. I think I was in bed by 1 am.
Up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep wedding morning. So I rolled around in bed and tried to be calm instead. We all got ourselves together and headed over to the Rockin Roller. It was such a fun vibe in there. We were mimosa-ing and looking good doing it. Well, after the hair was done anyway. All the girls looked so smoking hot!
The sun came out just at noon, warming up everything so perfectly. I thanked Mom for that. It stayed that way the rest of the day, golden and warm and gorgeous.
We got back to the Inn to get dressed and that's when my nerves started to get to me a little. It was just overwhelming thinking about the whole thing. All those eyes, all on Brendan & me, trying to think of ways to stop myself from crying if I got too emoitional, all that. Once we got downstairs at Saint Thomas, I chilled back out. Katie, Kaitlyn, Dana, Alisha and I were cracking ourselves up - pretending our bouquets were huge boners, air humping, using stupid accents and saying stupid things. It was just what I needed to calm and chill and be ready to go up there.
So we all line up outside, with me hiding around the corner. The nerves came back a little bit as I was the only one standing outside the doors to the hall. Then I heard the procession music cue down and my song cue up and the doors opened and I felt like a wave knocked me in my chest. I gasped for a quick second, but then was so overwhelmed with wanting to get down the aisle to Brendan that everything else just faded out of sight. He had this huge dopey grin on his face and I just know I had one on mine too. The ceremony was short and sweet and perfect. Except for the part where the officiant (Trey Barefoot, which if you just say it sounds like "tres barefoot", meaning "very barefoot" in French) said something about Brendan holding my hand and I was still holding the bouquet. Oops. We fixed that quickly. I managed to not cry, but only well up with tears. Brendan and I were smiling at each other and just staring so intently, there was no way I could have cried. I was way too happy to even cry. We said our "I do"s, locked the promise box he made, exchanged rings, kissed and will live happily ever after.
The reception started shortly after the ceremony, but the party went off to the side to do pictures and all. We went downstairs after we were done to join the cocktail hour and everyone in unison went "AAaaayyyyyyy!" as we walked in. It was cute and awesome. We spent a good portion of the afternoon that wasn't spent dancing talking to everyone. The food was delicious, the drinks were delightfully alcoholic (haha) and the company could not be beat. The DJ actually did a pretty great job considering we told him NOT to play just about everything under the sun. We danced to Tiger Army like dorks and it was so lovely. Singing the lyrics to each other and spinning and twirling. Pat & Dana did their speeches and they were so sweet, except when Pat mentioned that Brendan still wanted to marry me even though he once found e in Rob's bed. That was a fun story to share with family. We all laughed and no one really asked me too much about it, haha. Dana's made me cry, which I was sorta expecting. At one point, Brendan's cousin John hopped up into the empty alcoves in the hall and someone snapped a picture. This inspired EVERYONE to swamp Brendan and I with demands that we get in the alcoves too for pictures. So we did. Katie told me that Judy (planner) whispered to her that Saint Thomas was "gonna have to rewrite the contracts to state no standing in the walls" in her deep southern accent. I would be honored to have a point in the contract be a direct reference to the madness of our reception. I think that my favorite pictures will be the alcoves and the pics of everyone squatting/lying on the floor during the part in "Shout" where it goes "a little bit softer now". Oh, and the awesome pic of Jamie playing air guitar on the floor during Journey. Also excellent.
We all loaded into the trolley at the end of the reception and made our way to the Green Light Lounge. That was the BEST after party location we could have possibly picked. We had lines of people playing and watching cornhole, Connect Four tournaments, and the most intense Jenga I've ever seen in my entire life. The crowd around the Jenga tables was about five or six people deep at one point. You could hear the crowd screaming, "JEEEEENNNGAAAAAAAAAAA" from the streets. Amazing. So much fun was had. After some late in the night shots forced on us by the wedding party, Brendan and I called it a night. We walked over to Slice and grabbed a pizza (that we never ate) and a taxi home. The cab driver was surprised to be driving newlyweds home, but he was awesome, getting out and opening the doors for us and everything. It was the perfect end to the night, well, the perfect almost the end of the night. Brendan carried me over the threshold. You can (or not) use your imagination from there.
It could not have better if we tried to make it so. I was beaming all day long. All day people were coming up and telling us how much fun they'd been having, how excellent everything was, and how happy they were for us. I was just glad it turned into the huge party we wanted it to be. You could just look around and see all the guests laughing and talking and dancing and it was obvious that everyone was enjoying themselves just as much as we were. Everyone got it.
Best. Day. Ever. Ever.
I know I've left out bunches of things, both beautiful things and hilarious things. But there is no way that I can articulate and detail the wedding and everything and everyone involved properly. I think Kaitlyn wrapped it up best when she told me that if she ever went to a wedding more fun and full of love that this one, that she would be absolutely shocked.
We had the brunch out at Mike and Eileen's house the next day. Rob and Alisha were voted drunkest at the party, as best displayed by Rob getting cut off at Green Light and Alisha motor-boating me about two million times. They were at the brunch in bad shape, haha. Alisha slept in any one of the cars that was staying and Rob was farting up a storm and being generally still kinda drunk and bloodied from his face plant into the cement on the way home Saturday night. Brendan and I were exhausted still, so we left after a good majority of the wedding party had gone home. Dorothy and Stephen met us back at the apartment and watched us open gifts and cards. We were (and are) still astounded at the generosity of our friends and family. Seriously, I wanted to cry I was so overwhelmed by everything people gave to us, things that were written for us, etc. We read through the suggestion box cards and had a real good laugh at a lot of the "advice" we were given.
Monday we made our way over to Flaming Amy's before dropping Dorothy and Stephen off at the airport. Not to sound mean, but we were relieved to go home and not have anyone there. Not counting wedding night, it was the first time in over a week that we had the place to ourselves. We no longer needed helping hands, so it was great to just go home and get ready for the honeymoon.
The honeymoon rundown will have to be saved for a later date. I've already wasted enough time not working by writing everything here. Oops.
But life is awesome to the nth degree.
I love my husband and our new legally recognized life together. So much.
Could not be in any more bliss.
:) times infinity.
The two days off before the wedding were SO so SO needed. There were about a million things that we had to do at the last minute. Thank god we had everyone in town on Thursday and Friday to help us out. We had people doing everything from windex-ing records for the centerpieces to reformatting the programs for Kinkos to print out to folding tent cards to picking up kegs and wine to gift making/wrapping for the wedding party to just about anything. Friday was definitely the most stressful day, just with all the details and boxes of things we had to pull together for the next day.
Friends and family that were in town came over on Thursday night and we drank, laughed, grilled and talked. We had quite the full house. Dad got into town a little early and was actually having a great time talking with everyone that night. I was glad to see him having a good time and not having awkward Dad conversations (ugh, although those did come later).
Friday we ran around like chickens with our heads chopped off. The rehearsal went really well, especially considering that we weren't at the venue and we had a weirdly-shaped room to navigate the procession. After that point, I handed over all responsibility with the wedding. I washed my hands of the details and was ready to just get married. Brendan and the men had a few things to do the next morning, but us ladies would be occupied getting our hairs and faces did. So we would be busy.
Rehearsal dinner at the Little Dipper was amazing and so much fun! It was the best possible place to have dinner with the group of people we had. Everyone was sharing foods and exchanging plates and having such a blast. I loved looking around and seeing our parents, family and friends with these huge grins on their faces and enjoying everything so much. Oh my god, the food was so amazing, how could you not? The company just made it absolutely picture perfect.
We joined a bunch of family and friends after dinner over at Reel Cafe for "wedding day eve" drinks. We packed that bar like they couldn't have been prepared for. I think at the end of the weekend, someone went over to Eileen and Mike and thanked them for the business boom that weekend from the wedding and all. I went back to the Inn kinda early with every intention of finishing the seating bulletin board for the reception and then hitting the hay. But I was having too much fun catching up with everyone that arrived Friday night to do that. I quickly put the board together with Kaitlyn and then went back out to the Inn's porch for drinks with everyone. I think I was in bed by 1 am.
Up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep wedding morning. So I rolled around in bed and tried to be calm instead. We all got ourselves together and headed over to the Rockin Roller. It was such a fun vibe in there. We were mimosa-ing and looking good doing it. Well, after the hair was done anyway. All the girls looked so smoking hot!
The sun came out just at noon, warming up everything so perfectly. I thanked Mom for that. It stayed that way the rest of the day, golden and warm and gorgeous.
We got back to the Inn to get dressed and that's when my nerves started to get to me a little. It was just overwhelming thinking about the whole thing. All those eyes, all on Brendan & me, trying to think of ways to stop myself from crying if I got too emoitional, all that. Once we got downstairs at Saint Thomas, I chilled back out. Katie, Kaitlyn, Dana, Alisha and I were cracking ourselves up - pretending our bouquets were huge boners, air humping, using stupid accents and saying stupid things. It was just what I needed to calm and chill and be ready to go up there.
So we all line up outside, with me hiding around the corner. The nerves came back a little bit as I was the only one standing outside the doors to the hall. Then I heard the procession music cue down and my song cue up and the doors opened and I felt like a wave knocked me in my chest. I gasped for a quick second, but then was so overwhelmed with wanting to get down the aisle to Brendan that everything else just faded out of sight. He had this huge dopey grin on his face and I just know I had one on mine too. The ceremony was short and sweet and perfect. Except for the part where the officiant (Trey Barefoot, which if you just say it sounds like "tres barefoot", meaning "very barefoot" in French) said something about Brendan holding my hand and I was still holding the bouquet. Oops. We fixed that quickly. I managed to not cry, but only well up with tears. Brendan and I were smiling at each other and just staring so intently, there was no way I could have cried. I was way too happy to even cry. We said our "I do"s, locked the promise box he made, exchanged rings, kissed and will live happily ever after.
The reception started shortly after the ceremony, but the party went off to the side to do pictures and all. We went downstairs after we were done to join the cocktail hour and everyone in unison went "AAaaayyyyyyy!" as we walked in. It was cute and awesome. We spent a good portion of the afternoon that wasn't spent dancing talking to everyone. The food was delicious, the drinks were delightfully alcoholic (haha) and the company could not be beat. The DJ actually did a pretty great job considering we told him NOT to play just about everything under the sun. We danced to Tiger Army like dorks and it was so lovely. Singing the lyrics to each other and spinning and twirling. Pat & Dana did their speeches and they were so sweet, except when Pat mentioned that Brendan still wanted to marry me even though he once found e in Rob's bed. That was a fun story to share with family. We all laughed and no one really asked me too much about it, haha. Dana's made me cry, which I was sorta expecting. At one point, Brendan's cousin John hopped up into the empty alcoves in the hall and someone snapped a picture. This inspired EVERYONE to swamp Brendan and I with demands that we get in the alcoves too for pictures. So we did. Katie told me that Judy (planner) whispered to her that Saint Thomas was "gonna have to rewrite the contracts to state no standing in the walls" in her deep southern accent. I would be honored to have a point in the contract be a direct reference to the madness of our reception. I think that my favorite pictures will be the alcoves and the pics of everyone squatting/lying on the floor during the part in "Shout" where it goes "a little bit softer now". Oh, and the awesome pic of Jamie playing air guitar on the floor during Journey. Also excellent.
We all loaded into the trolley at the end of the reception and made our way to the Green Light Lounge. That was the BEST after party location we could have possibly picked. We had lines of people playing and watching cornhole, Connect Four tournaments, and the most intense Jenga I've ever seen in my entire life. The crowd around the Jenga tables was about five or six people deep at one point. You could hear the crowd screaming, "JEEEEENNNGAAAAAAAAAAA" from the streets. Amazing. So much fun was had. After some late in the night shots forced on us by the wedding party, Brendan and I called it a night. We walked over to Slice and grabbed a pizza (that we never ate) and a taxi home. The cab driver was surprised to be driving newlyweds home, but he was awesome, getting out and opening the doors for us and everything. It was the perfect end to the night, well, the perfect almost the end of the night. Brendan carried me over the threshold. You can (or not) use your imagination from there.
It could not have better if we tried to make it so. I was beaming all day long. All day people were coming up and telling us how much fun they'd been having, how excellent everything was, and how happy they were for us. I was just glad it turned into the huge party we wanted it to be. You could just look around and see all the guests laughing and talking and dancing and it was obvious that everyone was enjoying themselves just as much as we were. Everyone got it.
Best. Day. Ever. Ever.
I know I've left out bunches of things, both beautiful things and hilarious things. But there is no way that I can articulate and detail the wedding and everything and everyone involved properly. I think Kaitlyn wrapped it up best when she told me that if she ever went to a wedding more fun and full of love that this one, that she would be absolutely shocked.
We had the brunch out at Mike and Eileen's house the next day. Rob and Alisha were voted drunkest at the party, as best displayed by Rob getting cut off at Green Light and Alisha motor-boating me about two million times. They were at the brunch in bad shape, haha. Alisha slept in any one of the cars that was staying and Rob was farting up a storm and being generally still kinda drunk and bloodied from his face plant into the cement on the way home Saturday night. Brendan and I were exhausted still, so we left after a good majority of the wedding party had gone home. Dorothy and Stephen met us back at the apartment and watched us open gifts and cards. We were (and are) still astounded at the generosity of our friends and family. Seriously, I wanted to cry I was so overwhelmed by everything people gave to us, things that were written for us, etc. We read through the suggestion box cards and had a real good laugh at a lot of the "advice" we were given.
Monday we made our way over to Flaming Amy's before dropping Dorothy and Stephen off at the airport. Not to sound mean, but we were relieved to go home and not have anyone there. Not counting wedding night, it was the first time in over a week that we had the place to ourselves. We no longer needed helping hands, so it was great to just go home and get ready for the honeymoon.
The honeymoon rundown will have to be saved for a later date. I've already wasted enough time not working by writing everything here. Oops.
But life is awesome to the nth degree.
I love my husband and our new legally recognized life together. So much.
Could not be in any more bliss.
:) times infinity.