Wedding Day

WEDDING DAY
The next morning, I got up, took a too long shower and when I got downstairs my dad asked me to take a look at the photo printer to see if I could “figure it out”. Now, I know my dad meant no harm and that he was helping me out, but I started to get pissed that this wasn’t taken care of before. . . to me, this is what happens when you delegate. (of course when you don’t delegate you end up crying every night) I tried for 2 seconds, couldn’t figure it out, but I was already late for my hair appointment that my mom and sister are also supposed to be at, but they are not ready to leave yet. I was walking out the door without them when my mom yells down the hall “What’s going on with the printer?” I lost it, I yelled something back, slammed the door and took off to the hair dresser. When I arrived, John, the owner and my stylist for the past 12 years, was waiting at the door for me and shouted out “Whose getting married today?” with his arms wide open, that was all it took for me to break down – I was crying and poor John was hugging me and trying to figure out what the hell could be wrong with me, my BMs were there and trying to help too, but nothing did.

John Paul started to work on my hair and make fun of me for being so worried about the little details (in a nice way though) and I realized I would just have to let things go now. So what if I don’t have table numbers and the table names are printed on the escort cards. But really I still couldn’t let it go. . . it isn’t going to make sense to anyone why they are sitting at the Upper Straits Lake table without the picture and explanation I had planned to print, but oh well I guess! I figured I will still have time before we have to get dressed to draw out the lines for the guestbook and I guess Jeremy will just get his wish of not doing gifts. . . although, I really wanted that locket of my grandma. Where the heck did I put those locket charms I was going to use? My sister said she would take care of it and made some calls. Then I realized that since my sister’s bf never came in, he wouldn’t be taking the votive candles to the DYC, better call dad quick. Dad is already on the boat. . . come on! So I called my DOC and she said “I’ll take care of it” she met me at the salon and took the candles. I found out later that she got trapped at the DYC because there was a kids event there and one of them got hurt and there was an ambulance blocking the bridge to get out until like 1:30 – I felt so bad!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat, but I was not hungry at all, I was so nervous and I am not a nervous person – I can give speeches in front of hundreds of people, convince my clients to see my point of view and all that but today I was practically shaking. We went over to the church and Dionne was already there with her assistant Sadie shooting the church exterior. We went inside to try and get organized, the girls were doing their make up and finally my mom and sister showed up and it was about time to start getting dressed. I was very quiet this whole time and still very nervous. I could tell Dionne was starting to get worried about time so I wrangled all the girls up and they helped me get dressed then they got dressed themselves. Suddenly, the florist arrives with all the bouquets – they were gorgeous! Like I said before, I don’t care al that much about flowers, I just knew that I wanted daisies because that is what my mother had for her wedding. Luckily I had a bouquet trial with my florist about a month before hand and I noticed that the peach color they chose was a bit strong, but the flowers on the day of were perfect! I added the photo of my grandmother to my bouquet stem with a pin and we went out into the church courtyard to take a bunch of pictures. Mike, the videographer showed up and then I heard that Jeremy and the guys were arriving. We had to hide for a few minutes and then they got hidden away so we got to take some more pictures. My dad arrived in his tux and he looked great! We did some pictures and then the guests started arriving. I could vaguely hear music and we all had to stay in the room where we got dressed. My DOC ran in to check on everything and a few of my aunts and cousins stopped by to say hi. I was trying not to think about everything, but I was still so nervous. . . and then I heard the organ start playing. I knew this was the beginning of everything I had been planning for the past 16 months, my stomach dropped and my hands started shaking a little bit, but for the first time I did not have my to-do list constantly running through my head, I just left it, it was too late to do anything else now.

We got organized to walk into the church and my DOC was trying to keep me and my dad hidden from view so we didn’t get to see much of the processional, but I heard that my FG and RB did a great job and all grandparents made it down OK. We were motioned to come to the entrance to the sanctuary and the doors were closed in front of us then all of the sudden I heard the first few notes of “here comes the bride” and the doors whooshed open and I saw this church, literally full to the back row of people all looking at me and smiling and I felt so strange, like I was watching someone else’s wedding, but it was mine! I looked down the aisle to see Jeremy with a huge smile on his face and as much as I wanted to just lock eyes on him I couldn’t help but look around me at everyone who was there for us. I felt like I was floating down the aisle. When we got to the end I realized I had to think about what to do next. My dad took care of the handing off and I took Jeremy’s had and realized that mine was still shaking.

The ceremony began and I kind of went on auto pilot, I was noticing the video camera and the photographer and I tried to look over at Jeremy but I also felt like I should probably stay very still for some reason. Then we had to turn and face each other and Jeremy smiled at me, when he did I saw his lip quivering a little bit and as soon as I saw that he was nervous too, it made me feel so much better. The rest of the ceremony was great, I’m sure my voice was shaking a little bit during the vows, but it seemed like all of the sudden we were kissing and being introduced and it was all over!

We went back into the dressing room to let the guests move out to the front of the church with their rice and we talked for a little bit, signed our license and then it was time for our fake exit.

We ran through the storm of rice, it didn’t hurt at all, it was weird though, and it left little white marks all over Jeremy’s tux. They were easily brushed off, but that was something I was not expecting. Then we all gathered together for a group shot outside the church of everyone who attended and it was back into the church for formal photos.

The formal photos went by pretty fast, which is great because we were tight on time, but I recall waiting around forever in past weddings that I had part in, I guess it is just because Dionne’s style is to not do that many posed pictures. I did have a chance to show my grandpa that I had included my grandmother in the wedding by way of the picture on my bouquet. He just smiled at me and said "Thank You". That was the one time all day (well since my make up had been done anyway) that I came the closest to crying. We got in the limo and I was feeling so much better, it was such a relief that things had started and we were married! I briefly remembered that I still had not done anything with the guestbook, but I didn’t care anymore. I just wouldn’t have one.

We stopped at the Scott Fountain on Belle Isle to take some pictures, we had a fun time. I’m pretty sure Dionne called us lame when we tried to do our ‘fun’ poses, but we didn’t care J After about 30 minutes there we went over to the southern shore line so we could get some pictures with the Detroit skyline in the background and then it was off to the Yacht Club. Of course that is easier said than done on a beautiful Saturday afternoon on Belle Isle! There was so much traffic, but we made it eventually and as soon as we got out of the limo I was bustled and we were taken upstairs to the third floor. Right away I went to my little spy lookout that I had used to observe every wedding that had taken place there over the past 1 ½ years while I was down there and I saw MY room – it was so beautiful. The candles were flickering, the linens and chair covers looked amazing, I was so happy with everything.

Kevin came up to instruct us on the entrance and all of the sudden the emergency lights came on and everything else turned off. There was some squawking on the walkie talkie of the DYC event manager and they said “looks like we have Déjà vu from last weekend” He said to us – “we have a power outage, but don’t worry, it shouldn’t affect you” At this point, I was feeling so relieved and have had several glasses of champagne so I thought ‘whatever’ and Kevin continued on. We all went downstairs and I saw that indeed we did still have power, at least I heard music and saw lights so I didn’t care. We were introduced and cut the cake right away then we went to our seats. After several ‘clinking’ kisses and 2 great speeches (my sister made my dad cry for the only time that day), my grandpa gave a blessing and the salads came out.

As soon as the salads were served, we took off with Dionne and our parents to get some more pictures. A friend of a friend of ours has the biggest boat at the club and they said they would be happy for us to take some pictures on it so we went out to that boat and got some dock pictures and then it was back in for dinner. The food was fantastic, I got compliments on it all night, and I actually ate my dinner. But as soon as dinner was over, it was back out to take more pictures, I really wanted big family group pictures so we did my dad’s side, my mom’s side and same with FIL and MIL and all of the sudden, it was 9:20 (we were scheduled for our first dance at 9!) so we ran in to do the dance and from that point on it was just so much fun! The power outage had affected a few of the sockets that Kevin was using so he wasn’t at 100% with the lights, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I never got any of our cake which bums me out. Our dance floor was full the entire night, and the bartenders were a blast. Our Leben Hoch (Frankenmuth tradition) was a big hit and my only regret is that we hardly saw anyone I feel like! By the time we tried to go around to tables, a lot of the older people were already gone! Oh well I guess. I got “bride-jacked” by some partying boaters while trying to find Jeremy (who was off smoking cigars with the GM) and went to do a shot on their boat and I came back to talk to some more people. It was at this point that I realized how dark the other ballroom was – I guest the power outage had affected them, it was only candle light and no one was even in there. The other bride was pretty crazy I guess. I won’t say anything here, but PSA it probably isn’t a good idea to get wasted at your own wedding because among other things you might fall down and end up crying all night in the bathroom.

All of the sudden it was the last song! Actually I thought that we had Kevin until 12:30 and he stopped at midnight and the bar was supposed to only close for a half hour during diner and it closed for an hour so somehow the bar was open until 1:00 but everyone had to catch the 12:45 shuttle. We helped to pick up all the centerpieces and then we ran to catch the Omni shuttle, it was so overcrowded so a bunch of our friends hid in the back and we told the driver that they had gotten out so we could get in, it was a fun ride back. We checked in quick, got our luggage and were off to the bar with a decent size group of our friends. We spent about 90 minutes there then the stress of the day and the days before started catching up with us so we went back to the hotel and had a great night.

We went back to the DYC for a brunch the next day (that half of the people planning to attend didn’t make because of hang overs), opened our gifts and cards and packed up the cars. My sister was off to NYC, we counted our $$, deposited it the next day and then it was off to St. Lucia!