I would like to take this opportunity...
to echo Derek's sentiments: NOW WHAT???
As of May 16, 2008...Derek and I are married! As he stated in his LJ post, the day went off pretty much without a hitch. However, he wasn't there to experience some of the bigger snafus of the day. Now, isn't it common knowledge that if something goes wrong on a wedding day, you do NOT tell the bride about it? I'll get to that in a little bit. First I'd like to recount the events as they happened, starting on Thursday, May 15.
I started the day by getting a fabulous massage at Massage Envy in Glen Ellyn by a very nice man named Craig, who somewhat resembled Travis with the sunken eyes and button nose. This was the second professional massage I have had, and while not quite as wonderful as the first one that Derek got me for Christmas, Craig did a great job. Plus, it only cost me $39 since it was the first time I had been there. Score! My maid of honor Johanna arrived at the house at noon, and she and I went to get our nails done at TT Nails in Darien. Derek's mom had gone there that morning, and the same guy that did her nails did mine. We started out with pedicures and got cute flowers painted on our big toenails. Then, Daniel (the nail tech) asked what I wanted done with my nails. I told him just a manicure and that I wanted them painted red. He took this opportunity to say that I was a bride and I should have a French manicure to go with my white dress (my dress was actually a pearl color). He was so insistent that I said fine, maybe Nancy had arranged a surprise for me or something. So he grabs his little buffer tool and I started to get a little apprehensive. I definitely thought he was just going to give me a French manicure. It turns out that he was going to put fake nails on me! I had never had fake nails before, but I knew that they pretty much had to sand down your natural nails to put the fake ones on. I kept repeating the word "manicure," but with his broken English he either wasn't understanding me or chose not to listen. So, fine, I accepted that I was going to have fake nails for my wedding. He finished up and they looked really nice. I was half expecting him to tell me that Nancy had paid that morning for the nails, but then he tells me that it was going to be $65. SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS?!?!?!? I had planned to spend about $35 total. Now I have to pay twice that??? WTF??? So I reluctantly handed him my debit card and he ran it through. I walked out to the car staring at my hands in disbelief. My fingers HURT. I couldn't pick up things like I was able to before, and now my typing speed of 80 wpm is down to around 60 or so (luckily I don't do any sort of speed typing at work).
Jo and I went to Jimmy John's for lunch and came back to the house to get the rest of the stuff (my dress, etc) to take to the hotel since I was going to be spending Thursday night with her and Chris there. I noticed that I had a voicemail from Derek. It said that my parents were here already, at like 2 pm. I hadn't been expecting them until at least 3. It just so happens that the alternator went out on their car as they rolled into Orland Park. They met up with Derek at the tux place (he was there with Don and Gail so Don could get his tux) and he directed them to a Pep Boys down the street. This is the first time my father has ever been to the Chicago area, and he was reluctant in the first place. Now THIS happens! Ugh. So he fixed the alternator in the parking lot at Pep Boys and made it to the hotel right after Johanna and I did. We loaded up everything from my car (which was FULL) and took it to our room. The first room that they gave us still had stuff in it. We had a key, the room had been cleaned but there was luggage and stuff just EVERYWHERE. We got a new room down the hall and wheeled the two carts of stuff in. We kept the stuff on the carts overnight too, which was funny. I jumped in the shower since I wanted to be ready for the rehearsal by 5 pm (it started at 5:30). Chris's plane was landing at Midway at 4:25 pm and I had arranged for the hotel shuttle to pick him up at 4:45 pm. He calls us at 4:50 and I ask if he's on the shuttle. He responds no, they weren't there yet. So while Jo is doing my hair and makeup for the rehearsal, we are on speakerphone with Chris until 5:15. Still no shuttle. So long story short, the shuttle finally picks him up at around 5:30 and starts to head for the hotel. They got halfway there and the driver got a call that there were more passengers at the airport waiting to be picked up. The damn driver TURNED AROUND and went back to the f'ing airport! WHAT!??!?!?! So we tried to stall for time since Dan (the best man) wasn't going to be arriving until 6 pm anyway. Once he arrived we got lined up to walk out to the courtyard and rehearse. Right as we were about to walk out, Johanna got a phone call from Chris. He was at the front of the hotel! FINALLY! She ran out to get him and brought him out to the rehearsal. Can we say perfect timing?
We carpooled to Giordano's in Willowbrook for the rehearsal dinner. It was fabulous, except that people kept taking the rolls for the Italian beef to use as bread for the pizza. I had to request that another tray of rolls be brought out (luckily they didn't charge us any more). We handed out gifts and I think everyone liked them. So we get the check...previously Derek's mom had stated that she would help out with the dinner, we should just pay what we could and she would cover the rest. We finish eating and people start leaving, INCLUDING Derek's mom! She didn't say anything about payment. So we had to put the whole dinner on our debit card (luckily I had gotten my paycheck the day before instead of having to wait until Friday). Don and Gail offered to help us out but there was no way we were letting them...I mean, they had flown in from Oklahoma, were staying two nights, and they are expecting a child. No. Way. It's not so much about the fact that we were stuck with the bill...it's the principle of saying you'll do something and then completely blowing it off. Whatever.
We went back to the hotel and I went upstairs with Chris and Jo to change because there was going to be some playing of Fluxx in the lobby. We gossiped and caught up for a little while and then I marched down to the Atrium, proudly wearing my "Future Trophy Wife" t-shirt that Sarah got for me. While we were sitting around playing (I just watched because they had already started a game), I realized that the six of us (Don & Gail, Sarah & Ray, and Derek & I) were all of the old married people from our group of EIU friends, and we were all at different stages of the process. Don & Gail are married and expecting their first child, Derek & I were going to be married the next day, and Sarah & Ray are engaged. It was really a bizarre feeling considering where all of us had been in our lives just five years earlier. Ah, nostalgia. Anyway, we finished up the game and headed to our respective sleeping places for the evening.
Now here's where the fun begins.
I woke up at 6 am on Friday, the wedding day. I knew the makeup and hair girl would be arriving around 7:30 am, but the hotel sales office had told me the night before that the bridal parlor room that we had wouldn't be ready until 8 am when the sales office opened. So Jo and I got showered and were going to head downstairs for breakfast with Chris when Marci called. She was in the lobby. I told her we couldn't get the room until 8 when the sales office opened. She got really bitchy and said "Well if we're going to be done by 11 I have to start now, what room are you in?" I said I was on my way down to get breakfast and that I'd talk to her once I got to the lobby. I get down there and say hello and for the most part she's pleasant...albeit a bit odd-looking. I told the other two to go on and get breakfast, and I would get started on hair and makeup and then I would eat. Then Marci got all sympathetic and was like, "You need to go ahead and eat." Okay, what happened to NOW!!! Thankfully one of the girls from the sales office was there early and she gave Marci the key to the parlor room. By this time Sarah had arrived so the four of us went to have breakfast in the William Tell restaurant. It was quite delicious. We finished with breakfast and headed to the parlor room. We get there and Marci is nowhere to be found. Her stuff is all there warming up but we were in the room for a good 15 minutes before she returned. Hmm. Again, what happened to NOW!!!
A little background on Marci...I had set up a hair/makeup trial for March 3, during the month when I was off work. Well, she didn't show. I called and left a message and got nothing. I tried to reach her several times during the month after that with no response. I even had Kristie, the planner, calling her, and every time Kristie talked to Marci, she stated that she would call me...of course she didn't. So I got her email address and started emailing her about setting up another time. She would call and get my voicemail (because I would be at work) asking when I would be available for a trial. I told her that I worked M-F 8-4:30 and that I could do any evening or the weekend. She would call me back and ask, what about Tuesday at 2 pm? I'm like, hello, I told you I work then. Basically I left her three messages saying that I worked during the day during the week, and she kept coming up with times during those hours. She even asked if I could come to her house in Oak Park and I said fine, just give me directions and tell me when IN THE EVENING to come out. She never did. So by this time I had obviously lost faith in her even showing up for the wedding. Kristie assured me that she always comes through in the end, but by this time I wasn't keeping my fingers crossed. I ended up just emailing her pictures of what I wanted...the hairstyle was down and curly, with pieces loosely pulled back and twisted from the front. The makeup was a smoky eye and not much else since I normally don't wear a lot of makeup.
So she starts doing my hair...she curled all of it and started pulling it back. She kept twisting tighter and tighter and I thought, oh my God, what is she doing to me? I told her that I wanted to keep some chunks down in the front because that's how I normally wore my hair, and she pulled down a couple of very small tendrils. Ohhh boy. She started with the other girls' hair and then Charley went back to her hotel to get her mom and a bottle of water for me. Marci then did my makeup and I went to look at myself in the mirror. I know that makeup has to look a little "less-natural" to show up in pictures, but what I saw was a little ridiculous. I think the job that Jo had done on me the night before looked 100x better than this did. I smudged some of it off of my eyes to blend it in a little better (there was a definite LINE between the gray of the eyeshadow and the white of my skin). So she does everyone else, and Charley comes back with her makeup done (she elected to do her own). She had pulled some of her hair down in the front (Marci had pulled it all back) because that is how she normally wears it, and it looked great! Marci packed up her stuff and came over to me, stating that it was going to be $200. Keep in mind that we had won that package with this included for me and three bridesmaids, and I, Jo, and Sarah had gotten both hair and makeup done, Charley got just her hair and my mom got just her makeup...so that comes to four of each total. I said, but we only had four people...I thought she might have been confused because I had asked her previously how much it would be to add a bridesmaid since I had four (Miranda ended up doing her own hair and makeup so we didn't even need the extra allowance). She said no, it was for three total. I told her that I had the certificate at home and that I could send her a copy of it to prove that it was for four people. I even said that if I was wrong I could send her a check. She said no, I need the money today. I said I didn't have any money. She got really pissed off and screamed, "WELL THANKS FOR THE TIP FOR ALL MY HOURS OF WORK" and stormed out. I yelled after her "Yep, see you later!" all pleasant & stuff. Before Marci was even out the door, my wonderfully odd yet tactful aunt said to us, "Well she was kinda rude, don't you think?" so I'm sure Marci heard it...GOOD! The photographers (who I absolutely LOVE) had also arrived by this time and just kinda looked at me like, "what in the world just happened???" I said, whatever, she doesn't deserve a tip anyway because her communication was so poor and she didn't exactly live up to my expectations of her (she does hair & makeup professionally for magazine shoots).
So that set a great precedent for the day. I was determined to shake it off and not let it bother me. The thought flashed back into my mind once, I found myself getting pissed, and then let it go for good (well for the rest of the day anyway).
Roxanne (the photographer) took some pictures of my dress by itself, me getting ready, and then she headed out to the lobby to meet up with Derek and to get some pictures of him. We were going to do a "first look" shot because we were going to do photos before the ceremony---INSERT LIMO RANT HERE: we were supposed to have a stretch Hummer limo to take downtown for pictures...that fell through the Monday before the wedding, so we were left to come up with places that were free and that we could carpool to. We decided on this lovely reservoir at 118th and Harlem in Palos Heights right off of the Cal Sag Channel...it was gorgeous. We did the first look and then rounded up everyone to figure out who was going to drive. Four of the people that knew the area had gone directly to the reservoir...we had expected two of them to do so since they live out that way, but we were relying on one of the groomsmen and Derek's mom to meet us at the hotel and drive out to the reservoir since the only ones left that knew the area were me (and I wasn't going to drive in a wedding gown), Derek, and Sarah (who had been dropped off at the hotel and didn't have a car with her). So my brother and my aunt ended up driving...we had to keep a pretty tight caravan so they wouldn't get lost. Chris drove Jo's Explorer with me riding shotgun and navigating for him. We made it there, took tons of beautiful pictures, and made it back to the hotel at around 3:30. By this time our guests were starting to arrive and check into the hotel, so I sat and visited with some of them for a little bit. My grandma had told my mom earlier in the week that she was going to bring her pearls and wanted me to wear them...well I already had a set of pearls that belonged to my other grandma (who passed away in 1991) and was already wearing them. I don't know if my grandma really noticed or not, but she didn't offer her pearls to me so she either forgot or was mad. Whatever...she also had mentioned previously that she didn't want to come. I figured since she was in fact going to be there, I needed to honor my deceased grandmother by using her stuff as my "something old." We did need emergency jewelry for Charley though, because she lost one of her earrings.
So it was now after 4, everyone had arrived at the hotel (George had to pick up his girlfriend before returning to the hotel) so we did some pictures in the Atrium. Derek's grandfather arrived so I got to meet him for the first time. We finished up most of the pictures by 4:40 and were going to get lined up, but then Kristie came up to me (remember the whole not telling the bride bad things part? Here it is.) and said that the DJ was stuck in traffic. Well duh, it's Friday afternoon in Chicagoland, people should know that you need to leave a little bit earlier to get places...this irritated me like you wouldn't believe. So we're just standing around stalling, taking more pictures, and hoping that something would happen so we'd have music. I'm not even sure that the ushers were able to "ush" because we were all still doing pictures. The DJ finally arrived right at 5 when the ceremony was supposed to begin, and they rolled their equipment out to the patio. This extra ceremony setup was not part of the package and was going to cost me $100...luckily we ended up not having to pay since they didn't really "perform"...someone had found a boombox and was hiding behind our "altar table" playing it...I didn't even know this until after the ceremony. The music went off mostly without a hitch other than the lack of DJ. The ceremony itself was beautiful...I got a little worried while Don was doing his reading because I got hit with two drops of rain. I even mouthed to him, "It's raining!" I'm not sure most of our guests were really approving or expectant of the reading Don did (it was from Bill Cosby's "Himself" act) but it was more or less exactly what I wanted...nothing mushy and lovey dovey, something that was more fun and upbeat and was still on the topic of marriage. I didn't even cry until we did our sand ceremony (I have NO IDEA where the urn full of sand is now...) and presented roses to our mothers. I took one look at my dad and lost it...he was bawling like a baby and his whole head was red. I had NEVER seen my dad cry before, so this was just perfect timing on his part. Thanks Dad! It was cute though. We finished the ceremony, exited and did the receiving line, and then went in to enjoy the cocktail hour. By this time I was THROUGH with my ruby slippers...they were sequined and kept getting caught in the hem of my dress, which was made of chiffon...so it ripped the entire hem out. Oh well, it's a simple fix at least...but I kept having to hold my dress up because it was just a tad too long and I kept getting my feet tangled in it. I changed into the ruby flip-flops that Nancy had found for me at Macy's and they were sooo comfy. I found a pair of scissors and cut all of the little strings off the bottom of my dress so I wouldn't get my feet caught in them during the reception.
The DJ then came up to me with the timeline that Kristie had sent to all of the vendors. It turns out that he didn't have the two songs we had selected for the entrance of the bridal party and us. I had emailed the songs to the owner of the company the week before because I realized that they weren't on the planning sheet she had sent to us. Apparently she didn't pass the info along to the DJ, so we were not going to be able to have "He's a Pirate" played as we made our grand entrance as Mr. & Mrs. Derek Campbell. ARGHHH!!! Thankfully, I had made a CD to play during the recessional and while we were doing the receiving line. They ended up just playing the first song (The Star Wars theme) and then they cut the CD even though there were 6 more songs on it. I grabbed the CD and picked one of the songs (Across the Stars, the Star Wars love theme) to use for the entrance. It was long enough that everyone could enter to it. The only people who really noticed that it wasn't the right song were Derek's mom and her boyfriend, because we had been telling them about the "He's a Pirate" entrance. Oh well.
Dan and Johanna gave their speeches and made both of us cry. We ate dinner, which was absolutely delicious. We cut the cake...no smashing, but Derek did shove the whole piece in my mouth and I nearly choked. I fed him his piece and then wiped frosting on his nose (like I had been planning to do). He got me back by wiping some on my cheek, which I made him lick off (and he did!). I think everyone enjoyed that. We did our first dance (he dropped me because he tried to dip me without warning...I just laughed and promptly bounced back up after the whole crowd gasped)...we finished the dance without a hitch and even did a proper dip halfway through. We did our parent dance and I thought my dad would cry some more but he didn't. Then we danced and mingled and had an all-around good time. We asked the caterers if they could turn on some of the fans because it was a little hot, but they discovered that half of them were broken. They did turn the others up higher so it cooled off enough to be bearable. The reception ended and the hotel security kicked everyone out because they had to get ready for another event the next day. We had originally asked everyone to just go to the bar in the hotel, but we were so exhausted we didn't join them. I've heard that those who did go to the bar enjoyed themselves, except for Chip and some others from Claim Jumper because the security guy kicked them out of there too...apparently he thought they were underage or something. Whatever. Derek and I went up to our awesome suite, laid in the hot tub for an hour just relaxing, and then decided to open our gifts. We were very overwhelmed at the generosity of some people. It got to be about 4 in the morning and we finally went to sleep in our VERY comfy bed.
The next day we gathered up Don & Gail, Sarah & Ray, and Chris & Jo to go to Portillo's for lunch. After lunch I took Don & Gail to the airport while the other three went back to the hotel (we had arranged a 2 pm checkout) and got everything out of our room. We went to the Frugal Muse (at Jo's request) and hung around for a while before we took Chris to the airport at 4:30. Everyone else had already headed out of town by this time so we went home, Jo took off, and Derek and I tried to decide where we were going to go that night (we really didn't want to just stay at home). We ended up going out to Orland, enjoyed a tasty dinner at Red Lobster, and stayed in a less comfortable bed than the night before. We returned home on Sunday, went back to work on Monday, and here we are!
So, as we've stated, now what? Well now we get to focus of paying off our bills, Derek finding a new job aside from the bartending position at CJ that he got, planning our honeymoon this fall to Florida, and trying to save up some money to buy a house in the next year or so. Of course, dealing with gas being over $4 a gallon isn't helping at all and we're most likely going to have to forgo my family reunion in August. Oh well. We're just ready to be out of this basement and into our HOME, and that's a little more important to us than going fishing for a weekend.
Our professional pictures will be online in a month...the website is www.GretchenandDerek.photoherald.com and the password is 051608. We also have a website for people to upload pictures they took themselves. That website is www.shutterfly.com, login is gretchenandderek.campbell@yahoo.com and password is may162008.
As of May 16, 2008...Derek and I are married! As he stated in his LJ post, the day went off pretty much without a hitch. However, he wasn't there to experience some of the bigger snafus of the day. Now, isn't it common knowledge that if something goes wrong on a wedding day, you do NOT tell the bride about it? I'll get to that in a little bit. First I'd like to recount the events as they happened, starting on Thursday, May 15.
I started the day by getting a fabulous massage at Massage Envy in Glen Ellyn by a very nice man named Craig, who somewhat resembled Travis with the sunken eyes and button nose. This was the second professional massage I have had, and while not quite as wonderful as the first one that Derek got me for Christmas, Craig did a great job. Plus, it only cost me $39 since it was the first time I had been there. Score! My maid of honor Johanna arrived at the house at noon, and she and I went to get our nails done at TT Nails in Darien. Derek's mom had gone there that morning, and the same guy that did her nails did mine. We started out with pedicures and got cute flowers painted on our big toenails. Then, Daniel (the nail tech) asked what I wanted done with my nails. I told him just a manicure and that I wanted them painted red. He took this opportunity to say that I was a bride and I should have a French manicure to go with my white dress (my dress was actually a pearl color). He was so insistent that I said fine, maybe Nancy had arranged a surprise for me or something. So he grabs his little buffer tool and I started to get a little apprehensive. I definitely thought he was just going to give me a French manicure. It turns out that he was going to put fake nails on me! I had never had fake nails before, but I knew that they pretty much had to sand down your natural nails to put the fake ones on. I kept repeating the word "manicure," but with his broken English he either wasn't understanding me or chose not to listen. So, fine, I accepted that I was going to have fake nails for my wedding. He finished up and they looked really nice. I was half expecting him to tell me that Nancy had paid that morning for the nails, but then he tells me that it was going to be $65. SIXTY-FIVE DOLLARS?!?!?!? I had planned to spend about $35 total. Now I have to pay twice that??? WTF??? So I reluctantly handed him my debit card and he ran it through. I walked out to the car staring at my hands in disbelief. My fingers HURT. I couldn't pick up things like I was able to before, and now my typing speed of 80 wpm is down to around 60 or so (luckily I don't do any sort of speed typing at work).
Jo and I went to Jimmy John's for lunch and came back to the house to get the rest of the stuff (my dress, etc) to take to the hotel since I was going to be spending Thursday night with her and Chris there. I noticed that I had a voicemail from Derek. It said that my parents were here already, at like 2 pm. I hadn't been expecting them until at least 3. It just so happens that the alternator went out on their car as they rolled into Orland Park. They met up with Derek at the tux place (he was there with Don and Gail so Don could get his tux) and he directed them to a Pep Boys down the street. This is the first time my father has ever been to the Chicago area, and he was reluctant in the first place. Now THIS happens! Ugh. So he fixed the alternator in the parking lot at Pep Boys and made it to the hotel right after Johanna and I did. We loaded up everything from my car (which was FULL) and took it to our room. The first room that they gave us still had stuff in it. We had a key, the room had been cleaned but there was luggage and stuff just EVERYWHERE. We got a new room down the hall and wheeled the two carts of stuff in. We kept the stuff on the carts overnight too, which was funny. I jumped in the shower since I wanted to be ready for the rehearsal by 5 pm (it started at 5:30). Chris's plane was landing at Midway at 4:25 pm and I had arranged for the hotel shuttle to pick him up at 4:45 pm. He calls us at 4:50 and I ask if he's on the shuttle. He responds no, they weren't there yet. So while Jo is doing my hair and makeup for the rehearsal, we are on speakerphone with Chris until 5:15. Still no shuttle. So long story short, the shuttle finally picks him up at around 5:30 and starts to head for the hotel. They got halfway there and the driver got a call that there were more passengers at the airport waiting to be picked up. The damn driver TURNED AROUND and went back to the f'ing airport! WHAT!??!?!?! So we tried to stall for time since Dan (the best man) wasn't going to be arriving until 6 pm anyway. Once he arrived we got lined up to walk out to the courtyard and rehearse. Right as we were about to walk out, Johanna got a phone call from Chris. He was at the front of the hotel! FINALLY! She ran out to get him and brought him out to the rehearsal. Can we say perfect timing?
We carpooled to Giordano's in Willowbrook for the rehearsal dinner. It was fabulous, except that people kept taking the rolls for the Italian beef to use as bread for the pizza. I had to request that another tray of rolls be brought out (luckily they didn't charge us any more). We handed out gifts and I think everyone liked them. So we get the check...previously Derek's mom had stated that she would help out with the dinner, we should just pay what we could and she would cover the rest. We finish eating and people start leaving, INCLUDING Derek's mom! She didn't say anything about payment. So we had to put the whole dinner on our debit card (luckily I had gotten my paycheck the day before instead of having to wait until Friday). Don and Gail offered to help us out but there was no way we were letting them...I mean, they had flown in from Oklahoma, were staying two nights, and they are expecting a child. No. Way. It's not so much about the fact that we were stuck with the bill...it's the principle of saying you'll do something and then completely blowing it off. Whatever.
We went back to the hotel and I went upstairs with Chris and Jo to change because there was going to be some playing of Fluxx in the lobby. We gossiped and caught up for a little while and then I marched down to the Atrium, proudly wearing my "Future Trophy Wife" t-shirt that Sarah got for me. While we were sitting around playing (I just watched because they had already started a game), I realized that the six of us (Don & Gail, Sarah & Ray, and Derek & I) were all of the old married people from our group of EIU friends, and we were all at different stages of the process. Don & Gail are married and expecting their first child, Derek & I were going to be married the next day, and Sarah & Ray are engaged. It was really a bizarre feeling considering where all of us had been in our lives just five years earlier. Ah, nostalgia. Anyway, we finished up the game and headed to our respective sleeping places for the evening.
Now here's where the fun begins.
I woke up at 6 am on Friday, the wedding day. I knew the makeup and hair girl would be arriving around 7:30 am, but the hotel sales office had told me the night before that the bridal parlor room that we had wouldn't be ready until 8 am when the sales office opened. So Jo and I got showered and were going to head downstairs for breakfast with Chris when Marci called. She was in the lobby. I told her we couldn't get the room until 8 when the sales office opened. She got really bitchy and said "Well if we're going to be done by 11 I have to start now, what room are you in?" I said I was on my way down to get breakfast and that I'd talk to her once I got to the lobby. I get down there and say hello and for the most part she's pleasant...albeit a bit odd-looking. I told the other two to go on and get breakfast, and I would get started on hair and makeup and then I would eat. Then Marci got all sympathetic and was like, "You need to go ahead and eat." Okay, what happened to NOW!!! Thankfully one of the girls from the sales office was there early and she gave Marci the key to the parlor room. By this time Sarah had arrived so the four of us went to have breakfast in the William Tell restaurant. It was quite delicious. We finished with breakfast and headed to the parlor room. We get there and Marci is nowhere to be found. Her stuff is all there warming up but we were in the room for a good 15 minutes before she returned. Hmm. Again, what happened to NOW!!!
A little background on Marci...I had set up a hair/makeup trial for March 3, during the month when I was off work. Well, she didn't show. I called and left a message and got nothing. I tried to reach her several times during the month after that with no response. I even had Kristie, the planner, calling her, and every time Kristie talked to Marci, she stated that she would call me...of course she didn't. So I got her email address and started emailing her about setting up another time. She would call and get my voicemail (because I would be at work) asking when I would be available for a trial. I told her that I worked M-F 8-4:30 and that I could do any evening or the weekend. She would call me back and ask, what about Tuesday at 2 pm? I'm like, hello, I told you I work then. Basically I left her three messages saying that I worked during the day during the week, and she kept coming up with times during those hours. She even asked if I could come to her house in Oak Park and I said fine, just give me directions and tell me when IN THE EVENING to come out. She never did. So by this time I had obviously lost faith in her even showing up for the wedding. Kristie assured me that she always comes through in the end, but by this time I wasn't keeping my fingers crossed. I ended up just emailing her pictures of what I wanted...the hairstyle was down and curly, with pieces loosely pulled back and twisted from the front. The makeup was a smoky eye and not much else since I normally don't wear a lot of makeup.
So she starts doing my hair...she curled all of it and started pulling it back. She kept twisting tighter and tighter and I thought, oh my God, what is she doing to me? I told her that I wanted to keep some chunks down in the front because that's how I normally wore my hair, and she pulled down a couple of very small tendrils. Ohhh boy. She started with the other girls' hair and then Charley went back to her hotel to get her mom and a bottle of water for me. Marci then did my makeup and I went to look at myself in the mirror. I know that makeup has to look a little "less-natural" to show up in pictures, but what I saw was a little ridiculous. I think the job that Jo had done on me the night before looked 100x better than this did. I smudged some of it off of my eyes to blend it in a little better (there was a definite LINE between the gray of the eyeshadow and the white of my skin). So she does everyone else, and Charley comes back with her makeup done (she elected to do her own). She had pulled some of her hair down in the front (Marci had pulled it all back) because that is how she normally wears it, and it looked great! Marci packed up her stuff and came over to me, stating that it was going to be $200. Keep in mind that we had won that package with this included for me and three bridesmaids, and I, Jo, and Sarah had gotten both hair and makeup done, Charley got just her hair and my mom got just her makeup...so that comes to four of each total. I said, but we only had four people...I thought she might have been confused because I had asked her previously how much it would be to add a bridesmaid since I had four (Miranda ended up doing her own hair and makeup so we didn't even need the extra allowance). She said no, it was for three total. I told her that I had the certificate at home and that I could send her a copy of it to prove that it was for four people. I even said that if I was wrong I could send her a check. She said no, I need the money today. I said I didn't have any money. She got really pissed off and screamed, "WELL THANKS FOR THE TIP FOR ALL MY HOURS OF WORK" and stormed out. I yelled after her "Yep, see you later!" all pleasant & stuff. Before Marci was even out the door, my wonderfully odd yet tactful aunt said to us, "Well she was kinda rude, don't you think?" so I'm sure Marci heard it...GOOD! The photographers (who I absolutely LOVE) had also arrived by this time and just kinda looked at me like, "what in the world just happened???" I said, whatever, she doesn't deserve a tip anyway because her communication was so poor and she didn't exactly live up to my expectations of her (she does hair & makeup professionally for magazine shoots).
So that set a great precedent for the day. I was determined to shake it off and not let it bother me. The thought flashed back into my mind once, I found myself getting pissed, and then let it go for good (well for the rest of the day anyway).
Roxanne (the photographer) took some pictures of my dress by itself, me getting ready, and then she headed out to the lobby to meet up with Derek and to get some pictures of him. We were going to do a "first look" shot because we were going to do photos before the ceremony---INSERT LIMO RANT HERE: we were supposed to have a stretch Hummer limo to take downtown for pictures...that fell through the Monday before the wedding, so we were left to come up with places that were free and that we could carpool to. We decided on this lovely reservoir at 118th and Harlem in Palos Heights right off of the Cal Sag Channel...it was gorgeous. We did the first look and then rounded up everyone to figure out who was going to drive. Four of the people that knew the area had gone directly to the reservoir...we had expected two of them to do so since they live out that way, but we were relying on one of the groomsmen and Derek's mom to meet us at the hotel and drive out to the reservoir since the only ones left that knew the area were me (and I wasn't going to drive in a wedding gown), Derek, and Sarah (who had been dropped off at the hotel and didn't have a car with her). So my brother and my aunt ended up driving...we had to keep a pretty tight caravan so they wouldn't get lost. Chris drove Jo's Explorer with me riding shotgun and navigating for him. We made it there, took tons of beautiful pictures, and made it back to the hotel at around 3:30. By this time our guests were starting to arrive and check into the hotel, so I sat and visited with some of them for a little bit. My grandma had told my mom earlier in the week that she was going to bring her pearls and wanted me to wear them...well I already had a set of pearls that belonged to my other grandma (who passed away in 1991) and was already wearing them. I don't know if my grandma really noticed or not, but she didn't offer her pearls to me so she either forgot or was mad. Whatever...she also had mentioned previously that she didn't want to come. I figured since she was in fact going to be there, I needed to honor my deceased grandmother by using her stuff as my "something old." We did need emergency jewelry for Charley though, because she lost one of her earrings.
So it was now after 4, everyone had arrived at the hotel (George had to pick up his girlfriend before returning to the hotel) so we did some pictures in the Atrium. Derek's grandfather arrived so I got to meet him for the first time. We finished up most of the pictures by 4:40 and were going to get lined up, but then Kristie came up to me (remember the whole not telling the bride bad things part? Here it is.) and said that the DJ was stuck in traffic. Well duh, it's Friday afternoon in Chicagoland, people should know that you need to leave a little bit earlier to get places...this irritated me like you wouldn't believe. So we're just standing around stalling, taking more pictures, and hoping that something would happen so we'd have music. I'm not even sure that the ushers were able to "ush" because we were all still doing pictures. The DJ finally arrived right at 5 when the ceremony was supposed to begin, and they rolled their equipment out to the patio. This extra ceremony setup was not part of the package and was going to cost me $100...luckily we ended up not having to pay since they didn't really "perform"...someone had found a boombox and was hiding behind our "altar table" playing it...I didn't even know this until after the ceremony. The music went off mostly without a hitch other than the lack of DJ. The ceremony itself was beautiful...I got a little worried while Don was doing his reading because I got hit with two drops of rain. I even mouthed to him, "It's raining!" I'm not sure most of our guests were really approving or expectant of the reading Don did (it was from Bill Cosby's "Himself" act) but it was more or less exactly what I wanted...nothing mushy and lovey dovey, something that was more fun and upbeat and was still on the topic of marriage. I didn't even cry until we did our sand ceremony (I have NO IDEA where the urn full of sand is now...) and presented roses to our mothers. I took one look at my dad and lost it...he was bawling like a baby and his whole head was red. I had NEVER seen my dad cry before, so this was just perfect timing on his part. Thanks Dad! It was cute though. We finished the ceremony, exited and did the receiving line, and then went in to enjoy the cocktail hour. By this time I was THROUGH with my ruby slippers...they were sequined and kept getting caught in the hem of my dress, which was made of chiffon...so it ripped the entire hem out. Oh well, it's a simple fix at least...but I kept having to hold my dress up because it was just a tad too long and I kept getting my feet tangled in it. I changed into the ruby flip-flops that Nancy had found for me at Macy's and they were sooo comfy. I found a pair of scissors and cut all of the little strings off the bottom of my dress so I wouldn't get my feet caught in them during the reception.
The DJ then came up to me with the timeline that Kristie had sent to all of the vendors. It turns out that he didn't have the two songs we had selected for the entrance of the bridal party and us. I had emailed the songs to the owner of the company the week before because I realized that they weren't on the planning sheet she had sent to us. Apparently she didn't pass the info along to the DJ, so we were not going to be able to have "He's a Pirate" played as we made our grand entrance as Mr. & Mrs. Derek Campbell. ARGHHH!!! Thankfully, I had made a CD to play during the recessional and while we were doing the receiving line. They ended up just playing the first song (The Star Wars theme) and then they cut the CD even though there were 6 more songs on it. I grabbed the CD and picked one of the songs (Across the Stars, the Star Wars love theme) to use for the entrance. It was long enough that everyone could enter to it. The only people who really noticed that it wasn't the right song were Derek's mom and her boyfriend, because we had been telling them about the "He's a Pirate" entrance. Oh well.
Dan and Johanna gave their speeches and made both of us cry. We ate dinner, which was absolutely delicious. We cut the cake...no smashing, but Derek did shove the whole piece in my mouth and I nearly choked. I fed him his piece and then wiped frosting on his nose (like I had been planning to do). He got me back by wiping some on my cheek, which I made him lick off (and he did!). I think everyone enjoyed that. We did our first dance (he dropped me because he tried to dip me without warning...I just laughed and promptly bounced back up after the whole crowd gasped)...we finished the dance without a hitch and even did a proper dip halfway through. We did our parent dance and I thought my dad would cry some more but he didn't. Then we danced and mingled and had an all-around good time. We asked the caterers if they could turn on some of the fans because it was a little hot, but they discovered that half of them were broken. They did turn the others up higher so it cooled off enough to be bearable. The reception ended and the hotel security kicked everyone out because they had to get ready for another event the next day. We had originally asked everyone to just go to the bar in the hotel, but we were so exhausted we didn't join them. I've heard that those who did go to the bar enjoyed themselves, except for Chip and some others from Claim Jumper because the security guy kicked them out of there too...apparently he thought they were underage or something. Whatever. Derek and I went up to our awesome suite, laid in the hot tub for an hour just relaxing, and then decided to open our gifts. We were very overwhelmed at the generosity of some people. It got to be about 4 in the morning and we finally went to sleep in our VERY comfy bed.
The next day we gathered up Don & Gail, Sarah & Ray, and Chris & Jo to go to Portillo's for lunch. After lunch I took Don & Gail to the airport while the other three went back to the hotel (we had arranged a 2 pm checkout) and got everything out of our room. We went to the Frugal Muse (at Jo's request) and hung around for a while before we took Chris to the airport at 4:30. Everyone else had already headed out of town by this time so we went home, Jo took off, and Derek and I tried to decide where we were going to go that night (we really didn't want to just stay at home). We ended up going out to Orland, enjoyed a tasty dinner at Red Lobster, and stayed in a less comfortable bed than the night before. We returned home on Sunday, went back to work on Monday, and here we are!
So, as we've stated, now what? Well now we get to focus of paying off our bills, Derek finding a new job aside from the bartending position at CJ that he got, planning our honeymoon this fall to Florida, and trying to save up some money to buy a house in the next year or so. Of course, dealing with gas being over $4 a gallon isn't helping at all and we're most likely going to have to forgo my family reunion in August. Oh well. We're just ready to be out of this basement and into our HOME, and that's a little more important to us than going fishing for a weekend.
Our professional pictures will be online in a month...the website is www.GretchenandDerek.photoherald.com and the password is 051608. We also have a website for people to upload pictures they took themselves. That website is www.shutterfly.com, login is gretchenandderek.campbell@yahoo.com and password is may162008.