My greatest adventure yet... Getting married. Here is the story.
Our wedding week was in the midst of so so many events, and
so so many feelings. I want to record some of them now, because I don’t want to
forget a single second.
I graduated from college on Saturday, May 19th.
My entire family (two brothers, a sister, mom, dad, cat, dog) arrived on May 17th
and were staying in our two bedroom apartment. They helped celebrate our
daughters 2nd birthday on Friday and Sunday and then wedding week
sprung into action. Old friends of ours were there on Sunday for Victoria’s birthday,
because they are amazing and love her immensely.
The week was crowded, and busy, but wonderful. Dunte, a
single child from a quiet house, was patient and wonderful; even when we fed 17
people pizza in our apartment on Wednesday evening. At one point Dunte and I
were in our bedroom, with our entire wedding party, minus one best man. One of
my maids of honor and my brother were practicing a song they would perform at
the wedding. It was breathtaking having so many people we love in one room. And
they all came to middle-of-nowhere West Texas, for us. Talk about humbling. But
since this is real life, not the movies, in that same room with all our best
friends we realized that there were two typos on the programs. The magazine
editor in me was kicking myself over and over. Office Depot, god bless them,
reprinted just for the cost of the paper. Their amazing reason, “Weddings are
stressful enough.”
On Thursday, I packed and organized everything to go to the
venue. But I spent most of the day with my bridal brigade at the beautiful Ocean's Spa in Lubbock. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I was so so relaxed and thankful for my wonderful friends. We had a fun and talked but mostly relaxed oh so thoroughly. That night I printed lists and made pretty spread sheets (with help from
apracticalwedding.com). We shopped for the rehearsal dinner. I got everything
ready to go for the all girls hotel stay on Friday night. There was a little hiccup Thursday night when my bedroom door locked on its own. I was making shirts for the girls, so the iron was on and we couldn't get it to unlock. Thanks to our amazing apartment complex maintenance guy, it was fixed within the hour.
 |
| Tori's windy face |
 |
| Drinks in the lobby |
Friday came, and it was windy. When it is windy in West
Texas, it is dusty. We were sitting on bags of chips and trying to keep from
blowing away at the rehearsal dinner. We went back to the hotel and my uncle
bought all the girls cosmopolitans at the bar. We went upstairs and drank wine,
gabbed about old parties and good times. Then we went to sleep, I woke up
several times throughout the night. 2 am, nope not time yet. 4 am, not time
yet. 6 am, ehh not time yet. 7:15, time to wake up.
 |
| Drinks in the room |
Dunte picked me up downstairs, and we went for our couple
and baby breakfast. I had expected to make pancakes or our usual fare. Instead,
Dunte surprised me with good breakfast from a local grocery store. We ate; my
mom and dad came by, donning their lists and synchronized watches. I went to the venue to help setup. I walked
into the most beautiful piece of furniture I’ve ever seen. My uncle had made
it, shipped it to Lubbock and assembled it before 9 am Saturday morning. I was
flabbergasted. In addition to beautiful furniture, we found 30 mile per hour
winds. This put most of our preparations outdoors on hold. When I left shortly
later, we had put a pin in the decision to move the ceremony inside. Our amazing day of coordinator, Dawn (also fondly known as my raceo mom) would make the
call at 4. I didn’t think about it again.
I went back to relax
before it was time for Jenna was supposed to do my hair. During this time was
my only wedding freak out. I needed to shower and was kind of throwing a fit. I
had obviously been taking mental notes from Tori, because I made it clear that
“I didn’t wanna.” And “I’ll do it later.” My mom had ordered us food to be delivered.
An unusually tall man brought it in, saw my wedding dress and said, “Pretty
dress, somebody getting married?” I grinned and identified myself, still not
really owning the title “Bride” comfortably. Jenna cautiously asked, “Do you
want to eat?” I complied, defiantly. We ordered a movie on demand, ate, and I
then I was ready to shower.
This set things into motion and it was off to the races from
there. I showered, and Jenna started on my hair. My sister and the maids of
honor came back, hair beautifully done and headed off to the first round of
make-up. Jenna, Mia (other maid of honor) my mom and I followed shortly after. Everyone
was getting their make-up done, except me. It seems that another bride
accidently took my appointment. She embraced her bride title, and the make up
lady at the Clinique counter was happy to do any bride’s make up. So, my make
up didn’t start until well after we were all supposed to be getting dressed.
All the other girls went back to the hotel, my uncle (and photographer) stayed
behind to snap some photos and drive me back to the hotel when it was done.
 |
| Girls waiting, looking so lovely. |
The make-up was finished and I trotted up a very small
section of highway because Uncle Chuck couldn’t drop me in the hotel parking
lot due to construction. I scurried up to the hotel room, and everyone was
dressed. They all looked stunning. In a matter of five minutes I was in my
dress, I had a couple correcting curlers in my hair, two people were tackling
the 3 dozen buttons on the back of my dress, my mom but on my necklace. Soon
enough I was walking out and stuffing myself into the car.
We were 40 minutes late, so pre-ceremony pictures were cut
short. But I checked my phone on the way to the venue, and the reminder I set
in my phone 6 months ago said, “Get married, be Zen.”
And so I did.
The ceremony was quick, very quick. But powerful. I made the
biggest promises I’ve ever made, in front of 50 people that love us. It was
really windy, but we were outside. Just like we had always envisioned it.
 |
| First kiss, will never forget it. |
Next came a few tearful, smiley moments to ourselves before
more pictures, I felt rushed to get to the party and celebrate. And when we got
there, it was fun the entire time. It was non-stop smiles and dancing and food.
The pizza was causal, and the drinks were good. Dunte and I had a choreographed
dance that I was nervous about, and we nailed it. The dance ended and everyone,
literally everyone, danced in a circle around us to “Shout!”
 |
| You know you make me want to SHOUT! |
Dunte and my maids of honor gave amazing speeches that
brought tears to my eyes. Then my dad gave a funny speech, he is always spot
on, just the right thing for the situation. While he spoke a peacock climbed
the tree behind him, who knew peacocks could climb trees?
The dancing continued until it was time to go, then we went
to our favorite piano bar and closed the place down. There was a conga line,
many drinks, Dunte on a piano, and pure joy. The whole night was a blur of hugs
and dancing and tears and friends.
Other amazing things to remember:
·
The shot of jack with the entire wedding party
before we walked down the aisle.
·
The amazing musical collaboration. My oldest
friend Becca played the processional music on the clarinet. AJ played the
guitar while Koko sang a great song. And Krista, Becca’s sister, manned the
ipod for the rest of the ceremony music.
·
Dunte dancing
with his mom, I’ve never seen her smile so big.
·
The boys wore amazing hats, the girls wore
amazing shoes. They all rocked
·
As we were leaving and everyone was blowing
bubbles, my brother stalked us out of the venue sneakily blowing bubbles behind
us… until the wind turned and they blew back into his eye.
·
At the end of the day, I was married to an
amazing man.
 |
| Waiting for the cab at the end of the night. Just me and him, forever (= |
