our wedding: chapter 1
Well, this is intimidating to even BEGIN to tell the story of our wonderful wedding weekend so I may be breaking this up over the next couple days while I have time on my primary care rotation. Yes, I am a newlywed living 184 miles away from my new husband - he is in Durham starting psych and I am in Williamsburg working at an outpatient family practice for the next two months. Hooray. But anyway. Aside from the sad stuff.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... on Friday at 3 p.m., Ryan and I left the Duke PA program with ridiculous smiles on our faces. We mapquested the route to Orange, VA and it ended up taking us through some REALLY country roads. We're talking one gas station every 45 miles with only one or two old-fashioned pumps. These people were country bumpkins, I swear. I loved every minute of that drive though. The weather was beautiful, the sun was starting to regress from its high station in the sky, and we drew closer and closer to our families.
We pulled into the bed & breakfast around 7:05 p.m. and I got butterflies coming up the drive. We walked up to the house and it was so exciting to be greeted by our families who had already gotten there and got settled in. Oh my gosh. We've stayed in Holladay House before, but to have our whole family there was phenomenal. We had full run of the place! It was great. The house was decorated SO beautifully for our wedding, with just simple embellishments here and there. That's the nice thing about this place - it never seemed hokey or too dolled up. It was just perfect in its simplicity. I couldn't have designed it better.
The officiant was supposed to get there sometime around 7:30-8:00, but by 8 p.m. we had to leave because we had dinner reservations at the Silk Mill Grille down the street, an old WWII silk mill making parachutes that was turned into a restaurant. LOL, when we got there, not so much - the lady looked panicked when 12 of us walked in. She asked us if we had made a reservation but could not find one. I was thinking "uh oh.. bad omen." Luckily they accomodated us and we all had a wonderful dinner. I couldn't believe that Ryan and I were the reason everyone was together. It was so fun being at the head of the table looking down at everyone I care about so deeply now. My mom kept trying to embarrass me about sex, making jokes about our "wedding night" and "I'll be knocking on that door!" Oh lord, it was funny. She really broke the ice with everyone :)
Afterwards we came back and opened up a gift that Rhonda & Mike had given us - they bought champagne flutes that were engraved with our names and wedding date. Absolutely gorgeous.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Ryan for the night. We made plans to only see each other at the fireplace the next day, so we kind of got emotional and hugged and all that. My mom and I were staying in the Ivy Suite that night, which had this HUMONGOUS jacuzzi in it. She drew me a bath and poured me a glass of Michigan catawba wine. I relaxed in the bubbles and she sat in the big bathroom with me and we chatted like old friends. It was the best pre-wedding night I could ask for.
By 12:30 a.m. I knew we had to start getting to sleep but I was way too excited to do so. I kept tossing and turning like crazy, hoping that the wine would settle in and make me tired. (It does every single other time, but of course, not now!) I probably only got about 3 or 4 good hours of sleep that night, I swear.
Getting married almost felt like Christmas... :)
The next installment to come tomorrow!
SOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... on Friday at 3 p.m., Ryan and I left the Duke PA program with ridiculous smiles on our faces. We mapquested the route to Orange, VA and it ended up taking us through some REALLY country roads. We're talking one gas station every 45 miles with only one or two old-fashioned pumps. These people were country bumpkins, I swear. I loved every minute of that drive though. The weather was beautiful, the sun was starting to regress from its high station in the sky, and we drew closer and closer to our families.
We pulled into the bed & breakfast around 7:05 p.m. and I got butterflies coming up the drive. We walked up to the house and it was so exciting to be greeted by our families who had already gotten there and got settled in. Oh my gosh. We've stayed in Holladay House before, but to have our whole family there was phenomenal. We had full run of the place! It was great. The house was decorated SO beautifully for our wedding, with just simple embellishments here and there. That's the nice thing about this place - it never seemed hokey or too dolled up. It was just perfect in its simplicity. I couldn't have designed it better.
The officiant was supposed to get there sometime around 7:30-8:00, but by 8 p.m. we had to leave because we had dinner reservations at the Silk Mill Grille down the street, an old WWII silk mill making parachutes that was turned into a restaurant. LOL, when we got there, not so much - the lady looked panicked when 12 of us walked in. She asked us if we had made a reservation but could not find one. I was thinking "uh oh.. bad omen." Luckily they accomodated us and we all had a wonderful dinner. I couldn't believe that Ryan and I were the reason everyone was together. It was so fun being at the head of the table looking down at everyone I care about so deeply now. My mom kept trying to embarrass me about sex, making jokes about our "wedding night" and "I'll be knocking on that door!" Oh lord, it was funny. She really broke the ice with everyone :)
Afterwards we came back and opened up a gift that Rhonda & Mike had given us - they bought champagne flutes that were engraved with our names and wedding date. Absolutely gorgeous.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Ryan for the night. We made plans to only see each other at the fireplace the next day, so we kind of got emotional and hugged and all that. My mom and I were staying in the Ivy Suite that night, which had this HUMONGOUS jacuzzi in it. She drew me a bath and poured me a glass of Michigan catawba wine. I relaxed in the bubbles and she sat in the big bathroom with me and we chatted like old friends. It was the best pre-wedding night I could ask for.
By 12:30 a.m. I knew we had to start getting to sleep but I was way too excited to do so. I kept tossing and turning like crazy, hoping that the wine would settle in and make me tired. (It does every single other time, but of course, not now!) I probably only got about 3 or 4 good hours of sleep that night, I swear.
Getting married almost felt like Christmas... :)
The next installment to come tomorrow!