Married Life

What's up Y'all?!?!?! Hey, guess what? I'M MARRIED!

Of course I have about a thousand pictures I'd love to show everyone, and a thousand stories to tell, so I'll just start from the beginning and see how far I make it before the cable guy shows up ;)

Rehearsal went fine, though we started outside and by the time we had everyone lined up for the first time, we were starting to feel raindrops so we had to move it inside. I'm glad someone long ago decided it was a good idea to rehearse these things beforehand, because there were definitely a few wrinkles to iron out! But it went just fine and we made it to dinner in perfect time. It was very surreal to pull up to rehearsal and see all those people there - all our very closest friends and family - just waiting for us to start our wedding weekend! That was when it started to feel "real", although really, at the end of the day it STILL doesn't feel real. But that's neither here nor there. Moving on...

Rehearsal dinner was DELICIOUS - the food really was great and we got tons of compliments :) It's so cool to have things go as planned! With weddings you half-expect everything to go wrong. Or maybe that's just me, I don't know. Amberly got up to say a few words, and made me tear up a little of course :) It was so heart-felt, and hearing Ben's sisters talk about us just gets me every time because it gets me thinking about how lucky I am to have sisters like them! Janelle also gave her maid-of-honor speech and cracked everyone up, and made me tear up again (it wasn't difficult of course!). I also got to spend a little time chatting with my oldest-best-good-friend Colette and her fiance who were here from Florida (she moved in 3rd grade and we stayed in touch!) - I'm so glad I got to invite her to the dinner because otherwise I only would've had a few seconds at the wedding to say hi. We also got a huge cnavas print of our favorite engagement session photo from Ben's best man Mike and his girlfriend Sarah, which was SOOOO so sweet! It was such a creative and thoughtful gift. I just love them :) I can't wait til the ball starts rolling on their wedding! Tee hee hee ;)

And then there was the wedding day. I slept very well but once I woke up it was all over - by 7:30 I was up for the day. Of course, the weather reports had been fluctuating all week, and the first thing I did was check the weather. "The weather" was really the story of the day. At 7:30am, they were calling for thunderstorms from 2pm til 6pm. SWEET. 50% chance. WONDERFUL. I tried to put it out of my head and just enjoy the day. I went to the grocery store to get some lunch stuff for the girls, and when I got back everyone was up (Leanne, Dana and Kristy had spent the night) and getting ready. At 9:00 my hairstylists showed up and got started on the hair, and my bridesmaids trickled in throughout the morning for their hair "appointments". Everyone's hair turned out amazing, and we just sat in my dad's room chatting and laughing and googling "Carrie Underwood updo" (etc) all morning while the hair styling was going on in my dad's bathroom. When Em showed up, she brought the sweetest gift - she was officially the first person to make me cry on my wedding day! Halfway through the morning I went to have my make-up done, which was very calming and relaxing. It was just me and my mom, and it turned out really nice. When I got back with a platter of wraps for lunch, we ate some food, I had my hair done, and then it was time to get ready and go! By this point, the weather report said 75% chance of thunderstorms at 2 and 3pm, cloudy and 20% chance of precip at 4pm, and partly sunny with 5% chance of precip from 5pm on. SWEET! It was so exciting - we were ON! I was convinced that by 1:30 the weather people should know what they were talking about and we should be good to go. I was wrong, of course, but that part is coming.

The girls got dressed (they all looked SO gorgeous... I can't even tell you...) and we loaded up and headed to Turf Valley. We got there, amidst threatening thunderhead clouds, and got inside just before the rain started. I got dressed (in our SWEET complimentary suite that Ben and I had for the night) and it wasn't long before it was time to head downstairs to meet my groom :) Our wonderful photographer was with me from just before noon on, so he captured all of this stuff. Seeing him was pretty surreal - everyone was looking at us and snapping photos, and seeing us for the first time as "the bride" and "the groom", in full costume... I really felt for the first time that day that it was all actually happening. He seemed pretty impressed with my get-up, and he looked positively dashing in his all black tux with white vest and tie ;) We kissed and hugged a lot, and I did NOT cry, and then it was time for photos. Given the fact that it was raining, we had to do all of our photos out under a huge overhang in front of the main lobby at the hotel, which allowed us to use the natural outdoor light despite the weather. We had to deal with people coming in and out of the hotel, and the automatic doors opening and closing constantly (and trying to hide the writing on the doors with people's heads... lol) but we got everything we needed to get in terms of group photos, and then Jamie (our photographer) found a few creative little places to shoot Ben and I.

Well, that's not exactly how it went. About half-way through photos, the Maitre D' (who was wonderful to us ALL day, by the way) came to check and see what we wanted to do about the ceremony. We were still bound and determined to have it outside, but he let us know that the golf course's doppler radar and weather forecast was still calling for thurnderstorms all evening. Well, that wasn't what weather.com was saying, so we stuck to our guns. Within an hour, everything changed. Throughout photos, our bridal party was in the lobby taking turns checking various weather websites and giving us updates, and by about 4:00, the radar was showing red cells directly over Ellicott City at 5:00. Everyone was asking me what I wanted to do (the ceremony coordinator, the DJ, the Maitre D'...) and I finally cracked. I knew there was only one choice to make, and I REALLY wanted it to be outside, but I knew there was just no choice anymore. I started crying and Ben hugged me and told me it was going to be beautiful anyway, and I told everyone to start the ball rolling on moving things inside. I thought I had sorta come to terms with the idea of it being inside, since I'd had all week to think about the weather forecast and the possibilities, but when it became a reality it was a little much to handle. I think it was really the pressure that made me finally break down and cry (although I was REALLY trying not to be "that bride"), moreso than the subject of moving it inside. But of course, having to give up and move it inside was part of it - I had to re-adjust my entire vision of my wedding day. I had been imagining it outside under the willow trees all along, and now it was going to be in a ballroom. Ugh. I got myself together, probably within a minute's time (it wasn't a huge sobbing fit or anything), and immediately felt relieved to have the decision made. We moved on with some more photos and I tried to forget about it ever having been planned outside. I had to go down to the ballroom to make sure that the last-minute "oh crap what are we doing with (fill in the blank) now that it's inside?" issues and make sure that the set-up was going alright, and of course by this time I was running into guests and feeling the time crunch. I finally went upstairs by myself to chill before the ceremony, get my veil on, etc. and the rest of the girls joined me about 5 or 10 minutes later (after having completed one last run-through of the ceremony in the ballroom with our ceremony coordinator). It was really nice to have a few moments alone to relax and reflect. I can't say that I had any amazingly profound thoughts or anything, I was just very peaceful and calm. When it was show time, Annie came up and got us, we went down and lined up, and the ceremony just kinda happened!

I didn't cry walking down the aisle with my dad (VERY impressive), Leo walked down the aisle with a horrendous look on his face dragging one foot behind him (which of course I didn't get to see, but I'm hoping there are pictures! I did hear everyone laugh, so I guess it was ok), and everyone looked amazing. The flowers turned out beautifully, the decorations worked out perfectly even though we had moved it inside, and everything went smoothly. I tried really hard to slow down time throughout the whole thing and just live in the moment and enjoy it, but of course it FLEW by anyway. My mom's solo was beautiful, Ben's mom didn't cry during her reading, and our vows were pretty awesome ;) We made everyone cry! They were just perfect - they fit together well (even though we hadn't seen each others vows), they were both emotional AND funny - it was great! It was so amazing to see all those people who hadn't been there a half hour prior when I was down there decorating - when the curtains were pulled back and I started down the aisle, the room was FULL of familiar faces! It was a really cool feeling :) But seeing him at the end of the aisle quickly gave me tunnel vision and I didn't see the other faces anymore. I tried to glance at our bridal party when I thought about it, because I really wanted to remember seeing all their faces standing up there with me. The whole thing was just full of personal touches and heart-felt moments and the love of our friends... it was crazy. I don't really know how to describe it.

Well, my *husband* is really hungry (as am I), our pantries are empty and we're stuck here waiting for the cable guy, so I need to go out and get us some breakfast. I'll try to get started on the reception and honeymoon sometime today :)