The Wedding Story

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. I really wish I had blogged my feelings leading up to the wedding, but I wasn't about to sit on a dial up computer and write. So, I'm not sure where to start, so I guess I'll start at flying out to CA a little more than 3 weeks before the wedding. I left Rod at home and I headed out to CA with my mom. We had 4 huge suitcases plus we carried my dress on the plane. Luckily we flew on a 777 and it was summer so none of the first class passengers had coats so the flight attendants hung my dress up in a coat closet right by the door. I was so worried about it before we got on the plane, but once we got on I could relax. The flight was fine and we got in really late. My aunt came to pick me up and my mother rented a car and spent the night with my father. It's a good thing my mom wasn't planning on going with us because our luggage barely fit in my aunt's car. The next two weeks in CA seem like a wirlwind. We took my dress to a seamstress to have a corset back put into it. We went into LA to buy satin for the back of my dress and while we were going for that we decided to look at the flower market to see what type of flowers we would want for our bouquets. If you have never been to the LA flower mart and you are in LA you should definitely go. It is so awesome. It has so many flowers to pick from and they smell amazing. They even had blue roses :) We decided to use blue roses in my bouquet. For the 4th of July, we went down to one of my Aunt Tricia and Uncle Bob's house. We stayed two nights and had a great time. Basically we spent the two weeks relaxing, going to the beach, spending time with family, and running little errands. Rod came into town on July 14th and then my sister flew in on the 15th. Rod and I went to get our marriage license on the 16th and then met some of our friends for lunch. Then on Tuesday I can't remember what we did. Wednesday a lot of our friends flew into town. We went into Los Angeles. There were two cars that went and we had a great time. Unfortunately one of my grandmother's car broke down. I was driving it for awhile and the battery light came on and I didn't feel like driving it so my mom drove it. It started to die and my friend Stephen was driving the other car and he was trying to look on his GPS system for a repair shop, but luckily we found one on the right side. We pulled in and my mom pulled in with the guys in her car and it died right in the parking lot. The people were so nice and dropped everything to work on my grandmother's car. Luckily we broke down a block from the Grove and Farmer's market which is where we were headed. We walked over there to get some food. Then Stephen took the girls back because my bachelorette party was that night. The guys stayed with my mom to wait for the car to be fixed. We barely beat them home because Stephen took us this back way by a crazy house that had not 1 but 18 David statues on their front lawn plus 1 of a naked lady and several huge lion heads. Then we got lost on our way home and ended up on a highway we didn't want to be on and got off in Compton which is a really bad area. Stephen was so funny because he told us to "stop acting white" and "if you see a bullet duck". All in all it was a great day. Then my bachelorette party was crazy. The games were so embarassing but hilarious. Thursday was an extremely busy day. My mom, sister, mother-in-law and aunt got up very early in the morning to go pick out our flowers. We bought a blue hydrangea plant, a white hydrangea plant, blue roses, purple cala lilies, stephanotis, purple roses, purple gladiolus, whiteish pink roses, and a white assortment of flowers. When we got we went to pick up tuxes. Unfortunately there was a problem with 3 of the 7 tuxes we had. If I had to do it over again I definitely would not go with AfterHours. Anyway after the tux problems we headed to lunch. Then Rod and I went to meet the minister at the chapel. After that we went back to relax. At 6 was our rehearsal. Then we headed to the rehearsal dinner. Rehearsal dinner was great. The food was awesome and we had about 50 people there. After dinner we headed back to my grandmother's house for dessert and coffee. My mom made us this cute car cake because our monogram is C A R. Friday was a really busy day. Unfortunately Rod decided to hang out with his friends all day but that's ok. My mom made ALL of the bouquets, coursages and boutonnieres and they were amazing. My mom's friend Ms. Patti and my grandmother were a great help. My friends and I worked on our fan programs. We had to finish cutting them out and then we had to put them together. We also got our nails done. Some of the guys went back to get the fixed tuxes. Unfortunately the tuxes were not fixed when they were supposed to. One of our grooms tuxes was never fixed correctly. That is why I would NEVER EVER EVER use AfterHours again. The tux situation was the only thing that made me really angry the whole week! After I got the frustration out I was able to be more productive. That night, my family helped me to finish this screen with pictures on it while my friends helped my mom do the place cards. Thank God for all of my friends and family who were there to help me with every little detail because without them I wouldn't have been able to pull it off. The Wedding Day was pretty good. I spent the night with my friends and my sister. We got up really early and headed to my grandmother's house. When we got there, we realized that the night before we had done the screen backward so my dad and mom quickly changed it. The bridesmaids were curling each others hair while I was getting my hair done. My aunt did a fantastic job on my hair and all the girls hair. She curled and pinned mine up and she pinned my bridesmaids and matron of honor's hair in part up part down. We were running late, but Stephen (our chauffeur for the day) picked my mom, my sister and I up. We headed to the chapel with the bouquets, coursages and boutonnieres. My grandmother and the other bridemaids came with my dress and shoes and their dresses. When we got there we signed all the stuff then the wedding planner asked me for the long stemmed roses for our mothers. I had forgotten them. I forgot that I needed them because it didn't make it on my list of things to do with my mother. I went crying to my dad and he was able to call my Aunt Lynn and she made a trip to the store for us to get us 2 longstemmed roses. I was so greatful to her for doing that. Then we took tons of pictures. It was a little overcast, but the photographer said that was great for pictures. The wedding was awesome! It was so beautiful and I was so happy. It wasn't too hot in the glass chapel. After the wedding, we took formal pictures inside and then they took a ton of pictures of Rod and I on the chapel grounds. Then we headed to a park to take more pictures. Then we headed to the reception. The reception site was goregous. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I felt a little rushed only because the videographer had to leave at 3, but I still had an amazing time. We didn't get around to all the tables and I do feel bad about that, but I hope they know we were so glad to have them there. Our buffet was beautiful and the food was excellent. The cake was excellent to. Our DJ was ok. There were a few minor things that I would have liked changed, but no one noticed them but me. We even had a fire boat salute during the reception. All in all it was a fantastic day. After the reception we headed to the cemetary and put flowers from the wedding at my grandfather's grave and my great grandmother and great grandfather's grave. Then we headed to the hotel to check in. After we checked in and got situated we went back to my grandmother's to hang out with everyone. On Sunday we had a brunch in the morning. Many of our friends had headed home, but most of our family was there. It was nice to spend time with the family and open our gifts. Then later that day we took back the tuxes, spent some time with our friends and just relaxed. On Monday, we headed on our honeymoon. That story to come later :)