our wedding: chapter 3
I know this is taking me forever, but wedding installment, chapter 3 continues.
After the immediate ceremony we had our first dance. Did I write about our trick already? I think so but I don't remember. We rigged it so before our song started playing, some loud Godsmack music would start (Ryan's favorite band, oddly) and I would pretend to act surprised, then he pulled me in and we began slow dancing to our real song, "There You Are" by Martina McBride. It went off with a HOOT. Our family was cracking up and they totally thought I had no idea. It was funny :)
Then we took some family photos in front of the fireplace. Can't wait to see those, along with some pics we took outside on the porch, down at the old Orange train station, and near the fountain.
We came back inside and cut the cake. We chose carrot cake with buttercream frosting and holy hell, it was so good. That first bite we fed each other and all that cutesy goodness made me want to stop and say, hang on, can I just eat the rest of this now? We also did a champagne toast and Ryan's brother gave a nice little speech. It was absolutely wonderful.
It was then that I was told to go look at some pics the boys had developed from earlier on in the day of what they went to do. I picked them up, and there was Ryan in a fricking SKY DIVING OUTFIT. A JUMPSUIT. I was SO, SO shocked, like, omg, you went SKYDIVING? You are ALIVE? Hey, wait, you went skydiving without me?!! I was bewildered, but it turned out to be a joke that got me GOOD. Apparently his brother knew a guy that used to work at the local skydiving place, and they stopped in and explained it was Ryan's wedding day and they wanted to prank the family. The guys at the shop loved it and went for it, helping him get all suited up with pictures and all. JESUS. I will get him back for that >:)
Anyways, while we had been taking photos outside, the guy from Country Cookin' had dropped off our dinner while we were taking photos, so when we came back that was all set up by the innkeepers. OMG, delicious. Best mashed potatoes of my life. We had so, so, so much food. It was just so fun sharing this big meal with all our family. Ryan's mom had put a little bell at each place setting that said "Ring this and Ryan and Dayna will kiss!" so obviously we had to do that a bunch of times :) We also had fun passing out the favor bags we put together. In each one we wrote a little letter to our guest thanking them for being a part of our day -- we really put a lot of thought into these letters and some people did get emotional. We also had made our own soap to put in those bags just three days prior! Remember when you were a kid and you got those soaps with toys in the middle? We chose a little toy for each member of the family based on something they like, or a joke we had with them... for example, a cow with my mom (don't ask), flip flops for Ryan's mom, a school bus for Tami since she's a teacher, etc... it was nice :) I'm glad we did that.
Afterwards we stuffed ourselves silly with cake.
Then we showed them our slideshow on the TV we'd brought and set up in the dining room, which of course made people teary-eyed. Ryan's dad Mike couldn't even talk afterwards, and that's how Ryan knows he's about to lose it for real, tears and all. It really was great to watch the finished product with everyone there :) Lots of hugs, lots of laughs.
That brought is to about 8:30 or 9 and it really had been a long day. I know it's not wedding tradition, per se, but we weren't necessarily going to see our families for a while so they encouraged us to do gifts. We got quite a few nice things, really personal stuff - tote bags and towels with Dunn on them and our initials, a picture of the Duke Chapel, an apron (my mom knew I wanted one, lol), money, etc. Jenna, Ryan's sister, even painted us a picture in art class and had it framed and mounted and everything. We have them up in our apartment already and love them.
By then Ryan and I were kind of craving some soda and snacks, and decided to be unconventional and show my brother and Tami Sheetz, this local gas station chain that we both absolutely love. It just has everything, from a made-to-order deli inside to a milkshake station and so forth. I can tell you, I'm guessing people thought they were on candid camera because here comes a bride and groom to the damn gas station. It really was so fun though. We had all sorts of people coming up and congratulating us, and hollering from far away. I had some little girls come up and tell me "We saw you from the window and you look sooooo pretty!" I hope I become a "hey, remember that..?" memory :)
Then we came back and just chilled with our families in the parlor, laughing, telling jokes, just enjoying each other's company.
That was until about 11 or so :) At that point everyone "Wooooooo!"d us back to our honeymoon suite, and what I can tell you about that night is that everything about it was SO perfect. It was amazing. SO GOOOOOOOD. Phenomenal. I know people say wedding nights are overrated and you're all tired blah blah blah but I'm telling ya, it can be unlike anything you've experienced before. Afterwards we drew a bath in the huge jacuzzi, turned down the lights, and turned on the "chromotherapy" lights that were in the bath tub. (They make the water change from red, to yellow, to orange, green, etc. It's super cool.) And we just laid there together for an hour, recounting the day, sharing secrets and dreams, sometimes almost in tears of how much fun we had the whole day.
I don't know how big weddings are supposed to be, but I sure had fun at our small one. It was the least stressful day of any day I'd had in the last few months, which only heightened my excitement of every moment. The cliche of "best day of my life" wins out by far. And what's strange is that feeling lives on... I continue to feed off of the energy, love, and happiness from seeing Ryan smile back at me from the end of our "aisle." I am LOVING the married life. It sucks being away from him in Williamsburg, but to call him my husband and for us to be a family makes me feel so whole inside.
That's all for the wedding. The next morning we woke up, all had breakfast around 8:30 together, and then my family set out for the 10 hour drive back to Detroit. The Dunns decorated our car with all sorts of shenanigans and we drove back to Durham with "JUST MARRIED!!!" "HONK A LOT!!!" "NAKED INSIDE!!!!!!" and "WE DID IT LAST NIGHT!!!!" all over our car :) Ahhhhh. So fun.
Anyways.... if you are my facebook friend, you can go to my photos and see pics. If you are not, feel free to leave me a comment, instead of me flooding your f-list :)
After the immediate ceremony we had our first dance. Did I write about our trick already? I think so but I don't remember. We rigged it so before our song started playing, some loud Godsmack music would start (Ryan's favorite band, oddly) and I would pretend to act surprised, then he pulled me in and we began slow dancing to our real song, "There You Are" by Martina McBride. It went off with a HOOT. Our family was cracking up and they totally thought I had no idea. It was funny :)
Then we took some family photos in front of the fireplace. Can't wait to see those, along with some pics we took outside on the porch, down at the old Orange train station, and near the fountain.
We came back inside and cut the cake. We chose carrot cake with buttercream frosting and holy hell, it was so good. That first bite we fed each other and all that cutesy goodness made me want to stop and say, hang on, can I just eat the rest of this now? We also did a champagne toast and Ryan's brother gave a nice little speech. It was absolutely wonderful.
It was then that I was told to go look at some pics the boys had developed from earlier on in the day of what they went to do. I picked them up, and there was Ryan in a fricking SKY DIVING OUTFIT. A JUMPSUIT. I was SO, SO shocked, like, omg, you went SKYDIVING? You are ALIVE? Hey, wait, you went skydiving without me?!! I was bewildered, but it turned out to be a joke that got me GOOD. Apparently his brother knew a guy that used to work at the local skydiving place, and they stopped in and explained it was Ryan's wedding day and they wanted to prank the family. The guys at the shop loved it and went for it, helping him get all suited up with pictures and all. JESUS. I will get him back for that >:)
Anyways, while we had been taking photos outside, the guy from Country Cookin' had dropped off our dinner while we were taking photos, so when we came back that was all set up by the innkeepers. OMG, delicious. Best mashed potatoes of my life. We had so, so, so much food. It was just so fun sharing this big meal with all our family. Ryan's mom had put a little bell at each place setting that said "Ring this and Ryan and Dayna will kiss!" so obviously we had to do that a bunch of times :) We also had fun passing out the favor bags we put together. In each one we wrote a little letter to our guest thanking them for being a part of our day -- we really put a lot of thought into these letters and some people did get emotional. We also had made our own soap to put in those bags just three days prior! Remember when you were a kid and you got those soaps with toys in the middle? We chose a little toy for each member of the family based on something they like, or a joke we had with them... for example, a cow with my mom (don't ask), flip flops for Ryan's mom, a school bus for Tami since she's a teacher, etc... it was nice :) I'm glad we did that.
Afterwards we stuffed ourselves silly with cake.
Then we showed them our slideshow on the TV we'd brought and set up in the dining room, which of course made people teary-eyed. Ryan's dad Mike couldn't even talk afterwards, and that's how Ryan knows he's about to lose it for real, tears and all. It really was great to watch the finished product with everyone there :) Lots of hugs, lots of laughs.
That brought is to about 8:30 or 9 and it really had been a long day. I know it's not wedding tradition, per se, but we weren't necessarily going to see our families for a while so they encouraged us to do gifts. We got quite a few nice things, really personal stuff - tote bags and towels with Dunn on them and our initials, a picture of the Duke Chapel, an apron (my mom knew I wanted one, lol), money, etc. Jenna, Ryan's sister, even painted us a picture in art class and had it framed and mounted and everything. We have them up in our apartment already and love them.
By then Ryan and I were kind of craving some soda and snacks, and decided to be unconventional and show my brother and Tami Sheetz, this local gas station chain that we both absolutely love. It just has everything, from a made-to-order deli inside to a milkshake station and so forth. I can tell you, I'm guessing people thought they were on candid camera because here comes a bride and groom to the damn gas station. It really was so fun though. We had all sorts of people coming up and congratulating us, and hollering from far away. I had some little girls come up and tell me "We saw you from the window and you look sooooo pretty!" I hope I become a "hey, remember that..?" memory :)
Then we came back and just chilled with our families in the parlor, laughing, telling jokes, just enjoying each other's company.
That was until about 11 or so :) At that point everyone "Wooooooo!"d us back to our honeymoon suite, and what I can tell you about that night is that everything about it was SO perfect. It was amazing. SO GOOOOOOOD. Phenomenal. I know people say wedding nights are overrated and you're all tired blah blah blah but I'm telling ya, it can be unlike anything you've experienced before. Afterwards we drew a bath in the huge jacuzzi, turned down the lights, and turned on the "chromotherapy" lights that were in the bath tub. (They make the water change from red, to yellow, to orange, green, etc. It's super cool.) And we just laid there together for an hour, recounting the day, sharing secrets and dreams, sometimes almost in tears of how much fun we had the whole day.
I don't know how big weddings are supposed to be, but I sure had fun at our small one. It was the least stressful day of any day I'd had in the last few months, which only heightened my excitement of every moment. The cliche of "best day of my life" wins out by far. And what's strange is that feeling lives on... I continue to feed off of the energy, love, and happiness from seeing Ryan smile back at me from the end of our "aisle." I am LOVING the married life. It sucks being away from him in Williamsburg, but to call him my husband and for us to be a family makes me feel so whole inside.
That's all for the wedding. The next morning we woke up, all had breakfast around 8:30 together, and then my family set out for the 10 hour drive back to Detroit. The Dunns decorated our car with all sorts of shenanigans and we drove back to Durham with "JUST MARRIED!!!" "HONK A LOT!!!" "NAKED INSIDE!!!!!!" and "WE DID IT LAST NIGHT!!!!" all over our car :) Ahhhhh. So fun.
Anyways.... if you are my facebook friend, you can go to my photos and see pics. If you are not, feel free to leave me a comment, instead of me flooding your f-list :)