QueenTiffany
01-24-2006, 08:59 AM
The Wedding Weekend
As many of you know, our wedding was largely DIY so I could've choked Alan when he disturbed the schedules of the two days leading up to our nuptials :buttkick: I didn't want to feel overloaded and pressed for time so I had every intention of taking the church up on its offer to decorate the santuary on Thursday and give all my focus to the reception site on Friday. Well, in steps my groom.
After he woke up at the crack of dawn to get in a game of golf on Thursday, he assured me we would make it down to the church at 2 p.m. (keep in mind that the church is an hour away from us and will close at 4 p.m.) During the course of the morning, I realized we were headed into a major time crunch so I cancelled plans to pick up my gown at noon and asked him if it was possible to hold off on getting his tux until Friday. He wasn't too thrilled about that option since there would be no time for Men's Wearhouse to correct something in the event they mixed up the order. I told him I understood but he had to hurry back ASAP so that we could pack up my sister's SUV (he was behind the wheel) and head to the church.
As time continues to roll along, I'm getting anxious to I start doing things to calm myself down (i.e. assemble the easel for my father's picture; make sure everything is ready to load into the truck). At 1 p.m. I start calling like "where you at, babe, we should be heading out the door!!!!!" Finally, after a few phone calls where I made it known I was thoroughly frustrated, Alan still isn't home at 2:30 p.m. so I head out to get my nails done (which I planned to do Friday afternoon) and he calls like "Are you mad? I was just getting my tux..."
Turns out, he went an hour in another direction to pick up one of his GM JUST to come back to our city so that they can all get fitted together and then had to take him back home. My husband has a freaking degree in logistics for goodness sakes but didn't realize he would be unable to make it home before 2 p.m. :aargh: I was so angry because I knew that would throw us into rush mode (which it did) for the next two days.
After getting my nails done, I come home and he's packed my sister's truck and we decide to take the stuff for the church to my mother's home so that it can be ready to go in the morning. (We had three trips worth of stuff between the church and the hall to lug to Flint)....during the drive, I'm still mad so I decided to take a power nap and I woke up feeling better and cut Alan some slack. We drop everything off then head to Alan's hometown (Saginaw) so that he can cut the hair of his three nephews and his best man.
Although, I'm not mad anymore, I decided I wouldn't be pressed for time and running around like a chicken with my head cut off on Friday because he chose to spend time he didn't have with the fellas. So I give Alan a list of things I didn't get to do because of the golf/tuxedo pick-up incidents and I plan on focusing on just getting the hall and church ready. Alan, who didn't see the big deal on Thursday, felt the pinch Friday when he had a laundry list of things to handle (including picking up my gown from one city and getting our table linens from another and then bringing them to another city)....
Anyway, my baby came through like a champ and I was able to finish the church and the hall (with the help of one of my BM and day-of coordinator) and have it look the way I'd envisioned. I was beyond excited once it all came together! We were about an hour off schedule because of getting the hall in order (Chair Covers and Linens forgot four of my tablecloths and they were sent by FedEx to my hotel suite the next morning), so we started our rehearsal late. In starting the rehearsal late, we also got to the RD an hour after we were supposed to arrive and the restaurant's hostess tried to give us attitude. My MIL was not having it "fine, we're late but we don't need the smart comments and eye rolling because we can take our business elsewhere! :nail: "
After the manager juggled around a few people (they aren't crazy - they didn't want to miss out on that money!) everything went great and our BP loved their presents and we loved giving them out! The groomsmen and ushers loved their cuff links and colonge and my BM were floored by their tote bags. I was so happy because my two mini-me's (the jr. BM) were also equally thrilled with their gifts. It was like Christmas, ya'll.
The Wedding Day
In the months leading up to our wedding, I assumed I would be extra giddy the night before and unable to sleep because of this overwhelming sense of joy and exhiliration - well, that didn't happen and I slept like a log.
I woke up at around 6:15 a.m. put on my oh-so sweet "Alan's Wife" hoodie, ran to the store to get some hosiery (I decided to wear them at the last minute) and dashed by my mother's home to scoop up my dress before my 8 a.m. hair appointment. I get to the salon and that takes long than I anticipated (I had asked my girls to be at my hotel by 10 a.m. but I was still sitting under the dryer at that point) but we finished up in time to get back before anyone else arrived.
As the BM start piling in my hotel room, my jr. BM arrive shortly after our photographer and I tell them to hurry and get dressed so that I can do their make up (they looked so adorable) and then start getting dressed. Once everyone was outside taking their individual pictures, I finished my face and my sister helped me get dressed and we all went down to the hotel lobby for more pics.
The limo arrived at 2:30 p.m. and whisked us away to the church and we entered through the side door. At that time, I was presented with a hand-written note from my groom and gift certificates to McDonalds (at the time of the wedding, I hadn't eaten there in more than three months!) Our pastor had our mothers sign the marriage certificate and everyone and their daddy was coming in the room to say Hi....although the ceremony was scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. start time I was gonna begin at 3:45 p.m. to accomodate late folks/heavy traffic but I got sooooooo tired of just sitting there that at 3:30 I was like "can we start?" Immediately after that, I hear the music ("We Must Praise" by J. Moss) begin and watched our beautiful praise dance through the blinds of the church's waiting room.
I'm all ready to go, pull my blusher over my face and wait to make my entrance when I realize my flower girl is walking slow as a turtle (a possible combination of jitters and her little satin gloves) at one point, I was told she didn't like where a petal landed so she picked it back up and threw it down again :faint: Not only that, she waited for one to land on the runner before she picked up another one. At this point, the church coordinator was standing at an angle where she couldn't see the flower girl and assumed she was near the altar so they opened the doors for me to make my entrance and she's still VERY close to the back of a 100-foot aisle. Well, my song runs out and I guess Alan decided enough was enough (although she was very precious) and went to go get her and walk the rest of the way with her.
After that, I finally begin my walk and I'm just smiling until I reach the half-way mark and my Godfather comes for me....at that time, I feel myself losing it and I'm praying I don't have the ugly cry look but my Godfather is talking to me (no idea what he was saying ) and I make it to my groom and his handsome face is stained with tears and more keep falling (that's my baby, ya'll!) At that point, I've had my little breakdown moment so I proceed to wipe his eyes and we take our vows.
The ceremony is going wonderful but while we're in the process of signing our marriage covenant, I leaned too close to one of the candles and it caught the tip of my veil :hairshock I have no clue what's happening on but I hear a few loud whispers and see my sister trying to rush over and she whispers to me that my veil was on fire, I see the little burnt edges and I just chuckled. Hey, what else can you do at that point? I was just thankful it wasn't my gown!
Once we leave the church, we headed to the campus of a local university for some outdoor photographs and then we made our way to the reception. Our love story was a HUGE hit, the food was wonderful and our first dance was truly fantastic. We got so many compliments on everything (people took notice of even the smallest touches) and it was just a beautiful day for Alan and I. We went back to the hotel suite, my hubby helped me take the million and one bobby pins out of my hair, we held each other and then we fell out. That's right, there was no fantastic, mind-blowing :hump: on our wedding night but believe me after more than a year of celibacy, we've more than made up for that night :brow:
************
Let me say on a final note that I will love my husband until the day that I die and I truly appreciate him allowing me to carry out the vision I had for our wedding day. His faith in me and my desire to make him proud kept me going when others expressed doubt or thought I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Even on our worst days I can still say with all honestly that Alan was a fantastic boyfriend, an amazing fiance and now he's an incredible husband. I thank the Lord for blessing me with such a beautiful person to grow old with.
As many of you know, our wedding was largely DIY so I could've choked Alan when he disturbed the schedules of the two days leading up to our nuptials :buttkick: I didn't want to feel overloaded and pressed for time so I had every intention of taking the church up on its offer to decorate the santuary on Thursday and give all my focus to the reception site on Friday. Well, in steps my groom.
After he woke up at the crack of dawn to get in a game of golf on Thursday, he assured me we would make it down to the church at 2 p.m. (keep in mind that the church is an hour away from us and will close at 4 p.m.) During the course of the morning, I realized we were headed into a major time crunch so I cancelled plans to pick up my gown at noon and asked him if it was possible to hold off on getting his tux until Friday. He wasn't too thrilled about that option since there would be no time for Men's Wearhouse to correct something in the event they mixed up the order. I told him I understood but he had to hurry back ASAP so that we could pack up my sister's SUV (he was behind the wheel) and head to the church.
As time continues to roll along, I'm getting anxious to I start doing things to calm myself down (i.e. assemble the easel for my father's picture; make sure everything is ready to load into the truck). At 1 p.m. I start calling like "where you at, babe, we should be heading out the door!!!!!" Finally, after a few phone calls where I made it known I was thoroughly frustrated, Alan still isn't home at 2:30 p.m. so I head out to get my nails done (which I planned to do Friday afternoon) and he calls like "Are you mad? I was just getting my tux..."
Turns out, he went an hour in another direction to pick up one of his GM JUST to come back to our city so that they can all get fitted together and then had to take him back home. My husband has a freaking degree in logistics for goodness sakes but didn't realize he would be unable to make it home before 2 p.m. :aargh: I was so angry because I knew that would throw us into rush mode (which it did) for the next two days.
After getting my nails done, I come home and he's packed my sister's truck and we decide to take the stuff for the church to my mother's home so that it can be ready to go in the morning. (We had three trips worth of stuff between the church and the hall to lug to Flint)....during the drive, I'm still mad so I decided to take a power nap and I woke up feeling better and cut Alan some slack. We drop everything off then head to Alan's hometown (Saginaw) so that he can cut the hair of his three nephews and his best man.
Although, I'm not mad anymore, I decided I wouldn't be pressed for time and running around like a chicken with my head cut off on Friday because he chose to spend time he didn't have with the fellas. So I give Alan a list of things I didn't get to do because of the golf/tuxedo pick-up incidents and I plan on focusing on just getting the hall and church ready. Alan, who didn't see the big deal on Thursday, felt the pinch Friday when he had a laundry list of things to handle (including picking up my gown from one city and getting our table linens from another and then bringing them to another city)....
Anyway, my baby came through like a champ and I was able to finish the church and the hall (with the help of one of my BM and day-of coordinator) and have it look the way I'd envisioned. I was beyond excited once it all came together! We were about an hour off schedule because of getting the hall in order (Chair Covers and Linens forgot four of my tablecloths and they were sent by FedEx to my hotel suite the next morning), so we started our rehearsal late. In starting the rehearsal late, we also got to the RD an hour after we were supposed to arrive and the restaurant's hostess tried to give us attitude. My MIL was not having it "fine, we're late but we don't need the smart comments and eye rolling because we can take our business elsewhere! :nail: "
After the manager juggled around a few people (they aren't crazy - they didn't want to miss out on that money!) everything went great and our BP loved their presents and we loved giving them out! The groomsmen and ushers loved their cuff links and colonge and my BM were floored by their tote bags. I was so happy because my two mini-me's (the jr. BM) were also equally thrilled with their gifts. It was like Christmas, ya'll.
The Wedding Day
In the months leading up to our wedding, I assumed I would be extra giddy the night before and unable to sleep because of this overwhelming sense of joy and exhiliration - well, that didn't happen and I slept like a log.
I woke up at around 6:15 a.m. put on my oh-so sweet "Alan's Wife" hoodie, ran to the store to get some hosiery (I decided to wear them at the last minute) and dashed by my mother's home to scoop up my dress before my 8 a.m. hair appointment. I get to the salon and that takes long than I anticipated (I had asked my girls to be at my hotel by 10 a.m. but I was still sitting under the dryer at that point) but we finished up in time to get back before anyone else arrived.
As the BM start piling in my hotel room, my jr. BM arrive shortly after our photographer and I tell them to hurry and get dressed so that I can do their make up (they looked so adorable) and then start getting dressed. Once everyone was outside taking their individual pictures, I finished my face and my sister helped me get dressed and we all went down to the hotel lobby for more pics.
The limo arrived at 2:30 p.m. and whisked us away to the church and we entered through the side door. At that time, I was presented with a hand-written note from my groom and gift certificates to McDonalds (at the time of the wedding, I hadn't eaten there in more than three months!) Our pastor had our mothers sign the marriage certificate and everyone and their daddy was coming in the room to say Hi....although the ceremony was scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. start time I was gonna begin at 3:45 p.m. to accomodate late folks/heavy traffic but I got sooooooo tired of just sitting there that at 3:30 I was like "can we start?" Immediately after that, I hear the music ("We Must Praise" by J. Moss) begin and watched our beautiful praise dance through the blinds of the church's waiting room.
I'm all ready to go, pull my blusher over my face and wait to make my entrance when I realize my flower girl is walking slow as a turtle (a possible combination of jitters and her little satin gloves) at one point, I was told she didn't like where a petal landed so she picked it back up and threw it down again :faint: Not only that, she waited for one to land on the runner before she picked up another one. At this point, the church coordinator was standing at an angle where she couldn't see the flower girl and assumed she was near the altar so they opened the doors for me to make my entrance and she's still VERY close to the back of a 100-foot aisle. Well, my song runs out and I guess Alan decided enough was enough (although she was very precious) and went to go get her and walk the rest of the way with her.
After that, I finally begin my walk and I'm just smiling until I reach the half-way mark and my Godfather comes for me....at that time, I feel myself losing it and I'm praying I don't have the ugly cry look but my Godfather is talking to me (no idea what he was saying ) and I make it to my groom and his handsome face is stained with tears and more keep falling (that's my baby, ya'll!) At that point, I've had my little breakdown moment so I proceed to wipe his eyes and we take our vows.
The ceremony is going wonderful but while we're in the process of signing our marriage covenant, I leaned too close to one of the candles and it caught the tip of my veil :hairshock I have no clue what's happening on but I hear a few loud whispers and see my sister trying to rush over and she whispers to me that my veil was on fire, I see the little burnt edges and I just chuckled. Hey, what else can you do at that point? I was just thankful it wasn't my gown!
Once we leave the church, we headed to the campus of a local university for some outdoor photographs and then we made our way to the reception. Our love story was a HUGE hit, the food was wonderful and our first dance was truly fantastic. We got so many compliments on everything (people took notice of even the smallest touches) and it was just a beautiful day for Alan and I. We went back to the hotel suite, my hubby helped me take the million and one bobby pins out of my hair, we held each other and then we fell out. That's right, there was no fantastic, mind-blowing :hump: on our wedding night but believe me after more than a year of celibacy, we've more than made up for that night :brow:
************
Let me say on a final note that I will love my husband until the day that I die and I truly appreciate him allowing me to carry out the vision I had for our wedding day. His faith in me and my desire to make him proud kept me going when others expressed doubt or thought I wouldn't be able to pull it off. Even on our worst days I can still say with all honestly that Alan was a fantastic boyfriend, an amazing fiance and now he's an incredible husband. I thank the Lord for blessing me with such a beautiful person to grow old with.