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I wanted to write an archive summary of my wedding day because these moments are forgotten all too fast. I got married to Steve on July 11, 2009 in Wheaton, IL.
We had the rehersal on Friday at 5:30 pm at the church and then a laid back buffet style dinner at Steve's parent's house in Glen Ellyn after. A lot of relatives from across the country came in to see the wedding and the rehersal dinner was the first chance I had to meet them. Steve's Aunt Evie and Aunt Carol were visiting as well as his Aunt Ruth and Uncle John (JR). He also had some cousins in town, Daniela and Ryan with their kids. All three bridesmaids and groomsmen were there also at the dinner. It seemed like there were a lot of people to talk with and catch up with in conversations.
The actual wedding day started early. Steve set the alarm for 7:30 knowing I had to be at the hair/makeup place at 9am. Yes, we were in the same house, we felt like we didn't need to be elaborate and spend days apart beforehand. I think I rolled out of bed at 8am and left at 9:00ish. I got there at 9:15 thinking I was late and was suprised they were not really even ready for me. Susan was already half done with her hair by that time and Amy was getting started. Both had very cute styles they were doing. I ended up sitting around until 9:30 and not getting my hair completed until 10:30am. Then I had to wait another 1/2 hour for the makeup lady since she was working on someone at the time. I started makeup at 11am and was finished at 12pm. I was supposed to have been done at 10:30 am or 11am. I was supposed to be at the church at 11:30 and was way late.
The makeup looked ok but the hair was a bit weird for me. They decided without asking me that I should have a bunch of fake hair extensions shoved in my head to make it look like I had a ton of hair and a beehive in the back of my head. Yes the end result did get a lot of compliments but it did freak me out to have alien head behind me all day and hitting the seat in the car. Why don't they ask the person who's hair they are actually doing? It was too late by the time I realized what they were doing to make them re-do it and make us even later than we were.
I actually got there at 12:30pm and was just jumping into my dress when the photographer found us and asked for the dress to take pictures of it hanging. Ugh. I know we have to do the picture thing but this was making us even later. I would find out later that this was a critical scheduling mistake and making sure you have vendors that will listen to you about scheduling things is very important. If things are behind schedule people have to be willing to cut stuff off the plans to make up time when dinners are concerned. this is about the time the Florist walked in with the flowers. They were amazing. Purple mokara and vanda orchids everywhere with some purple stock, black callas and pink roses scattered throughout. (And some rhinestones suspended on wires.)
Anyway, we finally got my dress back and she then wanted to do pix of me in the dress in a small chapel there, and in front of a large mirror in the main room of the church house. Then we had the "reveal" as they call it where Steve and I get to see eachother for the first time that day. This took longer than expected also, and I was not able to keep them on schedule because they said I was not allowed to wear my watch because it looked bad in pictures. (if you can, wear your watch!) The photos may end up being nice but involved a lot of posing for a long time when they would change all the settings on the camera for like 5 minutes before taking the shots, I am pretty sure no natural smiles were captured during the entire day. After Steve and I saw eachother and realized hey, we're the same people we always are, we went to the church for the group/family pictures. There again we took too long and didn't get them all in because of how long it took to stage the setup of people, the setup of lighting equipment and the camera itself. Also we blinked sometimes at the flash, and had to do this close our eyes until she counted to 3 and then open them when the picture was flashing thing which doesn't get a decent smile because we have our eyes closed. I am afraid these pics will also look weird and everyone will look tired.
The most frustrating thing was that we asked everyone (both sets of parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen and 2 ushers) to be there for the pictures at 1 pm. We didn't start until 1:45 and then didn't do group shots until the last 10 minutes or so. Basically it looked like I just wasted all those people's time and told them to come when they weren't needed. I wish the Photographer would have done the group ones first and then ours later when we had time or whenever other people weren't standing around waiting. How come photographers never realize this?
So then we had to go back to our seperate areas again at 2:30 because people were arriving and entering the church. And the ushers (MIke and Simon) went off to greet them) We used some of that time to take some interesting pictures on a staircase in the church house and to eat because we didn't have any other opportunity to eat until like 7:30 pm that night. We joked that bagels were the only food that could not ruin a dress, so that was what we had to bring in. I also tried to fix my dress which seemed to not want to stay up quite right. I would find out later that sitting in a dress with a full corset is not a good idea, it breaks the structure and shoves my bustline upwards and out of the dress innapropriatley.
You might think by this point that I was pissed, and annoyed by how things were going, but really I was just trying to make it through all these prescribed set events that had to happen, per tradition, per the church and per the photographer and we never quite made it to everything. Every once in a while I would get a glimpse in the mirror of the flowers or the dress and think it didn't really look like me. I'm nowhere near this girly. It was kind of like playing a part in a movie, with a lot of staging and sets and scripts. Steve and I decided on a hollywood wedding not quite knowing it at the time. The videographer was also tailing us through the entire day. I did know that both moms liked how things looked and turned out, so that was good. At least someone thought this was going well.
The ceremony had an odd start too. I got there just as they were starting the mothers walk down the isle escorted by my brother Scott and Steve's brother Brian. They lit the unity candle and then waited for the rest of us. The guests were still arriving late (as people do in my family) and the organist started early throwing us off. Then the pastor and groomsmen missed their 3 chime queue to walk out and the coordinator had to sprint under the church in the secret hallway to tell them to get out there. Then the organist also started into the main processional too early and we were late starting that as well. Oh, well at least we all got down the isle. Even with a rehersal this never goes perfectly. Too many requirements for staging things means something is bound to go wrong. I walked down with my dad and was a bit teary with all the people there that I saw. Steve's mom slipped a kleenex in my dad's hand while we were stopped at the end of the isle and he passed it to me. Nobody noticed. (I think) Then my dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and passed me on to Steve. Steve jumped the gun and tried to do the same kiss and the pastor said he had to wait, it wasn't time to do that yet, and everyone laughed.
The ceremony was nice and not too long. It involved a welcoming statement, a statement of intent from us, a statement from the parents and a statement of support from the entire congregation. Then Pastor Jay went into some descriptions of why we were here today and what all this really means. Then we moved further up on the steps and he talked more about us specifically and read from some emails we sent to him earlier in the week. I had no idea that he would read them verbatim. I liked that one of the things Steve wrote was that he loved the way she loves me. Pastor Jay thought that would make a great Lionel Richey song. Then we did the vows repeating after the pastor and I think Steve's microphone for the videographer picked up most of that from both of us. When it was all over I asked Steve if that was his car stereo in his front pocket and he said it was the microphone and I get that was all on tape.
We kissed at the top steps of the altar and walked back down the isle with the wedding party following us. Then we walked up the side isle to come back up front to greet everyone as they exited the isles. It was nice to see everyone in person at this point and have an informal recieveing line of sorts but what I did not know is that about 15% of the people did not come to the church so they were not greeted and we missed them until I randomly ran into them at the reception. Then we walked back to the altar to take some pictures with the pastor and lastly we walked out into a sea of bubbles on the front steps of the church and into the car. Those sale price Target champagne bubbles did actually work out ok. We did have a delay though since the photographer said 5 min to pack up stuff and leave again and then took pictures of a bunch of people including the bridesmaids and some guests. We ended up standing around looking out of place for a while and poor brian was holding the door to my dad's white buick for a while like he was a limo driver and everyone wondered what was going on.
After that was all settled we did get to Cantigny and I will write more about that later since this is a ginormous post.
