Well, the past month has flown by faster than I would have ever imagined possible. There was so much craziness that I think it has taken me this long to recover before being able to take the time and reflect how it all went.
I learned many things about my husband in the few days leading up to the wedding. Generally speaking, between the two of us I'm the one who has been on top of all the wedding planning stuff. But something I have never experienced before happened to me the few days before: wedding brain. I was so forgetful, and clumsy {more so than usual!} and apathetic about a lot of things. I just COULD NOT bring myself to do any more for the wedding. Which is not a good place to be 3 days beforehand when name cards needed to be made, last minute things needed to be purchased, and schedules had to be made. D was the wedding lifesaver. He stayed {relatively} cool, calm and collected and helped me finish all the crazy last minute things. We truly do make the best team.
The real fun began on the Thursday before the wedding. My best friend from college, Sarah, and D's best friend from middle school, Ziling, both arrived in town. I think spending time with our closest friends in the two days before the wedding was a well deserved calm before the storm. I will never forget the bbq at our friend Jennifer and John's house that got rained out, playing games with all our closest friends, and just enjoying life. It was a well deserved break right before all the craziness!
The day before the wedding flew by. I'm pretty sure I barely ate the entire day. It was a flurry of family, friends, new relatives we'd never met, rehearsal, dinner, errands... so much craziness. It was a day full of extreme emotions, too. When we were at the rehearsal and my little brother Kameron walked in for the first time, I just completely lost it. Everyone was a little worried for me I think... if I was crying this much at the rehearsal, would I be able to get through the actual wedding? {Spoiler alert: I did just fine} I think at that point there was this interesting balance of, "holy shit this is really happening!" with "is this really happening?".
I'm pretty sure I got maybe 2 hours of sleep that night. Sarah and I attempted to stay up and watch disney movies all night, but we both kind of crashed and fell asleep. Sarah left to go upstairs to sleep for the evening, and once she left I was awake. I think I watched Cinderella about 4 times, and The Little Mermaid about 3, and Aladdin once over the course of the night/early morning. Apparently D, who was staying with Ziling that night, got slightly more sleep than I did, but not by much. Poor guy.
The day of the wedding was... wow. I still don't even know. Everything schedule wise was basically perfect; no one was late {besides the ceremony band, but that's a whole other story...}, everything that needed to be there was there, and people generally seemed relaxed about everything. Everyone says there is always "one thing that goes wrong", and we discovered what that was fairly early on in the afternoon: my mother had purchased the SAME dress as one of my bridesmaids. In the SAME color. Looking back on it, it is kind of funny, but at the time I think none of us really knew what to do. We thought about trying to find another one for my mom to wear, but in the end we all decided to say screw it and it worked out just fine. Other than that, though, pretty much everything played out exactly as we thought it might!
I honestly don't remember much from the ceremony. I remember having a special moment with my brother before he walked me down the aisle. I remember saying some words to Doug during the ceremony, but for the life of me I do not remember what they were. I remember Megan giving a beautiful reading, and the look on Doug's face the entire time {he had a little twitch under his right eye and the biggest smile}. I remember I successfully got the ring on his finger, which was something I was really worried about. I think I remember kissing him at some point, and then that was it. We were married. Finally, the room full of 60 of our closest friends and family saw us the way we've seen ourselves for a very long time.
Then came pictures, and dinner, and toasts, and cake, and dancing. Everything was wonderful. It was amazing to see all of these people in one room who had been a part of each of our individual lives, come together to celebrate us coming together. Absolutely incredible.
I also learned that D and I probably should have practiced cutting cake before doing it in front of a crowd of people...
Suddenly it was time to go. I hurried to make sure vendors were paid and things were cleaned up, but everyone shooed me away. Our limo had arrived {one of the splurges D and I decided we wanted} to take us away. As D and I sat in the limo and opened a bottle of champagne, we both just sighed. We did it. We actually had the wedding. And it was awesome. Our limo driver drove us around to nowhere for about an hour before taking us to our hotel, just to give D and I some time alone to talk and relax for the first time in a long time. It was amazing how little time I actually got to spend with him those few days leading up to the wedding.. I actually missed him!
We had a relaxing brunch the following morning where we got to catch up with some family and friends and reflect on the wedding. We headed back to our apartment and I think I almost had a heart attack when we opened the door: all of our wedding stuff and gifts where sitting in the middle of the living room. It was over. We had a little bit of time to clean up and take care of last minute things that day before we left that evening for Portland for our early flight for our honeymoon the next morning. But that is a story I will save for another day.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. The best day. And all the ups and downs of planning had led to this beautiful celebration that still can't compare to the beautiful life D and I have together. Which is the most important part.
Also, I really love calling him my husband. :)
<3
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