Wedding Day (part 2)
Getting into the car was a bit of a process. Despite having a pretty streamlined dress (I CANNOT imagine what it would have been like with a big poufy skirt or hoops!), I still needed a good bit of help, mainly bc of the veil.
I had to get into the car backwards for some reason. I think so that the back of my dress wouldn't be creased when I sat? Anyway it was very awkward.
Me with my dad who seemed oddly stoic about it all but that's how he is in general with his emotions.
The ride to the church was surreal. So many people were honking their horns at us and yelling out congratulations. BC of the long ride to the church (about 40 minutes, part of it on a parkway) we left with the top up. It was HOT inside the car. Plus sitting in the sun in traffic didn't really help. I honestly don't know why the owner of the car service (Claudia, who was driving one of the benzes) didn't want to take an alternate road but we sat in traffic for ages. In fact, we ended up being close to an hour late for the ceremony! A whole hour of tortuous Celine Dion them song from Titanic playing bc that was what Marco, the driver, thought was super romantic. Blech! I never want to hear that song again.
About a mile or 2 from the church we stopped at the cemetary (Milan has one, really old historical cemetary called Monumentale where mainly famous people from the 19th century and before are buried) to take down the top.
Getting in was sooooo much easier after that!
Here is where we messed up... we should have let the benzes go before us so that they would have arrived at the church before us. This would have meant that the girls would have been first out of the cars and the musicians would have known to start Canon in D for them when they saw them. Instead, Marco pulled right up to the doors of the church and the musicians saw me first so they immediately started with Bach "Jesu' Joy of Man's Desiring". Anyway, Brian walked up my mom (my brother refused to do it and insisted that Brian do it since he was part of the Wes family :p):
then the girls (the flowergirl, Annabella, my niece, and the ringbearer, Chace, my nephew) were already waiting in the sacresty ready to go... well, Annabella without her flowers but oh well):
Chace and Bella
Hirut
Euleen
Lisa
Cindy
Back at the end of the aisle, my dad kept asking "can we go now? is it time to walk yet?" etc. And there I am waiting for the musicians to change the music to something else but they don't... so after a while (which was probably only like a minute after the girls were all up at the altar, I just gave up and told him we could start walking.
I honestly don't remember if I was looking at C. or what! How horrible is that? I mean, I know I took at least a quick glance at him, but I don't remember only looking at him. I was looking around at our guests to see who was there and whatnot! And do you know why? BC I remember reading on some thread on CC how one bride regretted not looking around at her guests. But honestly, I wish I hadn't bc now I don't remember C.'s reaction at all when he first saw me :(. I hope the video guy got it. I only remember thinking "who's that?" a lot for his side of the family, and hearing people comnent on my dress. And I guess my cousin must have liked my veil as she took this pic of it:
Here's a better picture of it so you can see what it actually looked like:
When my dad and I got to the altar, he handed me off to C. C. almost forgot to flip my veil (I actually thought my dad was supposed to do that, but the priest said that C. was supposed to at the rehearsal [shrug])) so the priest had to remind him :p. Then we sat down and the ceremony began. As soon as he had a chance. C. said, "you're late!" so I had to tell him there was traffic, blah blah blah. I don't honestly think he was nervous about my tardiness but I was later told that he could barely talk for the last hour while they were all waiting. How cute is that? He, who kept going on and on for months and months that the wedding was only a showey thing, a total waste of money that could be otherwise spent on say a house, etc, etc. Yet there he was with cold, clammy hands, at the altar :p.
In hindsight, I am surprised that no one forgot to go to the altar when they were supposed to. I mean, the rehearsal was so cut and dry and so fast. Good for them. I do remember wondering why Carlo's cousin, Elisa, was up at the altar during the first reading. She was doing part of the prayer of the faithful so there was no need for her to wait up there the whole time but whatever.
Remember how I was sick that week? Well I spent the entire ceremony trying not to cough when the video guy was filming. I'm sure there are some really weird thoracic movements on my part as I try not to lose it in a fit a coughing during like the homily or whatever. I kept thinking, "God I hope I don't have to cough during the vows!" (fortunately I didn't, although the video guy said it would have just looked like I was emotional... right.) Anyway we did our consent part in Italian (ie. Have you come here willingly of your own accord to be married, etc), then we did the actual vows in English, then we did the exhange of the rings in both languages. Then we were married!
There was no "you may kiss the bride" moment, but we did kiss... I'm not actually sure anyone caught it on film though. I'll have to see what the photographers got.
After that came the gospel, which was supposed to be in English but since the mass was celebrated both by my priest as well as Carlo's family's priest, my priest insisted that Carlo's family priest do the homily so he read the gospel in Italian. No big deal. I don't really remember what the homily was about... something about steps and levels and God coming down to be on the same level as us every now and then. I have no idea what that had to do with the reading which was the one about the greatest commandment of all being to treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself. Again, shrug.
Then it was time to sign the papers, and this is where the musicians messed up again! The recessional was supposed to be to Clark's Trumpet Voluntary but they started playing it duringt he signing. I think I wasn't fully listening to the priest bc when I heard the music I thought "oh, time to go" so I grabbed my bouquet and stood up to leave. Only C. pulled me back and said we had to go sign. So there we are signing with me listening to my beloved Trumpet Voluntary wondering what the hell they were going to play for the recessional when it came time to leave. My priest forgot to bring the civil papers up to altar for us to sign so we had to wait up there while he went back to the office to go get them. This is us talking to C's family priest while we waited:
After that came the final blessing and it was time to leave! The musicians went with Canon in D for the recessional even though it totally does not fit. I'm still perplexed about their choice. I mean, they knew I wanted it played but I would have preferred they played something more joyous. They should have just gone with whatever they thought fit.
Outside the church, we were showered with rice. MIL very annoying kept asking me to bend over so that she could shove a plastic cup full of rice down my dress. I kept saying no and she kept insisting. What is she? Five years old? I finally had to basically yell at her that I refused to bend over for her.
Afer that we took like 10 million photos outside the church even though we were all melting in the blinding sunlight. The photographers kept wanting to leave to take city pics but people kept insisting that they wanted photos in front of the church. So now we have lots of boring photos in front of the church.
Shiny faces and squinty eyes...
By 5PM we were ready to leave for city pics. Honestly this was probably the most fun part of the day since it was just us and the girls. No idea why the guys didn't come with us, but the whole idea of bridal parties here is foreign so no one really thought about it I think. We went off to the castle to do some boring pics with the car (you know, for photojournalists, they sure do make you pose lots and do weird things like making me pull C's ears...) then we went to the gallery to do some more (which were considerably more fun). Actually these are probably going to be my fave pro pics one I see them. We saw another bride there who seemed really bored for some reason. We took some pics with her as well. She was English and her DH is Italian.
Finally after that, it was off to the villa. At some point we lost the benzes and the photographers so we ended up arriving after then (bc we pulled over to wait for them to no avail... they took another road I think).
That's C. holding up my veil behind me. I couldn't wait to get it off. It was really... cumbersome... if that makes any sense. I would have preferred taking pics around the city without it honestly but all the Italians told me that I had to arrive at the villa with the veil still on.
The reception is sort of a blur. Nothing spectacular happened other than more snafus. For instance, the speakers were busted in the room where we had our first dance. They spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to pump the sound in the room using the speakers that the reception entertainment brought with them. Also, this isn't so much a snafu as a regret, but the reception music SUCKED! We had no choice in the matter as MIL hired FIL's friend to do the music claiming that he was so great and that he had done other weddings in the family, blah blah blah. Well he sucked. I mean, he is certainly capable of playing, but his choice of music sucked. It was like old school Italian with this horrific lounge singer that he brought with him. When I think of the reception I think of the sucky music honestly. I wanted people to dance, I wanted to have fun, and well no one did. That's changing for the NY reception.
Here are some random reception shots:
Those were supposed to be standing up but no big deal. They were probably easier to read this way anyway.
That little boy is one of the groomsman's son. His name is Leonardo and he's a cutie-pie! He's so much more sociable now and he kept wanting to give me all his toys that night.
Cake cutting
First dance. C. was really nervous and kept telling me what steps came next. We messed up a few times bc the photographers kept making us stop for pictures which was pretty annoying.
Dancing with my dad
C. dancing with his mom. I have no idea why, but she had her cell phone in her hand the whole time.
And that was basically that... after the cake people started to leave and I think we were up in our suite by 12-12:30 which was great actually since we were absolutely exhausted.