(no subject)
So guess what? Sunday was our very first wedding anniversary. (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S BEEN A YEAR??!!!)
And you know what else? I never got around to posting anything about the wedding (or the honeymoon). I fail.
But! I don't fail completely because I - being the nerd that I am - took notes. And have saved those notes for a year. And am now going to tell you, in as much detail as I can remember a year later, just exactly how wonderful and special and beautiful that day was.
(Swear to God, this might be the longest entry I've ever posted. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT feel obligated to read this whole big thing.)
My wedding was on a Saturday evening. Even though I drank a fair amount and stayed up late the night before, I was still up and WIDE! AWAKE! at 6 that morning. Since there was no way I was going back to sleep, I wrote two entries about the day before - shopping, the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and all the rest.
The rest of the morning was spent just hanging out. A few people brought presents to the house, and the theme of "Let's look at Kate very hard to make sure she's not going to collapse in a heap of panic" continued. I was incredibly calm and relaxed and just HAPPY.
lillaura and I went to the Mall of America about 10:00. Laura had a hair appointment, but first we ended up getting manicures at a cheap little place upstairs from the salon. I, of course, promptly smudged mine, but it was fixed with little fanfare. We got back to the salon, and Laura's hair appointment started, while I was getting a killer spa pedicure. Seriously, it was so relaxing and I was so chill. The technician asked me a few times, "You're seriously getting married TONIGHT? Really??! Why aren't you more hyper?" After she was done, I went out and checked on Laura. Her hair was looking fantastic ( a reminder), but apparently it was the second try. The first time Laura hadn't liked it, so she made the chick take it down and start all over again. Hee! This amused me greatly for a couple of reasons, mostly because Laura is notoriously shy in some situations, and had made it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to me that I was required to be at her hair appointment. Here's why: Hilariously, she told me I had to be there with her, because I'm "the directive one" and "can tell them if they did it wrong." Heeeeee.
Anyway, her hair was done and looked great, and then it was her turn for a kickass pedicure. Meanwhile, I roamed the mall, wandering through Sephora and trying to remain calm. I happened to pass Annie's Pretzels - which has the most delicious pretzels EVER - and they were giving pretzels away! For free! IT WAS AMAZING, I shit you not, especially since I hadn't eaten much that day (I was hungry, but nothing sounded tasty to me). So I got one for myself, and then went and asked Laura if she wanted one. Which she did, because she's smart.
Eventually, our malling was over, and we hopped the Light Rail home - I'm pretty sure I grinned the entire time.
When we got home, I finally showered and dried my hair. Alex came by at one point, but I don't remember why. (Note: Just called Alex. He was picking up my suitcase for the honeymoon.) I do remember I was up at the top of the stairs hollering down to him. Hee.
I'd wanted to be at church by 4:00, since pictures (just me and Alex pictures) were going to start at 5:00 (I think - I don't have the schedule anymore, which is to woe). My plan was to get over there and have plenty of time to do my hair and makeup and get dressed and all of that. Of course, I didn't get there until almost 20 after 4, so I was slightly panicky and rushed. Time was moving too fast! Aahhh! I definitely had a moment of "OMG WHY DID I DECIDE TO DO THIS ALL BY MYSELF???!" but it passed. (Sort of.)
I have to stop here and say that lillaura was absolutely incredible - everything that I needed her to be. She's really good at being a TOTAL pain in the ass, but she also generally knows when to set that aside and be genuinely her wonderful self. I was doing hair and makeup in the bathroom with the door open, and every once in a while would holler, "LAAAAURA!!" and need her opinion. She's that person in my life that I know will always always tell me exactly what she thinks - no, "Oh, you look fine!" if I look ridiculous. So there was lots of that. Apparently at one point someone asked her to do something that involved her going upstairs, and she was like, "No. I need to stay within yelling distance." Seriously, she was so amazing. Have I ever really thanked you for that, Laura? Because thank you. It helped me SO much.
There was a point, though, where lillaura was like, "Um. Can you do my makeup too?" Heh. I did it, but quickly and probably not that well.
By this time, a bunch of people were around. My cousins, the boys, my dad (although I realized I forgot my little stud earrings I was going to wear and made him go back home and get them and boy did THAT not go over well, heh) and allllll the leftovers from the rehearsal dinner the night before. Also in the kitchen - along with food and boys - were the flowers that Martene had put together. It was the first I'd seen of them and I about died, they were so gorgeous. She'd made me two bouquet options - one that was closer to the other bouquets and one that was MINE ALL MINE, with sunflowers, which is totally the one I picked. I still look at pictures and am in awe. I mean, come on.
My cousin Liz - my other attendant - was around at this point too. All three of us were running around all silly. There's a great picture of Laura and Liz comparing manicures, and we took some time out to dance around to the new Christina Aguilera album, which had come out earlier in the week. (The day before??)
Eventually I got into my dress, with my mom's help. kellyrose82 and augiekiwi were there by then, and some other family was around as well, and then I was in my dress and holy shit it was time to see Alex!
We finally saw each other around 5:15 and I was immediately a billion times calmer. My mom was totally right - as she usually is - that the right decision was to see each other beforehand. It was wonderful to finally see him all suited up and gorgeous. *swoon*
After that, it was pictures. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES holy cow. I never realized how gigantic and kind of unwieldy my family is until they were all being directed to stand in one big group. Yikes! It was fun, though - except for the part when my cousin Jeremy, jokester that he is, totally reached in and poked me with...something pokey. A pin? It was funny, but it hurt!
Once pictures were finally done? IT WAS WEDDING TIIIIIIIIME.
I was downstairs for a while, and then I came upstairs to wait, and then my mom started crying and then I started crying a little and then it was just....ajfigosjgiodjgiojafjs. lillaura and Liz headed down first, and then mom and Dad and I started walking. That was the biggest almost-weeping moment for me, I think - walking down through all the people that love me, who I love, and seeing Alex waiting for me at the end? Ridiculous. I wish everyone in the world can feel like that someday. It was incredible.
The service itself I remember everything about. I remember getting up there and panicking because I realized that my feet REALLY hurt. I was also slightly nervous about tipping backwards off the step we were standing on. Heh. I didn't, thank goodness, but there were a couple of close calls that I'm sure I was the only one who noticed.
Some bits about the service:
- Dan and Mary were incredible. I couldn't picture having my wedding without having BOTH of them involved. The homily that they gave made me cry a bit.
- The hymnals were hilariously confusing to the boys, being non-churchy. It was cute.
- I caught a lot of glimpses of Hugo grinning, since he was standing right behind Alex. That meant a lot to me, since Hugo and I didn't exactly get off on the right foot.
- Which reminds me - I wish I'd been able to look at Laura. Pictures totally bust her on her crying. MOO hah hah.
- The readings that the girls - Kelly, Leslie, Andrea - did were all so so wonderful.
- I'm sure everyone - myself included - was convinced that I would cry my ass off during the vows. Surprisingly, I didn't. As I turned around and looked at Alex, it occured to me that these were the most important words I was going to say, pretty much ever. So I decided to suck it up and say them loud and clear.
- This pretty much sums up the rest of it.
One of the most awesome things that we did that day was to get everyone in front of the church for a picture. It was an ordeal (happily, Alex and I got to skip most of it), but Matt (the photographer) was great and patient - even with the random women wandering through the picture while everyone was all, "Please move! We're trying to take a picture!" - and it ended up being one of my favorite things about the day. I mean, come on.
After the picture was done, there were things to be signed, announcements to be made, and then walks to take. Everyone headed over to the Campus Club for the reception, and thank GOD it was so gorgeous out. I had a few moments in the months leading up to the wedding where I thought, "OMG WHY AM I GETTING MARRIED IN MINNEAPOLIS IN AUGUST? It is going to be AWFUL." It wasn't, though, thank goodness, and the walk was beautiful and nicely calming. Thankfully, I had thought to bring other shoes for the walking, and changed into them immediately.
We got to the Campus Club and I was about here when I realized that I had no idea where the iPod was. PANIC. It got found eventually - I don't even remember where - and derherrwill got it all set to go.
When we got into the Campus Club it was absolutely everything we'd wanted from that space. The sun was just starting to set, the tables looked great (people had taken care of that when we were malling in the morning), and just...there was lots of EEEEEEE! going on. The food ended up being fantastic and hey - we actually got to eat!
Eventually, there was toasting. Alex's brother Stephen was kind of the MC of the thing, and his toast was hilarious, as I remember. (My note says "Laundry." I have no idea what that means. Anyone?) Hugo's toast was wonderful - he talked about the community that had gathered that day, and being happy that Alex - and he, by proxy - was being welcomed into such a loving community. It totally made me cry, of course.
lillaura's made me cry even more, of course, because that's just how we roll. She talked about a time when she'd called our apartment and Alex answered - she'd realized how happy she was that she was going to get to hear him answer our phone for the rest of our lives and now I'm crying again, damn you Laura. My dad also made me cry, paraphrasing Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? and telling us that if we were half as happy as he and my mom and I really cannot be expected to type the rest of it through the WEEPING here.
After the toasts there was delicious cake. Now, I'm not a cake person. There was lots of talk of not even having a cake and doing some other kind of pastry instead. We ended up having a friend of my mom's make it, and it was absolutely perfect. Martene added the flowers and it was awesome. No cake-smushing, though, despite Andrea's encouragement.
Then there was the first dance - to "Tu" by Shakira - which was lovely, and the rest of the night was pretty much dancing, drinking, and talking. All of which was awesome and resulted in these faces at the end of the night. Hee.
At one point, I ran into lillaura and her date ( Brandon) out on the terrace. Laura? Wasted. I pointed this out to Brandon who giggled, "Yeah, she is kind of wobbly isn't she?" lillaura meanwhile was all, "What did I even say in my toast? I have no idea what I said. I don't remember it. NO SERIOUSLY. WHAT DID I SAY??!" It was hilarious.
The terrace, by the way, was a last-minute space addition, and it could not have been more perfect. It was a spectacular night, and so there was lots of hanging out outside.
Finally finally it was time to leave. Alex and I stayed pretty late, and people kept being like, "Seriously! Leave!" But we wanted to hang out with everyone! And keep drinking! Because it was fun! Finally we sucked it up and walked back over to the hotel, drunk and giggly. When we got up to the room, we discovered that Nikki, sweetheart that she is, had decorated. We wandered around the room for a while, kind of in a daze, and then absolutely devoured some leftover chips and guac from Chipotle, because we decided we were starving. We hopped in the hot tub to relax and chill and...drink more, I think? It was at that point we realized just how incredibly exhausted we were. But we soldiered on and had obligatory wedding night sex before just giving up and passing the hell out.
We had to be up three hours later to get a cab to the airport for the honeymoon. Which is going to be a whole other set of entries, for sure.
This one took forever, but I'm so glad I finally got it all down. It was a magical and incredible day, and I'm sorry it took me so long to capture it.
And you know what else? I never got around to posting anything about the wedding (or the honeymoon). I fail.
But! I don't fail completely because I - being the nerd that I am - took notes. And have saved those notes for a year. And am now going to tell you, in as much detail as I can remember a year later, just exactly how wonderful and special and beautiful that day was.
(Swear to God, this might be the longest entry I've ever posted. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT feel obligated to read this whole big thing.)
My wedding was on a Saturday evening. Even though I drank a fair amount and stayed up late the night before, I was still up and WIDE! AWAKE! at 6 that morning. Since there was no way I was going back to sleep, I wrote two entries about the day before - shopping, the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, and all the rest.
The rest of the morning was spent just hanging out. A few people brought presents to the house, and the theme of "Let's look at Kate very hard to make sure she's not going to collapse in a heap of panic" continued. I was incredibly calm and relaxed and just HAPPY.
lillaura and I went to the Mall of America about 10:00. Laura had a hair appointment, but first we ended up getting manicures at a cheap little place upstairs from the salon. I, of course, promptly smudged mine, but it was fixed with little fanfare. We got back to the salon, and Laura's hair appointment started, while I was getting a killer spa pedicure. Seriously, it was so relaxing and I was so chill. The technician asked me a few times, "You're seriously getting married TONIGHT? Really??! Why aren't you more hyper?" After she was done, I went out and checked on Laura. Her hair was looking fantastic ( a reminder), but apparently it was the second try. The first time Laura hadn't liked it, so she made the chick take it down and start all over again. Hee! This amused me greatly for a couple of reasons, mostly because Laura is notoriously shy in some situations, and had made it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to me that I was required to be at her hair appointment. Here's why: Hilariously, she told me I had to be there with her, because I'm "the directive one" and "can tell them if they did it wrong." Heeeeee.
Anyway, her hair was done and looked great, and then it was her turn for a kickass pedicure. Meanwhile, I roamed the mall, wandering through Sephora and trying to remain calm. I happened to pass Annie's Pretzels - which has the most delicious pretzels EVER - and they were giving pretzels away! For free! IT WAS AMAZING, I shit you not, especially since I hadn't eaten much that day (I was hungry, but nothing sounded tasty to me). So I got one for myself, and then went and asked Laura if she wanted one. Which she did, because she's smart.
Eventually, our malling was over, and we hopped the Light Rail home - I'm pretty sure I grinned the entire time.
When we got home, I finally showered and dried my hair. Alex came by at one point, but I don't remember why. (Note: Just called Alex. He was picking up my suitcase for the honeymoon.) I do remember I was up at the top of the stairs hollering down to him. Hee.
I'd wanted to be at church by 4:00, since pictures (just me and Alex pictures) were going to start at 5:00 (I think - I don't have the schedule anymore, which is to woe). My plan was to get over there and have plenty of time to do my hair and makeup and get dressed and all of that. Of course, I didn't get there until almost 20 after 4, so I was slightly panicky and rushed. Time was moving too fast! Aahhh! I definitely had a moment of "OMG WHY DID I DECIDE TO DO THIS ALL BY MYSELF???!" but it passed. (Sort of.)
I have to stop here and say that lillaura was absolutely incredible - everything that I needed her to be. She's really good at being a TOTAL pain in the ass, but she also generally knows when to set that aside and be genuinely her wonderful self. I was doing hair and makeup in the bathroom with the door open, and every once in a while would holler, "LAAAAURA!!" and need her opinion. She's that person in my life that I know will always always tell me exactly what she thinks - no, "Oh, you look fine!" if I look ridiculous. So there was lots of that. Apparently at one point someone asked her to do something that involved her going upstairs, and she was like, "No. I need to stay within yelling distance." Seriously, she was so amazing. Have I ever really thanked you for that, Laura? Because thank you. It helped me SO much.
There was a point, though, where lillaura was like, "Um. Can you do my makeup too?" Heh. I did it, but quickly and probably not that well.
By this time, a bunch of people were around. My cousins, the boys, my dad (although I realized I forgot my little stud earrings I was going to wear and made him go back home and get them and boy did THAT not go over well, heh) and allllll the leftovers from the rehearsal dinner the night before. Also in the kitchen - along with food and boys - were the flowers that Martene had put together. It was the first I'd seen of them and I about died, they were so gorgeous. She'd made me two bouquet options - one that was closer to the other bouquets and one that was MINE ALL MINE, with sunflowers, which is totally the one I picked. I still look at pictures and am in awe. I mean, come on.
My cousin Liz - my other attendant - was around at this point too. All three of us were running around all silly. There's a great picture of Laura and Liz comparing manicures, and we took some time out to dance around to the new Christina Aguilera album, which had come out earlier in the week. (The day before??)
Eventually I got into my dress, with my mom's help. kellyrose82 and augiekiwi were there by then, and some other family was around as well, and then I was in my dress and holy shit it was time to see Alex!
We finally saw each other around 5:15 and I was immediately a billion times calmer. My mom was totally right - as she usually is - that the right decision was to see each other beforehand. It was wonderful to finally see him all suited up and gorgeous. *swoon*
After that, it was pictures. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES holy cow. I never realized how gigantic and kind of unwieldy my family is until they were all being directed to stand in one big group. Yikes! It was fun, though - except for the part when my cousin Jeremy, jokester that he is, totally reached in and poked me with...something pokey. A pin? It was funny, but it hurt!
Once pictures were finally done? IT WAS WEDDING TIIIIIIIIME.
I was downstairs for a while, and then I came upstairs to wait, and then my mom started crying and then I started crying a little and then it was just....ajfigosjgiodjgiojafjs. lillaura and Liz headed down first, and then mom and Dad and I started walking. That was the biggest almost-weeping moment for me, I think - walking down through all the people that love me, who I love, and seeing Alex waiting for me at the end? Ridiculous. I wish everyone in the world can feel like that someday. It was incredible.
The service itself I remember everything about. I remember getting up there and panicking because I realized that my feet REALLY hurt. I was also slightly nervous about tipping backwards off the step we were standing on. Heh. I didn't, thank goodness, but there were a couple of close calls that I'm sure I was the only one who noticed.
Some bits about the service:
- Dan and Mary were incredible. I couldn't picture having my wedding without having BOTH of them involved. The homily that they gave made me cry a bit.
- The hymnals were hilariously confusing to the boys, being non-churchy. It was cute.
- I caught a lot of glimpses of Hugo grinning, since he was standing right behind Alex. That meant a lot to me, since Hugo and I didn't exactly get off on the right foot.
- Which reminds me - I wish I'd been able to look at Laura. Pictures totally bust her on her crying. MOO hah hah.
- The readings that the girls - Kelly, Leslie, Andrea - did were all so so wonderful.
- I'm sure everyone - myself included - was convinced that I would cry my ass off during the vows. Surprisingly, I didn't. As I turned around and looked at Alex, it occured to me that these were the most important words I was going to say, pretty much ever. So I decided to suck it up and say them loud and clear.
- This pretty much sums up the rest of it.
One of the most awesome things that we did that day was to get everyone in front of the church for a picture. It was an ordeal (happily, Alex and I got to skip most of it), but Matt (the photographer) was great and patient - even with the random women wandering through the picture while everyone was all, "Please move! We're trying to take a picture!" - and it ended up being one of my favorite things about the day. I mean, come on.
After the picture was done, there were things to be signed, announcements to be made, and then walks to take. Everyone headed over to the Campus Club for the reception, and thank GOD it was so gorgeous out. I had a few moments in the months leading up to the wedding where I thought, "OMG WHY AM I GETTING MARRIED IN MINNEAPOLIS IN AUGUST? It is going to be AWFUL." It wasn't, though, thank goodness, and the walk was beautiful and nicely calming. Thankfully, I had thought to bring other shoes for the walking, and changed into them immediately.
We got to the Campus Club and I was about here when I realized that I had no idea where the iPod was. PANIC. It got found eventually - I don't even remember where - and derherrwill got it all set to go.
When we got into the Campus Club it was absolutely everything we'd wanted from that space. The sun was just starting to set, the tables looked great (people had taken care of that when we were malling in the morning), and just...there was lots of EEEEEEE! going on. The food ended up being fantastic and hey - we actually got to eat!
Eventually, there was toasting. Alex's brother Stephen was kind of the MC of the thing, and his toast was hilarious, as I remember. (My note says "Laundry." I have no idea what that means. Anyone?) Hugo's toast was wonderful - he talked about the community that had gathered that day, and being happy that Alex - and he, by proxy - was being welcomed into such a loving community. It totally made me cry, of course.
lillaura's made me cry even more, of course, because that's just how we roll. She talked about a time when she'd called our apartment and Alex answered - she'd realized how happy she was that she was going to get to hear him answer our phone for the rest of our lives and now I'm crying again, damn you Laura. My dad also made me cry, paraphrasing Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? and telling us that if we were half as happy as he and my mom and I really cannot be expected to type the rest of it through the WEEPING here.
After the toasts there was delicious cake. Now, I'm not a cake person. There was lots of talk of not even having a cake and doing some other kind of pastry instead. We ended up having a friend of my mom's make it, and it was absolutely perfect. Martene added the flowers and it was awesome. No cake-smushing, though, despite Andrea's encouragement.
Then there was the first dance - to "Tu" by Shakira - which was lovely, and the rest of the night was pretty much dancing, drinking, and talking. All of which was awesome and resulted in these faces at the end of the night. Hee.
At one point, I ran into lillaura and her date ( Brandon) out on the terrace. Laura? Wasted. I pointed this out to Brandon who giggled, "Yeah, she is kind of wobbly isn't she?" lillaura meanwhile was all, "What did I even say in my toast? I have no idea what I said. I don't remember it. NO SERIOUSLY. WHAT DID I SAY??!" It was hilarious.
The terrace, by the way, was a last-minute space addition, and it could not have been more perfect. It was a spectacular night, and so there was lots of hanging out outside.
Finally finally it was time to leave. Alex and I stayed pretty late, and people kept being like, "Seriously! Leave!" But we wanted to hang out with everyone! And keep drinking! Because it was fun! Finally we sucked it up and walked back over to the hotel, drunk and giggly. When we got up to the room, we discovered that Nikki, sweetheart that she is, had decorated. We wandered around the room for a while, kind of in a daze, and then absolutely devoured some leftover chips and guac from Chipotle, because we decided we were starving. We hopped in the hot tub to relax and chill and...drink more, I think? It was at that point we realized just how incredibly exhausted we were. But we soldiered on and had obligatory wedding night sex before just giving up and passing the hell out.
We had to be up three hours later to get a cab to the airport for the honeymoon. Which is going to be a whole other set of entries, for sure.
This one took forever, but I'm so glad I finally got it all down. It was a magical and incredible day, and I'm sorry it took me so long to capture it.