Blogging when I should be writing thank you notes. I’m just having a hard time motivating myself to do anything this morning, haha. Tylor is still in Kentucky for work, and won’t be back until later tonight; I have to go pick him up at the airport. Until then, I’m just kind of hanging out. I’ll force myself to do some more thank you’s today; I don’t know why I’m having a hard time motivating myself to do them this time around. With both of our showers, I had them all done the very next day, and I actually enjoyed myself. Maybe it’s because there are so many more of them this time? That, and a lot of our college friends have changed address (again) so I keep having to track them down to get their new address. But I do want to get these mostly finished before we leave for Boston, then get hung up on packing up my old apartment and moving, then school. I can do it…
So I promised a wedding recap. I’ll spare you all the boring, gushy stuff. The day was wonderful. We started out with breakfast with my parents, then Tylor headed out to golf with one of his groomsmen. My mom, sister, and I went over to the venue and set up the centerpieces and other decor. I expected it to take a few hours… it maybe took 45 minutes. I had so much time to kill, so I hung out with my family at their hotel for a bit and went to Starbucks with my brother (not sure how many people do that on their wedding day). As we were leaving it started to rain. It had been cloudy all day, but I kept telling myself not to think about it. It poured most of my drive to the hair salon. Even then I was shockingly calm. The optimist in me refused to even accept the possibility of a rain out on our outdoor ceremony 5 hours before the wedding was scheduled to start. For the time being, I had to focus on making sure my hair stayed dry after my appointment. I loved how my hair turned out. We used a metric ton of hairspray to get it to hold. The rain had let up mid-way through my appointment, leaving us with some pretty intense humidity, so my stylist went to extra lengths to make sure my hair would hold up as long as possible.
When we got there, I hung out in the reception hall to avoid being seen by Tylor, who was greeting guests in the wedding garden.
I got back to Tylor’s house, where snacks had been laid out for me and the girls while we got ready. My mom and sister, the other bridesmaids, and Miranda, our best woman, came over. We hung out a bit and nibbled on food before it was time to get ready. I slipped into my dress, touched up my makeup, and then we had more time to kill! I had anticipated a similar scene months ago – me sitting around in my dress, possibly in my parents’ hotel room, for hours, waiting to go to the venue. This wasn’t as bad. While we were hanging out, the clouds broke and the sun came out!! It seemed all my optimism had paid off and we were going to get to have our outdoor ceremony after all. I was ecstatic. While an indoor ceremony would not have been the end of the world, the wedding garden had been the thing that made me fall in love with the venue, and anytime I thought about the wedding before then, I would imagine the beautiful outdoor photos. I am so so grateful the weather decided to cooperate. And hey – rain on your wedding day is good luck, right? :)
Heading into the reception hall, I thought I saw Tylor coming out. I tried to hide behind my mom. Luckily, it wasn't him.
When we got to the venue, I hung out in the reception hall to avoid being seen by Tylor, who was greeting guests in the wedding garden. On the way inside, I thought I saw Tylor, so I tried to hide behind my mom while walking through the parking lot. Turns out, it wasn’t him, but hey – you can’t be too cautious, right?
We started the ceremony right on time. I hung back with my dad behind a massive fur tree on the edge of the garden so that we could see what was going on and know when it was our turn to walk down the aisle, while still avoiding being seen. We had opted for the traditional, groom-sees-bride-for-first-time-during-ceremony route. After all the bridesmaids and grooms had made their entrance, it was our turn. That whole next minute or so was kind of a blur. I remember Garry, our photographer, holding us up to snap a couple of pics of me and my dad after he had gotten Tylor’s reaction shots. But the audience, the music – all that, I didn’t even notice. It wasn’t even nerves, but pure excitement.
Tylor, on the other hand… a tad nervous. Haha! The man who can give off-the-cuff speeches on a whim was at times shaking slightly. It was rather adorable. I wasn’t sure if it was “ok” for me to reach over and touch him or anything to help him relax, so I didn’t, haha. He gained a bit more composure as we went on. Ray delivered a nice bit about forensics (public speaking) being about truth-seeking, and how that’s equatable to marriage. (Both of us being public speakers, this was a nice personal touch).
Then Tylor’s sister, Claire, read Robert Fulgum’s Union, a passage I came across months ago that I thought perfectly summed up us. After that, it was time to exchange our vows and rings. Tylor’s hand shook while he put my ring on my finger. Then I took his hands and gave them a little, “relax” squeeze. Haha. I had been afraid that I would drop his ring or something when it was my turn, but it all went smoothly. After the exchange, Ray announced us as newly wed, and well – you know the rest.
