Haley and Kevin's Wedding Weekend!!!

[Heywie]

Hi everyone!

I just got back from my honeymoon last night and I'm already back to work. I wanted to come back on and say hi and give you our wedding story. I don't have a lot of pictures yet, but I'll post them when I get them. For now, the ones I have will have to do!

The night before the wedding, we had our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We were about 15 minutes late to the rehearsal after coordinating everyone at the hotel, but we finally got to our venue. My day of coordinator was not happy that we were late and apparently made it clear to my mom (who was not happy to hear lip from some lady she just met). Immediately, Michelle (the coordinator) turned into a drill sergeant. Not even pretending to be nice to my wedding party. I understand she needed to get everyone organized and listen to her, but there are ways to be in charge and not chew people out. I thought she was incredibly rude and not worth my money, but that's another story.

Our rehearsal went well. We brought Bonzai, our long haired chihuahua, to the rehearsal to see if we thought he'd be able to be in our wedding the next day. He did an okay job at the rehearsal and we were still contemplating it afterward. He really wasn't too bad, just a few whines here and there because he wanted to be with us.

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp348/KevinandHaley/Rehearsal/DSC04873.jpg
(my dad and I walking at the rehearsal)

During the rehearsal, we got to the part where my dad was handing me off to Kevin, and our wedding coordinator told our officiant to say, "Who gives this woman to be married?" We went through this whole shpeal that I intentionally hadn't written into our ceremony. (I wrote our entire ceremony and Kevin's uncle married us) We went along with it then, and once we got out of there, we all decided we didn't want to do it and to just leave it out the next day.

http://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp348/KevinandHaley/Rehearsal/DSC04868.jpg

Aside from that, the rehearsal was fine and we headed off to dinner. We had our rehearsal dinner at a local El Torito. We just got a big buffet for it and had a semi-private room in the back of the restaurant. It was a nice time. We drank pitchers of margaritas and it gave our wedding party time to get to know one another.

After the rehearsal dinner, we all headed back to our hotel and hung out in the boys' room. We got two two-bedroom suites for the wedding party, one for the boys and one for the girls. It was fun to catch up with everyone and have a few drinks. We had people come from all over the place - New York, Hawaii, Montana - and it gave everyone a chance to let loose a little bit.

I went to bed around midnight and woke up at about 5, but not for good. I made myself go back to sleep until 7:30 and then I snuck out of our room so as not to wake everyone up. My parents had a suite across the hall so I went in there and we all decided to go downstairs and get some breakfast (our hotel had a free breakfast every morning). I knew there was no way Kevin would be up that early and if he was, he wouldn't be roaming around!

After breakfast, Kev's mom told me some of her relatives were about 10 minutes away from the hotel. I still had all the out-of-town gift baskets in my car and they weren't completely assembled yet so my mom and one of my bridesmaids ran out to my car with me and we started assembling them frantically in the parking lot. I wish I had taken a picture of one, but it just never even crossed my mind. Maybe one of my guests did.

[Heywie]

I was able to get all the baskets done and gave them to the front desk before anyone arrived! Yes! The front desk took care of putting them in everyone's rooms.

One thing that was actually weird was that we stayed at a hotel that is not busy on the weekends most of the time. There's really nothing around it except for businesses so most of their clientele are business people during the week. When we booked our block of rooms at the hotel (which came to about 25 rooms) we asked that they put everyone on the pool side of the hotel. The guy who showed us around said that as long as no one complained, they wouldn't kick us out of the pool area after it closed at 11. That was a major selling point for us when we booked the hotel.

Well it turns out, the hotel was practically completely sold out Saturday night. There was another wedding staying there for a Sunday wedding, and then there were just other random guests. We didn't have the whole run of the place as expected, and the hotel was pretty new (just one year old) and the staff seemed a little bit stressed out about all the people that were there. It was still a lot of fun though, and the 2 bedroom suites came in handy for 6 girls getting ready together! There were two bathrooms, too!

Well by the time I got my OOT baskets finished, it was time to start getting ready. We had a nail appointment across the parking lot at 10:30 so I rushed upstairs to start getting ready. I showered and and put on some shorts and headed over there. My mom made gift bags for the wedding party, and in the girls' there were the little pink Sophia champagne cans (I saw these on someone else's wedding story on here!) and so I brought one to the nail salon with me. Everyone just assumed it was an energy drink so I got away with it fine!

By the time my hands and feet were both painted in pretty french tips, it was time for my hair appointment! A family friend that did my hair and makeup for all my high school dances was coming over to the hotel to do me up at 12:30. I was ready, but she wasn't there on time. She got lost on the way to the hotel and I could tell she felt awful about it when she got there.

Needless to say, this pushed our whole itinerary forward a bit. We could go to the venue to take pictures when the bride wasn't even ready! So basically, everyone just waited on me until I was done. Looking back, I probably should have had my appointment earlier, but she insisted it would be plenty of time - and it would have been if we started at 12:30 as we meant to.

Meanwhile, while I was getting ready at the hotel, we had a whole team of people setting up the wedding venue. We had our ceremony and reception in the same location and so we had everything organized so it would be easy to set out on the day of the wedding. My day-of coordinator was there to manage everyone, but she really didn't do much of anything. At one point, my mom went up to her to tell her all the tables weren't set up with the right amount of chargers and chairs (as I had emailed her about the night before and she had confirmed), and she just said, "Oh, I don't know." And then she just stood there. My mom was so pissed! So my 85 year old gramma and her 83 year old sister jumped in and started moving table settings and chairs to have it all right for the reception. I couldn't believe we were paying this lady!

I didn't want my mom having to do anything at all on the day of the wedding except enjoy the whole morning. Unfortunately, she ended up out in the throws of the set-up until down to the wire. I finally had to ask someone to go get her so I could put on my wedding dress!

We were so late getting to the venue that we didn't get to take any pictures before the wedding. We were just going to do some of the wedding party and family ones so that we didn't take a long time after the wedding, but Kevin and I weren't going to see each other until the ceremony.

Well once again, the wedding coordinator did a great job of a whole lot of nothing! I asked them to make sure Kevin was tucked away so he wouldn't see me so we could go get some pictures in. She said she would, but never came back! I assumed that meant the coast wasn't clear. The next thing I knew, she was coming back to tell me it was time to start! I couldn't believe it!

Also, here's a tip to all those planning their weddings now. Our venue told us we should put 4:00 on the invitation and plan for a 4:30 ceremony so that people didn't wander in late. Well our guests started showing up at 3:30 and wondering why it was going to be an hour before the ceremony! Also, it made me not want to go out and take pictures because I didn't want my guests to see me! If your venue tells you this is a good idea, don't listen! People will assume the ceremony is at 4 and they should come early - I would do the same for a wedding. That was some of the worst advice our venue gave us.

Right before the ceremony, I decided I should read over my vows to familiarize myself with them because I hadn't read them since I wrote them. Well just looking at them made me lose it a little bit and I had to give them to one of my bridesmaids because I didn't want to start crying already!

My dad came over to take me to where we walked in from and he was getting all teary eyed, too. It was not helping my mascara!!!

[Heywie]

Oh, that's another thing. I made a whole cd of songs for the DJ to play as seating music because I wanted it to have a fun, casual feel. Well I packed the CD with all my stuff, but forgot to tell someone to give it to him! I heard all this classical music before the ceremony and I was like, "What is he playing?!" Someone rushed him my cd, but there was only time to play about 2 songs on it. He ended up using some of it for the cocktail reception so it worked out, but I would have liked it to be perfect!

Back to the ceremony, we all lined up in order and I could only see everything through a bunch of trees. I hear the processional was beautiful though. We had Kev walk his mom in, and my brother walked in my mom. We had both of our grandparents seated first. Then Kev' dad walked Bonzai down the aisle and gave him to my brother to hold. He did soooo well! Even better than the day before! We decided to bring him because we thought he'd be more stressed in the hotel room than at the wedding. I'm so glad we decided to have him come.

Then my bridesmaids walked in from behind the waterfall so it had guests facing toward our ceremony spot and not looking toward me. I think it was a nice touch. Then I heard our song cued and the coordinator was waving for us to start.

My dad gave me a kiss and then we walked down the aisle to Cat Steven's The Wind. It was a great moment, even though I felt a little awkward having everyone staring at me. It was amazing seeing Kevin waiting for me at the end. He was starting to get a little teary eyed and it was exactly the reaction I was hoping for! I was a little teary-eyed too and then it was time for the hand off.

[Heywie]

As I mentioned before, we completely ditched the coordinator's idea of saying "who gives this woman to be married" and my dad just kissed me and handed me over.

Uncle Ron did an AMAZING job as our officiant. He was so calm and collected, and I was so happy he married us!

When we got to the vows, Kevin could not keep himself together! He was dreading writing his own vows and kept asking me if we could just do "normal" vows because he was too nervous. I held my foot down, and I'm so glad I did. His vows were beautiful and he was crying the whole time he read them! I think a few men in the audience even lost it watching him read them!

Then it was my turn. I was crying a little when Kev read his to me, but for some reason, when I got my card ready and began reading to him, this big wave of confidence came over me and I read them loud and clear. I couldn't even look at my vows before the ceremony without crying, and suddenly I was reading them like a politician! I think my years of high school and college speech classes kicked in!

After the wedding, Kevin was like, "You didn't even cry! I thought for sure you'd lose it and you held it together so well! Couldn't you have just taken one for the team and cried a little so I didn't look so stupid?!"

I told him that no one cares if the bride cries because it's expected, but he moved people because he cried! haha. It was great!!!

So the ceremony finished, we were announced as husband and wife, and then we lined up in the back of the venue to get ready for pictures while our guests moved into our cocktail reception.

We had to hurry through some photos and I really don't think we got enough of just the two of us. I hope the ones she took came out really well!

Our reception was a blast, and everyone just kept coming up to us telling us it was so beautiful. The only thing that I would change about it is that my DJ and coordinator had two different sets of itinerary. They couldn't just figure things out and kept coming up to ask me what I wanted to do. I was like, "I don't care, just take care of it!!!"

If I could do it all over, I would get all the gimicky, wedding traditions out of the way early in the reception. I felt like I hardly saw my guests and everytime I would start talking to someone, I was being pulled away for another thing. I would have rather done all the dances and bouquet and garter stuff early and then had the rest of the night to be free.

When it was time for us to leave the reception, my DJ had us come up to the dance floor and wait there. Then, he invited all our guests to come up and basically make a tunnel to our getaway car. It was a really cool idea, except Kevin had a few too many gin and tonics and thought we should sprint through the tunnel! Well he was pushing me from behind so hard that I lost my footing and my shoes got caught in my dress. RIP!!! They shredded my dress while tying me up completely and I basically clotheslined two little kids in the tunnel and went falling onto my face! Kev's bestman helped me up and I ran to the getaway car, laughing and embarrassed! Right as we were getting into it, the DJ announced, "Everyone say farewell to the happy couple as they take off in their brand new car!!!"

My mom and dad bought us a new car and that was our getaway car!!! It was all decorated and cute and I couldn't believe they'd done it. I think Kevin had too much to drink and he didn't really get it. When our driver (a sober bridesmaid) drove us to the hotel, he kept asking her, "Wait, Jena, is this really our car?!" He was so confused!!!

[Heywie]

We went back to the hotel and put on our swimsuits and headed down to the jacuzzi. A lot of our friends and family joined us as the night went on and we had a great time partying with everyone at the pool. They also had a fire pit and we made some s'mores.

The ceremony and reception were great! The hotel was very fun. We finally went to bed and then the next day had a little bbq at the pool and we opened our gifts. Then, we took off in our new car and headed home to grab our luggage and head off to Paris on our honeymoon!

It was an amazing time! I will post pictures as soon as I get them, and then make a honeymoon post too.

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice on this site! I love coming on here to see what is going on, and now that I'm back from my honeymoon, I'll be back on for sure!!!

[WBandMe]

It sounds like it was wonderful! Congratulations. Post pics when you get em! :)

[TeacherSonja]

Congratulations on your beautiful wedding! I love your rehearsal dinner dress. And your shoes are so cute!

[brendalin]

Congrats! even with the small glitches it sounds like the day was wonderful. I loved your summary of your day! Beautiful! Can't wait to see pictures!

[PGDesigns]

Sorry about your planner, but it sounds like everything else was great! Congrats! I can't wait to see your pictures!

[Heywie]

In case you're interested, I posted some pics in the Wedding Pictures section!

[gwenshack]

Thanks for sharing your story!! I'll have to check out your pics! :) Congrats on what sounds like a great day.