The Wedding: Part I
We had the wedding liturgy in the Old Form, and it was rockin! Okay, I'll start from the very beginning cause I'm going to want to remember this some day.
My parents got here the Tuesday before the wedding to help us with the move. It was a big help, but we're still nowhere near what needs to be done. I basically put them to the task of doign everything from that point on. I was beat. There was one exception, programs. I kept putting this part off because I had more important things to deal with, then all of the sudden, it was 2 days before the wedding and I needed them printed NOW! I had enlisted my friend The Sojourner, though I'm not sure why she still was willing to speak to me at the wedding. I literally told her in the same paragraph "I've decided to get rid of all the work you have done and completely nix the idea of programs altogether... could you design them like ___ I think then I might like them better." Okay, that wasn't verbatim but it was close. She managed to find a great graphic to take up some space (I had too many problems getting a list of singers, music, ect together, so I excluded them all except the organist and schola director). Anyway, she totally saved the day with that. It was literally around 11:30 when I told her that it was perfect, printed it out, and then realized that I had misspelled two members of the bridal party's names) I called and emailed her frantically, she got back to me and fixed everything... after I made her reposition the program about 40 times... seriously, I'm not sure why at all she was willing to talk to me (possibly for the free food).
So then I called James' friend who said she had the day off and she would help me get them printed. I had to get my license changed over to my new state (ya, I've been here forever, I'm horrible) so I told her I'd meet her at the mall after the BMV. She told me she had to stop by a BMV, tooso we would meet up after. Then she walked right into the one I was in. Keep in mind this was completely unexpected because there are about 50 BMVs in the area and she lives about an hour away from the one I was in. It was awesome. I had some shopping I needed to do before the wedding and she took the programs over to be copied. She finished around the same time I finished and we talked for maybe half an hour (I really needed it, she's really cool, too). Then James' sister came by and we picked out some makeup (she was in a super big hurry, but at that point wedding party people started arriving so I was in a hurry, too). Then I had dinner with aout half of the bridal party + some friends and it was awesome. We were dead though.
Friday:
I had some people staying at my place and we all went out to eat breakfast at the Long John Silvers right by my house. We waited for it to open and then gorged on the "meatless" delights around us. Then my Maid of Honor and I went to pick up my Matron of Honor and... what DID we do? Umm... we did something and then dropped off my Matron to meet up with the other bridesmaids. Maid of Honor and I got our nails done. Ugh, I have never remembered hating having long nails this much! I have such thin nails that they never stay long at all, so I got acrylics, and of course I still have them and they IRRITATE ME. So as we were going to the rehearsal dinner I was informed that I needed to pick up my maids of honor... Iwas like, Dude, I'll never make it in time. So I tried to call my parents and ask them to pick them up for me cause they were closer. My mom got in this huge hissy fit because she was already at the church and wasn't going to be late by picking them up. I tried to explain to her that it would take less time for her to pick them up because I would have needed to pass the church to get them, and I was 20 minutes away from the church. Well, she wouldn't hear it and tried to make me leave them. I refused (they're my only two bridesmaids that aren't Catholic, so I wasn't about to have them completely fend for themselves at a TLM) "Well, you guys can't start without me so I'M going to be about an hour late!!" As I was exiting the highway to pick up the girls, my dad called, "Do you still want us to pick up the girls?" "NO!" It's funny in hindsight... sorta. Anyway, we got there 40 minutes late, my mom and I apologized because we react the same exact way to stress, and we practiced. I was so careful to teach the Protestants how to genuflect (and I FORGOT TO GENUFLECT FOR THE REAL THING!) we literally spent several minutes practicing. My mom raved on and on about how lovely the church was (It's because it's not Baptist, mom...). Then we went to the rehearsal dinner.
Because I was paranoid about how long everything would take, I planned the dinner for two hours after the rehearsal started. We arrived at the dinner right on time! Yes, I did SOMETHING right! The dinner was good, but it was the start of my not being able to eat for a week. I was thankful that the dinner was kinda small, I knew I needed the nutrients, but I couldn't eat much. We stayed there talking forEVER. I mainly did that because I could see how much James loved being among intellectuals again. Particularly European intellectuals (we flew one groomsman in from England). I was dead, and got lost driving home in the dark (I have bad eyes and I'm not supposed to drive at night). Then... on to the bachelorette! This involved us girls (the ones that were able to stay up/didn't have a kid) reading strange wedding customs and superstitions. It was great. Very relaxing. Maid of Honor and I stayed in a room together, knowing that neighther of us would be able to sleep. I took a shower, got out around 2:30 am. Finally laid down around 3:00. Alarm was set for 6:00.
All throughout the day, though, people kept bugging me. "Where is ___ going to stay?" "How is ___ going to get ___" Finally I started answering all questions in numbers and people eventually got the point that you shouldn't bug the bride...
The big day:
I want to make a disclaimer that until I looked at some of the pictures this morning, I had kinda forgotten that these were happy memories. Morale: Mothers, don't ever let your daughters solely plan their own weddings (unless they actually want to).
I woke up in an excited stupor. We went to the free hot breakfast and got ordered by the hotel staff to go back and put our shoes on (oops). Then I proceeded to eat about a bite and a half of a gravy covered biscuit, 3 bites of nasty yogurt, and half a cup of milk... I was so full I could hardly stand it... it was going to be a long day. This took my 30 minutes, and I ran back to the room to be ready for Tina to do my hair. She came in and set right to work. My hair was super curly, and she used so much hairspray that the table was literally covered with film. No one could breathe when they walked in. BUT my hair looked AWESOME! The bridesmaids came trickling into my room, getting ready and such, and my photographer came in to do some pre-ceremony pictures. Some of these turned out REALLY nice. James' sister came in to do my makeup (she did a great job, too). Then we went out to the limo (yes, my mom told me the days before "oh hey, we got you a 14 passenger limo") and waited in the cold for the driver. Ya, it was cold... it had been in the 80s the weekend before, but that morning it was cold. Oh well, at least it wasn't horribly rainy... yet.
We rode to the church, and it started to hit me that this was actually happening. Actually, it was more when we were walking outside to the limo, but it kept hitting me repeatedly. We got to the church and I saw my dad looking really nice in his suit. I ended up really glad that I didn't insist that everyone wore tuxes... they looked SO GOOD. I don't think I've ever seen men look more sophisticated at a wedding (not that I'm biased). My mom started crying when I came out of the limo and I heard that James kept trying to get a peek at me, so everyone pushed me back farther and farther behind the door.
The wedding went really well. Perhaps at some other time I'll have the energy to describe all the little ditties about it.
I'll just label this to be part one.
