It's been awhile
I don't know why I haven't posted in so long. I haven't been doing anything that would keep me from posting.
It's been since August 31 since I last posted. It's been a big few months since then.
I had my first and second bridal shower before I last posted, but not my last one (which Mike's mom did for his two sides of the family). Nor had I had my bachelorette party. I'd say the b-party was one of the most fun days I've had in my entire life, for sure. I had a great time. And Mike's mom's shower went well!
We had our wedding rehearsal one week before our wedding due to scheduling concerns with the chapel. It went well! Everyone looked so cute and did a great job. Afterwards, we came back to our apartment, which I had cleaned head to toe earlier that day. I had snacks and we ordered Jet's pizza. I was going to get out the Rock Band, but there were so many people in the living room here that there wasn't enough room to get everything out. We did have help organizing our table cards into alphabetical order from everyone, so that was totally awesome. Now I know I can fit 25ish people in here if need be, but it was pretty tight. Everyone was such a good sport, though.
On the day before the wedding, Erin came down early to help me run all my last-minute errands, of which there were quite a lot. My mom and almost all my bridesmaids and myself all met at the mall to get our nails done. I've never had fake nails until then. I'm so glad I got them done, because they do look nice in the pictures and videos (don't have the professional pics back yet). But, they were really annoying because it was hard to do even the little things like answer my phone.
That night, we had the Rehearsal Dinner. That went super well. We did it at Cancun in GL. They had a whole downstairs section set aside for us, which turned out super well because we could give our speeches and everything was mostly private from the other diners. Perfect. People seemed to like their gifts and their letters. I liked writing the letters.
At the dinner, my brother didn't look good at all. He looked very pale and sick. And he wasn't drinking beer, which all clued me into the fact that he wasn't feeling well. He said he had a bad cold, but would go to bed as soon as him and Nickie got back to the hotel. I stayed at my parents' house that night. And after my parents came home from dropping a hotel gift bag off to my relatives from the U.P., we went to Meijer to buy my brother some cold meds. We took them over to the hotel. He was already sleeping, but Nickie said she'd make him take them.
Fast forward to the next day, October 10, which was OUR WEDDING DAY. I woke up at like 5:45am. I had to go to the bathroom, to the point where I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, but of course once I tried to go back to bed after going to the bathroom, it didn't work. I got up at about 6:45 after I heard my mom get in the shower. I got some cereal and her and I sat and chatted for about an hour, just like we used to do during the old times during the summers in school or during school breaks when I was home from college. Then, I showered and dried my hair and straightened it a bit. And I headed over to Profile's salon for hair and make-up.
While there, I got a phone call from another hair salon, wondering where my bridal party and myself are because they had all their stylists standing there. HUH? I called around to different salons back in March in order to make reservations for this. So, I don't remember exactly the case with this salon, but I do know I had a spreadsheet where I filled in the info from the different salons (price, how many stylists, etc.) and I doubt I would have booked two salons. To top things off, I never once heard from that other salon. Don't you think they would have called to schedule a trial? Don't you think they would have called the day before to confirm? It was really awkward. I feel badly that they were there, but I know I'm an organized person and I know I wouldn't have messed that up. Of course, sometimes I second-guess myself, wondering if maybe I did do that, but I was just so shocked when they called and I don't even vaguely remember making reservations there. I do think there was a salon who took my phone number to call back once they found out how many stylists they could have. Maybe it was them? I don't know! I called like 7 places in GL. Odd.
I was so glad to get my hair done with my bridesmaids, moms, and aunt and cousins. It was so much fun to see everyone get theirs done right alongside me. The girls did their makeup at the salon and I got mine done. The worst part about that time at the salon is that I found out my brother still wasn't feeling well. He was caughing up blood and Nickie and him went to the emergency room. Yikes. I was worried about him, because I knew he wouldn't go to the hospital on my wedding day if something really wasn't wrong. And I worried about what my parents would do. All the time and money they put into planning the wedding and I didn't want them to miss it because they went to the hospital. I had to hold back tears when the make-up lady was doing my make-up, and I think she knew it, because she kept talking to me about all sorts of random crap to probably get me to stop thinking about how everything was going to work out. There were also logistical concerns. Who would step in for Kevin if he wasn't there? Justin would. But then we needed to track down Kevin's tux. OK, got it. But the blue vest doesn't fit Justin, so my dad had to go to Baryame's to swap Justin's vest from black to blue (the ushers' vests were black). But if Justin was a groomsman, that means were were left with only one usher (Greg), because Jordan got mono and understandably couldn't be there. And, we'd previously had hours of discussion about how the moms were going to be escored up to the front and how my cousins Heather would get up to do her reading. We'd assigned certain ushers to certain tasks, and if Justin was standing up front, would Greg be able to manage it all?
Then, we went back to my parents' house, where we had lunch. There were subs and chips and my mom had made salads and desserts. Yum! Lunch-y food like that is definitely my favorite food. I'm truly not a meat and potatoes type person. I only had a couple tiny bites of turkey on Thanksgiving.
We then headed to the chapel, trying to avoid a Lloyd sight-age. It was a bit of a free-for-all. Everyone was doing their own thing...jewelry, make-up touch-ups, bras, dresses, shoes, etc. There was only one bathroom, and it took me awhile to get in there, which was totally fine anyways, because I wouldn't have wanted to be in my dress for too long. The florist and her daughter brought the flowers. Truth be told, they weren't exactly as we'd discussed, but I absolutely ended up loving them. They looked so good next to the blue bridesmaids dresses! When it was time to get dressed, the girls helped me into my stuff. I guess the dress was a bit high at first, so we untied it and re-adjusted, which was a good thing because we tied it a bit looser the second time, which meant I could breathe better. I wasn't emotional at all until my dad came back into the room and my bridesmaid lined up and left the room. OK, now it was hitting me. My eyes were watery, I started getting really nervous and blotchy, and I didn't know if I could stop from bawling (which I was really hoping I didn't do). Gay (one of the photographers) was taking pics from a post above the chapel, and she kept turning around to keep us abreast. "There go the moms" and "OK, the flowergirl and ring bearer are walking now." When Greg opened the big wooden door, and everyone turned around to look at me, whew, what a rush! I made eye contact with Mike and I noticed he was more blotchy than I was (he was hot). We'd been joking for months before the wedding that I'd be blotchy on my wedding day. Which, as it turns out, I did get more and more blotchy as the ceremony went on. It's funny to watch the video, because it's halfway into the ceremony before Mike and I look at each other again. But then my dad said it's probably because we were trying not to cry. I know that's true for myself. Mike said that wasn't true for him, haha.
The wedding officiant is kind of a friend of my family. She'd been a snooty beyotch to me and my mom during the entire planning process. She'd wanted us to come do one last read-through the week before the wedding, since we didn't do that a ton at the rehearsal. So we did. Then she kind of made fun of me for it right before the ceremony started. Erin had asked me one last time at what point she's supposed to take my flowers, so I told her. The officiant heard me telling her and she told Erin, "Yeah, Stephanie was freaking out about the order of the ceremony. She wanted to come to my house to go over it that one last time." GRR. And then she flubbed up during the ceremony. I'd already given our readers (my cousin Heather and Mike's uncle Kris) exact directions as to when they should stand up to do their reading. It was in the program, of course, but on top of that, I'd told them the last few words of the previous part of the ceremony so they could be listening. So, after the officiant said her welcoming remarks, she stopped and said, "Now Heather will do a reading." I couldn't contain myself. It wasn't Heather's time yet and it was awkward. She got up, probably thinking what the heck, and Greg walked to go get her, but then the officiant realized her mistake and kept going. Well, when it was actually time for Heather to read, she got up so quick that Greg wasn't needed to help her up. And she was supposed to go up the step, but my dress turned out to be covering it. Fortunately, she was totally find. I just thought the whole thing was so funny since the officiant acted like I was a psycho bitch. Oh, and she forgot to have us sign the marriage license, so we didn't actually get married that day (we were official the next day when we went to her house to sign it).
The receiving line went well. Pictures went well, except that even after hours of trying to lock down a schedule, we ended up being about half an hour behind after pictures. So, we went over our time at the chapel, but they seemed totally OK with that. We got to Eagle Eye and did a few outside pics and then headed in. It did go by fast. One thing I noticed is that when you're the bride and groom, you don't actually get to enjoy yourself as much as the wedding party does. They can drink and dance the whole time after dinner, but we had to mingle for about 1.5 hours with everyone. It was a priority for us to do that, and we're very glad we did. But, it's a lot of work. We must have answered, "Hawaii" one hundred times (everyone asked us if we were going on a honeymoon and to where). Though we made it to every table, there were still a few folks we missed, which does upset me. But I guess if they leave early, they can't expect us to thank them for coming. Luckily, once we were done mingling and able to dance, the night actually seemed to slow down and I could enjoy myself. It was the mingling that went really fast. I'd give the DJ a schedule and he kept coming to me saying, "You said you wanted to go bouquet and garter at 8:30," and I'd ask what time it was, and it was 8:30 already, even though it seemed like 7:30 or 8:00. We ended up staying that half hour off schedule the entire night. But, I guess that means that I correctly estimated the timing it would take to do each thing at the reception, just not the picture-taking.
The night was supposed to end at midnight, but then during the event, the DJ asked us if we wanted to push it back to 11:30, since it was just a few people (our friends and immediate family) that were left there. We said OK. But then after the "last song" at 11:30, everyone was kind of still standing on the dance floor and he asked if people wanted more and everyone shouted that they did. I didn't know if they were all sick of being there, since they'd been dancing the entire night. And, luckily, they weren't ready to go home. So, Lloyd and I got in another half hour of dancing. So fun! I have to say, the Kanye shutter shades truly made the night. And those were a total last-minute addition (like within the last two weeks!).
My brother made it to everything, but he wasn't standing up in front during the ceremony. I'd heard at about 2:35 that he'd begged the emergency room to hurry up because it was his sister's wedding and was on his way to the chapel. I said that we would not start until he got there, even if it was 10 minutes late. But, right before 3:00, him and Nickie showed up. He was in his street clothes at that point, so he watched from out in the hallway. He then changed into his tux and was part of everything from then on (pictures, wedding party entrance to the reception, wedding party dance, etc.). We had both him and Justin escort Danielle into the reception, so it worked out perfectly in the end. I was glad because he clearly looked better after coming from the hospital. It was probably the meds and IVs they gave him.
Of course, there were a few slight changes I'd make. Of course, having my brother be sick is one. Second, the decorator had put icicle lights under the tulle on the head table, but never plugged them in. So, the first thing I thought when walking into the reception was that she forgot the icicle lights. My dad found the plug at the very, very end of the night and plugged it in and of course they looked great. The third thing I'd change is that the hanging lanterns were supposed to be hanging at varying heights, and they weren't. Finally, and the biggest bugaboo for me, was the centerpieces. Eagle Eye ended up turning the floralights on, but they didn't bury them under the crystals in the glass. The result was that the centerpieces looked majorly tacky, IMO. I thought the crystals would be a lot smaller, too (the decorator did those). For weeks and weeks, the only thing I could think about the wedding was about those damn centerpieces (my dad was the same way but only about the icicle lights). I'm slowly getting over it, because there were so many good things. I just hate to think that the wedding guests were sitting there and the one thing they were looking at was a bit tacky. Live a learn. I'd still recommend going with a decorator, because she saved us a lot of work, but in the end the truth is that if you want something done how you want it, just do it yourself. I have no complaints about the DJ and photographers.They were both truly perfect. I'm so excited to get back the professional photos. Those should be back in the next few weeks. Yay!
After the wedding, we searched around to try and find Mike's tux bag with his shoes, etc. Then, we went to Hungry Howie's and got a cheese pizza, which we ate in the hotel. We stayed at the Mariott in EL, and even though Mike reserved a late check-in, they'd given away our room before we got there, and the only room they had left was 2 double beds. Romantic, huh?
The next day, we had a wonderful brunch at my grandparents' house with the out-of-town relatives. It was the perfect way to see everyone, because at the wedding, you only have a few minutes to see people. We then signed our marriage license w/ the officiant, unpacked our car, counted our money (haha), and did the bank, carwash, etc. We also then took the cat to my parents' house and hung out with them. The next morning (well, really just a few hours later), my brother picked us up to take us to the airport.
We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. OMFG. I can't say enough good stuff about Hawaii. I've never been on a vacation that felt so...right. But I loved Hawaii!!!!!!! We were busy everyday (the way I like it, lol). We went shopping in Waikiki, went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, went to a Luau, went scuba diving, went to a magic show, went to see Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial, climbed Diamond Head Crater, and walked along the boardwalk towards Waikiki. I could have stayed there much longer. We didn't do a lot of just relaxing. It was so beautiful there! The mountains and the clouds in the distance, and the blue skies and waves in the water. It was hot, but it wasn't humid. It got dark early, which was good because it felt like we were doing the "nightlife" thing, even though we didn't really drink. The resort was absolutely beautiful and the room had hardwoord floors, a kitchenette, and a soaking tub. The view off our 18th-floor balcony included both downtown Honolulu and the ocean. Can I go back???
Since the wedding excitement, though, life has not been as good as it could be. I'm not working, which is unfortunate for my bank account. I'm getting really bored sitting around all the time. There's no postings out there for jobs, especially in the GR area. I did apply for an attorney job at the State, so that'd be in Lansing versus GR, but at this point, I might have to look more at Lansing. I've still got to get more serious about applying in GR, I suppose. I am afraid to fail, so I'm afraid to do too much applying. But, money dictates I have to get over that ASAP. I'm going to be substitute teaching starting next week-ish, so that'll help with the bank account. I'm actually excited about doing that, but Mike's pissed off about it. He things I'll suck at it and he's mad that I spent any effort on anything other than being a lawyer. I can see where he's coming from, but the lady at Cooley suggested it takes an average of 6 months to find a lawyer job in GR now. So, I had to do something. I'm still mulling over giving plasma on top of subbing. I've avoided it in the past, but I don't get that monthly allowance from my parents anymore and it's a harsh reality! Gotta grow up, sometime!
So, Mike's supposed to come home from his many exciting ventures tonight so we can put up the Christmas tree. Something tells me we won't be doing that today. Actually, it was supposed to be yesterday, but that didn't work out.
We're close to being done with Mike's project!!!!!!! It's due on the 18th of December (today's the 2nd), and he's serious about doing it. That means when he gets it done he'll actually truly have his Master's Degree! I keep thinking that things happen for a reason, and maybe I'm not working yet because (1) the perfect job is right around the corner, and (2) I'm available to help Mike with his project.
I'll try to keep updating more regularly so I don't have a miles-long update every few months.
Stephanie