October 14, 2012

Our wedding day!
(I already don't remember so many details about our wedding day, which stinks because I pride myself on my awesome memory.  However, part of the reason I remember things so well is because I repeat them in my mind and write about them, like I'm doing on here, and rely on pictures to fill in the gaps.  Hence, my obsession with pictures and the reason I have so many journals from my middle and high school days.  If you asked about an random day in my life, I used to be able to tell you exactly where I was, what I was wearing, what happened, etc....no longer, but writing events down does help.  So, here we go!)

I have no clue what time the girls started waking up...maybe 5am...some unGodly hour!
I got up a little later, took my "chill out meds" and let the make-up ladies in.  My stomach was already a mess, but the anxiety medicine and a plain bagel soon became the cure.  As we sat around and ate, the girls signed our wedding book and took turns getting hair and make-up done.  The morning just FLEW by!  I don't remember Janet, my mother-in-law, leaving to go back to her hotel to get ready.  I don't remember Hannah, our wonderful hair stylist, packing up her things or leaving.  I'm not even really sure what I did all morning...it's a blur!  By the time make-up was finished, Craig was there to start photos and we were really rolling!  I had a pillow fight with the girls, just for fun, and opened my gifts from Kevin before putting on my dress.  The first time I cried the whole day was reading Kevin's sweet card and the ugly cry started!

Cue: ugly cry!

By the time I had my dress on, Priscilla had arrived with lunch from Jimmy John's and little bottled Bellinis. YAY! The girls ate while I posed for some photos Craig was taking.

I had no time to eat, so we packed mine to go and it was time to hop in our ride to go to the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden has great memories for me!  It's so close to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, where I grew up going to church, so it was a place we visited with Sunday School (on random Sunday mornings) as I was growing up.  I also had my first dance recital, with Art's Together, on the Rose Garden Amphitheater stage when I was 4 or 5 years old.  I was a greenbean in that recital!  A really awesome greenbean!  So, it really was the perfect location for our "first look" and some wedding party photos before the ceremony!


Kevin and I went back and forth about a "first look".  I wanted to be traditional and not see Kevin before I walked down the aisle.  However, I also know how emotional I am and I didn't know if I could get through the ceremony without crying if I had the shock of seeing Kevin, for the first time, then.  From a photographer's point-of-view, "first looks" are great because they can truly capture that first moment and get great pictures before the wedding, while also capturing the first time you see each other in the church...which truly is a totally different moment!  I'm really glad we did a "first look".  I got a little emotional in the Rose Garden, but I was able to hold it together during the ceremony and I think our "first look" photos are awesome!

I LOVE this one!  Kevin is most likely saying, "but your dress is strapless and you hate strapless." :)  He definitely teared up a little!

Some of my favorite photos from the Rose Garden...

Maybe my favorite photo from the entire day!

Next, we were off to the church (a little late, but who's counting).  I ducked downstairs to the choir room to wait...finally ate my Jimmy John's...and got my veil on.

My sister cleaning my feet (that somehow got dirty in the Rose Garden) as I chow down!

The girls helped me get upstairs to the "holding room" and then it was game time.  Seriously, it all happened so quickly!  In the time it took for the girls to leave the "holding room" until it was time for me to get in position behind the double doors to the sanctuary, it was maybe mere moments, but it was just Priscilla and me in the "holding room" and those moments of quiet were so glorious.  I didn't even realize it was actually quiet until it was almost time for me to go...and I'm not really sure now what I was thinking about in those moments, but I'm very thankful that Priscilla didn't try to make idle chatter with me just to fill the gap.  That was one of my most favorite moments of the day, especially since I was walking down the aisle by myself.  It truly was a time to collect my thoughts and attempt to come to reality about what was about to happen in just moments.  And this is one of my favorite photos of the day:

I don't remember smiling.  I don't really remember getting down the aisle.  I don't remember guests that were seated along the way and I don't remember Priscilla fluffing my dress, but this just proves that people had my back!  I may have walked down the aisle alone, but I was not alone!

I can't even believe I can type this, but I DIDN'T CRY!  My eye was watering a little bit and I had a bit of an eye booger, so I did wipe my eye right before I said my vows...which lead some guests to believe I was already crying...but I wasn't!  If you don't know me well, not only am I prone to cry, but I sob.  And about anything and everything.  The worst is if I see someone else crying.  I may have no connection to the situation at all, but I'll bawl just out of sympathy!  I'm glad I didn't.  I think some of it was being in awe of the moment, but I really wanted to say my vows clearly and with purpose and I think I did!  Umm...I'll never really know because we don't have video of our ceremony (don't even get me started about why), but we do have a free audio recording of it thanks to the sound system folks.  So, yay!  We can listen to the audio sometime! :)

We were really adamant about having communion as part of our ceremony because we wanted our guests to feel like they had a part in the day and for it to be a bit interactive instead of them just sitting and watching.  We also prepared songs that were to be sung during communion (more crowd participation) and they were played (thanks Susan), but no one started the singing, so they weren't sung.  I definitely would have started singing, but we were actually the first to take communion, so by the time we got back to a pew, the first song was already almost done and it wasn't until after the second song started that I realized no one was singing along.  Oh well!  Communion was a little comical itself!  The groomsmen didn't have a clue when to release guests to go up for communion.  Not their fault.  Their "training" the night before was so jumbled, I'm surprised they even knew where to stand!  It all worked out and it was fine, it was just funny!

We're married!

Immediately after the ceremony, we took family pictures in the church...

and then the bridal party went out to jump on "Molley" the City of Raleigh Trolley to ride downtown to The Big Easy.

More photos were taken...like this one:

Craig really is AMAZING!  He saw the Carolina Trust on the ground and rounded us up for this photo and then added the awesome caption!  I just LOVE it!

...before we ran upstairs in The Big Easy to bustle my dress, switch out my veil for my oak leaf headband...

...and line up in The Stockroom to be introduced.  And here's where the blur begins again!  I remember being introduced and I remember our first dance: "God Gave Me You" by Blake Shelton! 

 

Kevin and I took one dance lesson before the wedding so we would have a semi-official first dance.  I kept begging him, in the days leading up to the wedding, to pick me up and do a lift, but he just refused.  So, I was really excited when he picked me up in the middle of our dance!  It was very sweet!

My mama welcomed everyone and prayed for the food.  I just LOVE this photo of Kevin wiping away my tears!  My mama's welcome included sayings from my Grandaddy that made me cry right before we prayed!

Then I think we ate?  No clue!  We actually did eat, even though we were greeted by many guests during that time.  And Craig grabbed us to do a few shots while everyone was eating.  It was also during dinner and before the toasts that Mr. Thom, our pastor, realized that we hadn't signed the marriage license.  There was a bit of a frantic rush to get that taken care of before we got into the toasts.  Followed by the cake cutting and the anniversary dance!

Cutting the cake!

There was a bit of booty shaking to be done before we got to the bouquet toss and the garter toss! 

Followed by more dancing and then our sparkler exit and rickshaw getaway!

Not sure if I'm screaming, laughing, waving, or saying "paparazzi, go away."  This just makes me laugh!

Riding the rickshaw back to the hotel was really fun!  I had never been on a rickshaw before.  It was really relaxing and the temperature was just perfect!  We enjoyed it!  When we got back to the hotel, we rode up to our floor and Kevin picked me up and carried me into the hotel room (very sweet)!  It was really dark in there and everything was a mess from getting ready that morning.  He kept saying, "why didn't they even clean," and I was like, "it's not big deal...I know where the furniture went...it's all good."  Turns out, he and the bridesmaids had planned to have the room cleaned and have rose petals leading to the bed and candles everywhere.  Well...the hotel staff had set up the adjoining room like that (the one the bridesmaids were staying in, that had two double beds, because THAT makes sense, right?) instead of ours.  I thought it was fine because I didn't know any differently, but Kevin and the girls were mad!  They had spent so much time making sure it was right and the hotel staff still messed it up!  Oh well!  These will be the stories we remember after years have past!  The little mix-ups!

I ran into the other room to take photos because it just made me laugh that they could mix it up!  Who decorates a room with double beds when there is a king suite right beside it, and both have my name on it?

I just LOVE our pictures!  I think I've looked at them 200 times already and I just can't get enough!  To see all of the ones we've seen so far, click here.

Ya'll have been so patient!  Honeymoon pictures and adventures to come next...I hope they prove to have been worth waiting for!