Wedding Update!
So, we're married. Yup, exchanged rings, signed the paper, almost tied the knot but decided the rope I'd bought wouldn't work, and we're MARRIED. I have a husband. I am someone's wife. I have joined the ranks of the adultness.
littleminx slept over on Friday to wake us up and get us ready for the big day. She got us up and out the door in plenty of time. I was rather surprised, though I think the guests were much more surprised than we were. As we were leaving we went over everything, making sure we had everything, and as far as we knew, we had. The sari was perfectly arranged, my top fit and didn't look like it was about to dislodge my boobs into the laps of the guests, it was all goin' good! We even had cerowyn bring us brekkie's from McD's! (okay, so O3 didn't eat his sandwich or hash brown, or drunk his drink, but everyone else was fed.)
We show up, I get out of the car, and walk over to people, teetering on my rather short heels. I said hey to everyone and walked down the gravel path to the wedding ceremony sit. This is when the first problems happened. See, the shoes were open toe, which is fine, but gravel gets stuck inside rather easily... and hurts my feets'es! Way to solve that? Walk on my heels! No... wait... that makes me sink into the soft dirt (it had rained heavily the day previously and things were not dry... rather damp really). At this point several of my mom's friends had made several comments about my not needing to wear heels to this event, what with it being a garden ceremony and the HEELS sinking into the DIRT. I was rather miffed and irritated about that point as it was, and this just added to it, but hey! Doesn't matter! I'm getting MARRIED!!!!!!!
Said hello to a lot more people, met O3's family, best man, photographer, more handshaking and cheek kissing (Polish do three pecks, Turkish do two. Yes, there were a few bumped noses before I caught on >.<) and then I was on the grass.... guess what? My heels were REALLY sinking in. I kept loosing my balance and going "ACK!" while windmilling my arms about trying to get my balance back whenever I stopped anywhere to talk to anyone. Don't worry, I wasn't pissed, I was rather enjoying the comedic value at that point. Think about it, a tubby chicka in a red and black sari going "ACK!" and making rather violent arm gestures at seemingly random intervals. It was funny!
The clearing was beautiful and shady, just like we imagined it, chairs were perfectly set up and the only note of "darn, we forgot something" was for the "LAST CHANCE ESCAPE" sign pointing off the cliff we wanted to put up. That's fine, wasn't central to anything, and who cares? We were getting MARRIED!!!!! *SQUEE!!!*
There was a bit of a panic about "Who has the rings?" when O3 realized he hadn't grabbed them and I hadn't told him I had, but it was fine, we gave the rings to the best man, the singing bowl to the maid of honor and the pestle for making it sing to the best man, the priest got his lines, the paperwork was handed to him, O3's aunt lent me a ring so I'd have something "borrowed", and... it started. Right on the money at eleven AM.
During the ceremony I cried. I admit it, I cried. I am still not quite sure why though. Part of it was missing my mom, part of it was just... the beauty of the words, the moment. I was in love and marrying my perfect partner and a ceremony and setting that I had dreamed about in a dress that I LOVED, and who CARES if every now and then I was still saying "ACK!" under my breath, and trying my damndest to feel my toes, and I kept thinking I was gonna fall over and die, and that I wasn't sure everyone could hear it or that people who'd said they were coming didn't show up? It didn't MATTER. I was getting MARRIED. I was so amazingly happy, I didn't think anything could have brought me down from my happy haze.
The bowl didn't sing, but it rang out beautifully (I think I was cupping it too much and O3 might have been rubbing it too hard). The vows were slightly off (there was a bit about our being monogamous that we'd crossed out, but the priest said anyway on one, but not to other. I get to cheat! Hee hee hee) but no one noticed and they were beautiful (we got asked for a copy by a couple of people even). I kept sinking into the dirt because of my heels but I was floating because I was with the man I loved, pledging myself to him, hearing him vow back, it was... I was crying. I am so in LOVE With this man!
As we were walking away from the altar, that's when mama_de_rose showed up. Cussing at us for starting on time and finishing in fifteen minutes! "Who has a fifteen minute wedding? What the hell?" Hah! Poor dear got dropped off on the north side of the park instead of the south (where we were) and had to march through the park in heels with a kid and gift bag in tow. She made it to the luncheon though! And I got to meet her sprog!
The photographer took over at the end of the ceremony and conducted several poses and was asked to do several more. After a bit, someone gave me a beautiful bouquet, saying a bride should always have flowers. I was AGHAST!!!! I'd forgotten to take my bouquet out of the fridge!!! Apparently, a few comments had been made, but they put it down to us being a quirky couple, and never once mentioned it to me. He was the one that drove us to the luncheon because we stayed behind with him while everyone else left. Our friends elbowfetish and bria ran ahead with the seating cards and seating map to arrange everything and we just posed and posed and posed. In some, you'll notice I'm taller than in others in relation to the people I'm posing with. That's because, after a while, I gave up on the shoes. My feet were KILLING me, and I was having severe problems with my balance, so screw it, no one would notice or care.
We got to the luncheon, and got a nice round of applause then had to excuse ourselves to get more photo's taken (the photographer was not able to stay for the meal). We were posed, and again in some I was in heels, but this time, in most I was not. I think we got several fantastic shots, and after a bit of nudging, we went upstairs for our foodage.
The soup was FANTASTIC! Best part of the meal in my opinion. Salad had too much raddiccio and not enough dressing, the fish was not over or undercooked, just perfect, the chicken was rather moist and tasty, I didn't think they'd put dill on glazed carrots but it complimented the fish and the rice had a nice mix of raisins and nuts, all in all very good, and very very filling. The dessert of raspberry sherbet was the perfect ending, nicely tart but still sweet.
There were speeches, and tears, and laughter. My family adored mama_de_rose, saying she was very personable. People loved the disposable camera idea and took to it with a flourish. Food done, speeches finished, people started heading home.
On the way home, I saw three different ceremonies being performed, 7/7/7 was in full swing! And to those of you who didn't know, we'd chosen this day about two and a half years ago, so no, we didn't JOIN the trend, we STARTED the trend. Hah!
We changed our clothes, I took a couple of hits to calm me down for the dinner, I got my dress and make-up on, and was ready ahead of schedule. O3.... was not. At the last possible minute he realized that the brand new shirt he'd bought had pulls in the fabric. Great! Bagh!
The girls came over along with Cerowyn. littleminx did my hair while mama_de_rose's kid commented on our truly trashed house. We Sooooooooooooooooo need to clean up, and pack stuff up for storage. Our house-mate is about to arrive! We need room for her to put HER stuff. ACK!
Anyways!
I grabbed the bouquet, and... we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
With the combined nagging of littleminx, mama_de_rose, her kid, cerowyn and I, we got him out the door and made it to the event a half hour after the set time. A full hour later than I wanted to be there (I wanted to put the disposable camera's on the table and put a sticker underneath one person at each table's plate, they'd get to take the centerpiece home). I was rather... upset. After a bit though, I kinda smirked to myself and thought "Today wouldn't have been complete without something to bitch about, and this really wasn't so bad, and we will definitely laugh about it when we look back." and got over it.
The story about the car accident on the highway was in fact true. It was a bit of a pile-up a few exits south from the party. But I saw it with time to spare, and... well... we didn't get caught in it. So he told the TRUTH that there was an accident, just not that it caused us to be late.
Big applause as soon as we walked in, and that's when I realized just how many people were THERE. First instinct? Run back out that door and try to calm my breathing. Too many hands were pulling me forward, too many camera's were flashing, it was... not happy, but I eventually shook it off. I think it helped that I'd had a few puffs, and that I'd taken a percocet on the way up (migraines, gotta love 'em) I felt fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.
Said hello to a few people, and sat down to eat.
I spent the night talking, eating, seeing people I haven't seen in ages. It was... rather enjoyable.
I got a lot of compliments on the ceremony, my hair, my dress, my wedding dress, the party, the food, I felt GOOD. People were running around with the disposable camera's and clicking tons and tons of pictures (can't WAIT to see them all! Hee!) (and there is a rumor of a "cleavage cam"... so WE'RE Gonna develop all of them and dad will pay us back later. I, personally, don't want my grandparents opening that envelope and asking questions...)
The Polish half sang a wedding song for us, and I threw my bouquet (didn't go with my dress anymore, but eh... who cares?) and it just, apparently, LANDED in mama_de_rose's hands. I so did NOT aim, or anything, the only thing I was paying attention to was that I didn't throw it too far (I have a tendency to not know my own strength in things like that) and WOOSH! Right into her hands! (She told me later that she was going to dry the flowers and give them back to me, which I was so happy to hear! I never understood the custom of designing and paying for your bouquet only to throw it away on the first day you use it)
Our first dance was to one of my uncle's song's, it was a heavy metal song, but who cares? It was an homage to my family and we got to dance to a COOL song! (To DL it, please go here. My uncle's band's website is here, they have one of their songs uploaded to play on the site, but not the one we danced to). No one really wanted to dance, even though we tried. I asked my dad and uncle to dance, danced with my sister-in-law (*SQUEE!!!* Sister-in-law!!! I HAVE A SISTER!), friends, but nope, no doin'.
That's okay, because the BELLY DANCER showed up!
Dude, she's a good dancer! We've used her before (for my dad's 50th b-day, I think) and she was quite fantastic. She gets sooooooooooo into the music, she seems to have mastered extremely minute movements at intense speeds for an extended period of time (Dude, I didn't know feet could move like that!) She made up a number with me and my husband (HUSBAND!!! *Squeee!!*) with parts in it!
The night ended, people went home, presents (we got presents!!?!!?!?!?!) got packed up in cerowyn's car who took them to littleminx and I'll be picking them up tomorrow. I was on a healthy dose of percocet's and was feeling no migraine pain.
All in all, we had a couple of hitches, but who the heck cares? They were minor, passing, inconsequential. I got married to the man I love, and I have never been happier!
I know I'm probably missing a bunch of things, and will probably keep adding to this, because this is my record for the big day!
I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with this man. I love him so much!