The night before the wedding I stayed at my friend Monica's house. Two more of my bridesmaids accompanied us, Crystal and Randi. It was nice to be surrounded by my ladies on the eve of a crazy day to come. When we first arrived there I was rushing around to fix my hairpiece for the wedding, which had broken when I was showing it to Karlee, Brad's sister, also a bridesmaid. I figured it to be a pretty easy fix, it was just a strand of crystals on a piece of wire. What I didn't know, was how hard it is to do beadwork with acrylic nails. And hour or so later, and beads all over Mo's living room, it was fixed. I could finally relax. Somehow I managed to fall alseep. I had a few minor 'pre-sleep' freak outs. Brad and I had not practiced out kiss, I mean HOW DO I KISS? Suddenly I felt like a middle school awaiting her first kiss.
My next freak out was about tying of the knot. No, not cold feet. Both Brad and I are just not very religious people, so we were a little stumped as to what to do during our ceremony. Myself being a huge supporter of Google, I 'religiously' searched for all sorts of wedding ceremony traditions. I came across 'tying the knot', I liked this for a few reasons. First, obviously the name of it is just cool. Second it is a modernized tradition of hand fasting. Hand fasting was practiced in the early days of Celtic weddings (it is also a neo-pagan ritual, buuut lets not focus on that). Being Irish myself, I found this to be somewhat sentimental. Traditionally, in a handf asting ceremony, you would choose different color ribbons, each color representing different well beings in your new life together. The officiant would take these ribbons and tie them around both the bride and grooms hand, forming a circle around them. The ribbons would stay on their hands throughout the rest of the ceremony. Brad was not keen on this idea. So I did a little more research.
I came across a blog about a DIY wedding. A couple had kind of put their own twist on this hand fasting idea. They had two piece's of ribbon, and before the ceremony gave one to the mother of the groom, and one to the mother of the bride. When it came time during the ceremony the officiant asked the mothers to present the bride and groom with the ribbons. The bride and groom then tied a knot together. The idea was to tie a new knot each anniversary there after. Perfect. I loved it, Brad loved it, we were gonna do it, done and planned. So what's the freakout? Well...we didn't practice tying a knot. Trying to picture in your mind how to tie a knot is it not easy. After about 20 minutes of ribbons flying around in my mind and tying my brain in a knot, I managed to hit the hay.
I never sleep well. I always wake up throughout the night, and this night was no exception. I woke up a few times to daylight, but wouldn't allow myself to look at the time, knowing I would only start to count down the hours. About the 5th time I did this, I heard Monica's dog, and very old pug with definite breathing issues, come down the hallway into the living room where Randi and I were sleeping. I could here her gasping for air at the foot of the air mattress, thats it. I am awake. It's 5:30 am, Damn. We had five alarms set for 6:30 am. The count down begins. After staring at the ceiling for an hour waiting for other people to hear this dog too, Randi did her early morning stretch. She barely opened her eyes before I said "Good Morning!" She laughed. One by one we all got out of bed. We had to be at the hair salon by 8:00 am, I think we got there at 8:03 am, not bad.
Kristi, my new sister in law, and hair beautifier for the day, had mimosas and bagels waiting for us. We allotted about four hours to do four girls hair, I think it took about two and a half. It was nice though, it gave us all time to chit-chat and run a quick errand. After that I went and got my makeup done, and a few of the girls went back to do their own. Johnny, my maid of honor's boyfriend, was nice enough to be our driver for the day. He picked Randi and I up from my makeup apt, and drove us to pick up the wedding cake at Sweet Life. Yum.
After a nice slow morning of getting ready and just hanging with my ladies, I had no idea what I was about to enter. We headed back up to my house, where we were having this whole shindig. Driving down the driveway I did a quick one-over on everything to ensure I somehow communicated everything I wanted done. It looked good so far.
I snuck in to the house, and was officially in hiding. There was probably about 30 people buzzing around outside doing random things for Brad and I. Things I didn't even plan. I mean who pictures how they want the food table to be set up, let alone to even plan on having serving utensils. Whoops. Luckily we stock up on everything in the country. The next couple hours were a whirlwind of:
"Laura-does this look good?
" Laura- How do you like this?"
"Laura how should I tie this bow, do you want two or should I just drape it?"
LAURA - LAURA - LAURA
Ugh, Can I change my first name too? Just playing, in retrospect, I really appreciated every question, and every person asking. It's just a lot to think about when I am trying to focus on getting married itself. I stopped for a minute and stood in the kitchen, watching people running around like chickens with there heads cut off. I had to take a moment to appreciate it all. People were doing this all for Brad and myself. This is my wedding day. I am about to get married. I quickly blurted "Where's that lemon drop I asked for??" I think two people came running one with my cocktail, and another with pink champagne. Agh. Instant relief.
4:30 pm. Time to put on my dress. I had avoided to do this till last minute. Mainly because I am a 'nervous pee-er' for lack of a better description. Not that it mattered anyways, I ended up squeezing through the bathroom door two minutes before I made the walk down the aisle. Thanks Randi for holding my dress.
So here we are time for the walk. I had hired two violinists to play for the ceremony, among many things I just had to have, this was my number one. It took a minute for them to start up 'Here comes the bride", and I was off. First thing I looked at, obviously, was my husband to be Brad. We both had on huge smiles, that only built off each other as soon as we saw the other one doing so. Being short though, as soon as I got behind the crowd I couldn't see him or any of the wedding party anymore. My eye's turned to the crowd. I saw my new dear friend Caitlin and her husband Chris. It meant a lot that they made it, seeing how Caitlin was 9 months pregnant and due two days later. We had a quick hello and I ventured into the middle of the guests.
One thing I did not expect, was for the paparazzi to show up. Seriously. As soon as I turned and made my way down the aisle it was nothing but camera after camera. Each end seat was taken all the way up to the aisle and each person had a camera. Pointing directly at me. This was really awkward. I had to remind myself I had done this to others, so now it's my turn for a picture from every angle.
I did it, I made it all the way to the alter. Everyone is behind me now, it's almost like the don't exist. I listened to every word the minister said. Soaking it all in, this is it. I don't know that I looked at much other than Brad and Bill - our officiant. Who by the way was awesome. He directed us through that whole ceremony like a children. I had everything planned, and then in that moment my list flew away in the wind. I needed directions, and he calmly held our hands throughout it all. He kept us calm, made us smile, and we were married!
Ok, I know your all asking yourselves, "How did the knot thing go??" Well right as we were waiting for the go ahead from bill to tie it, Brad whispers to me "I will just make a loop and you tie a knot around it". I laughed. I was glad I was not the only one who realized we completely spaced practicing this most prized 'act' of ours. The whole ceremony to me, lasted about 20 seconds. About 19 of me crying, and a kiss is all I really remember. The hard part was over, and I could really let loose and party with the rest of them!
Well first we took pictures...
After pictures, I made my way to the food table. Throughout the day, everyone kept demanding that I eat. I think I had like 7 meals. I filled up my plate, and got stopped by someone congratulating me. I was about to walk off when....It happened. Someone (I will leave there identity secret) bumps my arm....which I was holding my plate with.....and.....BBQ chicken grease all down the front of my dress...About five women, I don't even remember who, swarmed around me patting away, trying to console me. My photographer Mariea, and also new sister in law, instantly grabbed my shoulder and reminded my "You already took your photo's".
I am SO thankful for these words. I think it was what stopped me from picking my plate back up off the ground and throwing it at the person who flipped it on me. Or just hysterically crying. I had a lot of scenario's running through my head. I wasn't going to be upset at my wedding for anything though. I went and gave myself a moment at my table and someone had delivered me a new plate of food. Demanding that I sit there until it is gone, and not let anyone talk to me in the process. In a moment the memory was gone. I was gleeful again, it was my/our day, I had to be. We went on with the traditional things, cake cut, bouqet toss, Garter toss...
The garter. So, let's back track a day. Randi and I were out getting mani/pedi's, and she asks me what my garter looks like. What, what do you mean? Garter....I don't even have one. How the heck did I not even think to get one?? I mean, I thought about it, I saw them all the time. Always saying to myself, I will get it another day. Or, that's ones sooo ugly and cheesy I will find a better one. Well needless to say I completely forgot. We ran to the Dollar tree and bought one of the four ugly options they had and voila, problem solved. Right. The next day, while getting dressed, we couldn't find the freaking garter. Sweet, now what. Someone came to me with this sequin elasticy rope and a safety pin. Normally I would laugh at a person with this offer. But in that moment I was exhilleratted we had any sort of solution. So there you have it. My Garter was a bright purple piece of sequin elastic, held together by a safety pin.
The speeches our Maid of honor and Best man gave were perfect. They made us cry, so I guess you could say they did their jobs. We love and value you both, as well as the rest of the wedding party and all the guests that attended, and thank you all so much for being a part of our special day. It's something we will never forget.
