First of all, I’m sorry it’s been so long! The end-of-semester crunch has been alternately busy and not-so-busy. But when I’ve got a few spare minutes I spend them re-organizing the apartment, at Bed, Bath, and Beyond picking up things with our wonderful gift cards, or doing things that I haven’t done in months (reading, taking Maggie for really long walks in the perfect Autumn weather). Are you ready? Let's go back in time to over 3 weeks ago!
After hanging out in the lobby for a few hours post-rehearsal dinner – and watching some of our friends and family booze it up, Bridesmaids Tatum and Megan, M.O.H. Nicole, and myself retreated to our hotel room to try to get some rest. I began very quickly to wish I had had a few glasses of wine, but I was so tired that I felt that I would fall asleep pretty quickly anyways. What happened next was not pretty – and in no way, shape, or form am I going to describe it in detail, but one of the three aforementioned ladies got sick.
Immediately I was up and about with my mind going 10,000 miles per hour. “What can I do to help? I must troubleshoot this so we can all sleep peacefully. I’ll never get to sleep if one of my friends is sick.” To spring into action, I went into the lobby to get her some soda, figuring that it would help ease her belly. It didn’t. About an hour later, I went back to the lobby (and yes, the groomsmen and friends were still up!) and found some Pepto- Bismol. My ill bridesmaid and I stayed up for awhile and waited to see if the Pepto would work its magic. It did! She felt better. So at about 2:30am, I laid my head down and willed myself to sleep….
It never happened. I thought about all sorts of things – namely, about how this was the last night of my LIFE that I would ever get to dream about my wedding. I wasn’t ever one of the girls that was obsessed with weddings as a kid, but I definitely thought about it now and again. In high school, I was mentally making my registry with one boyfriend or naming children with another (please tell me we all do that). As I got older, there were definitely a couple of boyfriends that induced delusions of wedded bliss – most boyfriends were admittedly temporary (on my end) from the get-go. And I have to admit to picking up a bridal magazine every now and again and fantasizing about my gown.
I lightened up a little bit, though, in my early 20s. Dating was fun – and yes, I realize I am one of the only people that thinks this (possibly) in the world. Part of it was straight economics - When you’re a graduate student and poor, a nice guy wanting to take you to dinner wasn’t a bad thing. So I stopped thinking about dating as a quest towards marriage and focused on just enjoying the company of my friends (and boyfriends!). Sometimes I liked certain guys more than they liked me – and I cried. But then I met Bryan, and talking about the future was so natural.
For 11 months all I had thought about was this wedding – how could it actually be happening? What am I going to do when the event is over? I want to spend more time with everyone who came into town. Will I do an adequate job moving from table to table tomorrow? What is it going to be like to walk down the aisle? Oh my God, I’m going to walk down the aisle. This is the last night of my life I’ll ever get to ask myself these questions….
It sounds like I was having an anxiety attack as I write this. But I wasn’t so much anxious – just so darn EXCITED!
I laid there with my eyes open WILLING the Sun to come up. Was this the longest night of my entire life? (YES). Was daylight savings time this weekend? Why isn’t the alarm going off?
And finally, the alarm went off at 7:30am. I spent 5 torturous hours in a bed with not a wink of sleep waiting for this day to begin – and we were off!
Throw into the mix that Bryan and I had forgotten our marriage license in the apartment, and we were making a 3-minute stop in Dunwoody so I could grab the documentation needed to – well, you know, GET MARRIED!
We arrived at Hair Europa and immediately Mary Beth and Vicki got to work. Up first with Vicki was Bridesmaid Tatum. I was excited to see Tatum to get all dolled up especially because she doesn’t usually wear a lot of makeup (if any). In no time, Tatum went from already beautiful to knock-down, drop-dead supermodel stunning. The hair, the make-up….it was perfect!!!
Mary Beth got to work on my make-up which was a project because I’m such a boy about a certain product called FAKE EYELASHES. I may have mentioned in my previous blog that when I did my make-up trial with Mary Beth, these things annoyed the heck out of me on my right eye. I just didn’t like feeling them there. I liked the way they looked, but they’re just so WEIRD. So we knew this was going take awhile. Mary Beth also wanted to take her time on me, so that if we needed to adjust anything, we’d have ample time to do so. In the midst of this, M.O.H. Nicole kept the mimosas coming. Happy Bride.
In the meantime, M.O.H. Nicole, Bridesmaid Melissa, Bridesmaid Tami, the M.O.B., one by one Vicki was doing their hair or make-up, or for some of the girls, both! As the hours passed, I got more excited to see everyone in their dresses. Mary Beth, in the meantime, was hitting it out of the park with me. My make-up and hair (in my humble opinion) were perfect!!! Even more fun? Three of my cousins – Stacy, Louise, and Rita came to the salon to join the party and get dolled up as well. And I can’t be mentioning all of these details without adding that One Six Photography (Caroline and Matt) were in on the action as well snapping hundreds of pictures of me and all the ladies.
We had arrived 30 minutes late, and we left 30 minutes late. Our original plan was to leave Hair Europa at 3pm – get back to the hotel at about 3:45, pick up the dresses and hop on the Coach bus we had rented to take us to the venue at 4pm. Now, in the car at 3:30pm and dealing with absolute GRIDLOCK, we made a panicked call to the guys and told them to get on the Coach bus and head to the venue, then send the bus back for us girls.
Me, ready to roll and happy in the salon...before all hell breaks loose!!!
When we arrived back at Homewood Suites, we all made a run for our dresses, shoes, and accessories. I ran into my mother’s room where my Aunt Claire was assisting with the M.O.B’s preparations.
And then we got a call…
“The bus is stuck in a ditch???”
I don’t remember the play by play of what happened next , all I know is I was told there would be cars and we needed to MOVE. We were running EXTREMELY behind schedule.
As I ran outside holding all of my bridal accessories and my wedding dress, I was met by Sonia who helped me get everything into her car. At the same time, I saw a mass of green dresses running to Groomsman Tony’s wife Amanda’s car (got that?). In record time, we were off.
Almost 5 p.m. ….And now I’m freaking out. I wanted to be out on the lawn of PCH taking pictures by 5 p.m. and here we are not even AT the venue yet! Our guests were slated to arrive in about an hour and 15 minutes.
When we got into the bridal suite, I did the big unveil of the dress. But was rendered helpless since the M.O.B. was yet to arrive (she was being driven over by Uncle Bob).
At this point, this is the first time I’m showing the dress on the blog. So here it is!!!
And, yes, this is the beautiful bridal suite at the Payne-Corley House. It made for some beautiful photo ops! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!Once the M.O.B. arrived, it was my turn to get gorgeous (well, Mary Beth had already made me gorgeous, but it was time to make me a BRIDE!). Here is the M.O.B. lacing me up!
We took lots of pictures up in the bridal suite – when I get them from One Six, I will post some for certain. Then it was off to the lawn for mine and Bryan’s first look (what is the correct grammar on that, anyways? Bryan and I’s? My and Bryan’s? Oy.)
The first look was fun. Bryan looked so handsome. It is funny to me that Jon actually saw me before Bryan did because Jon was facing me. Bryan turned around and looked at me. It was perfect. Then lots of pictures.
Taking pictures in bridal get-up was interesting because I was TERRIFIED of destroying the dress before the ceremony.
Ironically, almost immediately after the bridal party came out to take pictures, I turned and looked down at my dress. MUD – EVERYWHERE! The bridesmaids collectively made sounds that are only compatible with seeing something REALLY BAD!
At the same time, the Coach bus was pulling up with our first string of guests. What time was it???
It turns out, it wasn’t even 6 – Bryan had told the bus to bring people over at 5:50pm. I have NO idea why, but he did. So the first busload had all of 15 people on it from what I’ve heard due to the fact that everyone had been told the bus didn’t leave until 6pm. But moving on….
As the bus was pulling up, I began running into the house. Part of the reason was because I didn’t want guests to see me before the wedding and the other part of the reason was because I was COVERED IN MUD.
I entered the Payne-Corley House and immediately starting screaming for my life. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But I knew I needed a drink FAST.
My Mom came running down the stairs and saw me holding a dress full of mud and made that same sound. I can’t even phonetically sound it out to spell it. But it’s the sound you’d make if you saw an animal get run over by a car. And up the stairs we ran back to the bridal suite.
We stood in shock for a second while we waited for our coordinator, Krista, to bring us some detergent. But then we sprung into action and headed towards the bathroom. My Mom miraculously started to get this mud out of the lace overlay (which SHOCKINGLY is the only thing that was covered in mud). One of the PCH employees came up to see if I needed anything. “One of our signature cocktails – 4 shots” I told her. “I’m not supposed to give you that much,” she said. “I’M COVERED IN MUD!!!!” I cried. “Be right back,” she said.
The detergent arrived and my Mom got the dress into a condition where you could never the events of the previous 20 minutes had even transpired.
Now slightly drunk and feeling MUCH better, I started to watch people arriving. We took more pictures. I applied my 75th layer of lipstick and fussed with my eyelashes, then before I knew it, it was time to get married!
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