Whitewater and Fish's Wedding Story

[Whitewater]

Wow. Goodness, what a crazy couple of days. My wedding to Fish wasn't quite perfect, but it *was* just exactly what we wanted. And anyway, there's nothing we can do about the weather!

Rehearsal day on Tuesday was bloody hot and crazy additionally. We were up at 8am, ate a hurried breakfast, got the day started, never stopped for lunch, and by the time we all got to the rehearsal at 5pm, Fish, self and friends had already put in a full non-stop day of driving, loading, shopping, and so on. The weather was unrelentingly sunny, except for just before the rehearsal was slated to start, when it suddenly clouded over and the humidity rose even more (getting up to 89% at one point). Luckily there were only a few splashes of rain here and there and by the time everybody was ready to get started, the sun was peeking through the clouds now and again, and there was no rain.

This was a good thing seeing as how everything was outside!

The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and thanks to my lovely mother-in-law and a few of my friends, we have a few pictures of it, which is nice. We also have a few pictures of the rehearsal dinner at 7:30 (which for some of us was the first time we'd eaten since 8 am). We went to Buca di Beppo and the food, as always, was excellent, as was the service. Dad surprised us all by offering to pay for any and all alcoholic beverages (since to save MIL some trouble, we'd told everybody that they were responsible for their own tabs, until Dad stepped in right about the appetizers) and Mom-in-law took care of the rest. Everybody had fun, even the picky eaters! And everybody got more than enough to eat. It was a good time. Fish's brother stood up and made a small speech which was heart-felt and made every single person go all verklempt, and made Fish teary, and the folks got a rousing Hip Hip cheer and round of applause for picking up the bill, and Fish and I gave out presents to everybody (which the recipients all enjoyed quite a lot) and it was an all-around love fest. Best rehearsal dinner *I* have ever been to :)

After the rehearsal Fish went home and I (along with two of my friends) went back to the hotel. A word about the hotel room -- it was bigger than some of the apartments I've rented! The bed was lovely, the jacuzzi was amazing and there was actually a bed for everybody -- we ordered a roll-away (and got a full sized one!) and the couch in the room was a pull-out bed type, which we didn't know, so nobody had to sleep on the floor or on the couch itself, which was a big bonus. In their pool area (which was what the room looked out over, we were on the second floor), they have a very large hot tub (big enough for 40 people) and my maid of honor and I got our swimsuits on and went and relaxed down there for about a half hour. The hotel gave us an extra 15 minutes in their hot tub, which was nice of them!

Then we sewed the fabric roses that my friend made me on the back of my hat (to hide where the plume attached), ran some very hot water in the bathroom and hung up the wedding gown so that the creases etc would steam out of the silk, and went to bed a little after midnight.

Part II to come!

[WebLady]

24 hours and no part II?

Congrats to you guys!

[Mrs.Goff]

Oh, I can't wait to hear the rest. :)

[Whitewater]

I'm trying to get it to post, dunno what's going on.


W.

[Whitewater]

I have no idea what the weather was like when we all got up at 7am on my wedding day. The hotel room was an interior room -- but at the rehearsal we'd come up with a rain plan so I was confident that we were ready and able to handle whatever nature would throw at us, save for a tornado! As it turned out, the day was overcast but still quite warm and exceptionally humid. It did rain a bit before the ceremony (and apparently quite heavily a few hours before, forcing the decorating to be put on hold for a while), during the pictures, and immediately before (while I was waiting to walk down the grassy 'aisle' I had to use a HUGE umbrella -- I have a picture of it, I'll post that pic as soon as I get the pictures all sorted out) the ceremony, but afterwards it ceased to rain entirely and by the time of the reception, the sun was shining and it looked quite lovely, though it once again became unbearably hot and humid.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Those first few hours in the hotel room with everybody getting ready were absolutely chaotic. Two stylists, two bridesmaids, two honored friends and myself where there at the same time, all women, all trying to get themselves or somebody else ready, and to take pictures at my request, because I knew I wasn't going to remember a **** thing- -- all in one hotel room. We were all hurrying too. How nobody got hurt I don't know. I was pleased to see that my best friends (all except one, and even she consented to hairspray) took advantage and had their own hair and/or makeup done as well. I took care of them as much as I was able, and they pitched in for the rest. They all looked beautiful too! Both my bridesmaids looked beautiful in their dresses and my good friend looked lovely in a rich blue slightly darker than royal, which made her blue eyes even bluer. Our stylists, though not that hot at time management (see the next paragraph) were nevertheless truly talented at what they do, and everybody was impressed with the results.

The stylists were supposed to show up at 8am. They actually arrived at 8:45am, thus totally obliterating our very tight 'getting ready' schedule, which in turn shot to hell any chance of getting to the ceremony site to meet the photographer. As it turned out, the extreme lateness wasn't really an issue, since most of the guests were late too. The ceremony was supposed to start at noon and didn't actually get underway until about 12:20 or thereabouts, to the best of my knowledge. BUT we got a chance to get all our formal pictures out of the way and nobody felt rushed or guilty or whatever. Our pastor was excellent, quietly but firmly in control of the proceedings and it was extremely easy to work with him. I couldn't have asked for a better celebrant! Fish looked dashing in his long cutaway coat and grey vest and tie and my father was very handsome as well, as were all the gents in their tuxedos. Fish's brother in particular looked good, because he's tall and trim. It just bears out my theory that any man will look splendid in a tuxedo! No matter what he might look like in regular clothing. But of course I only had eyes for Fish.

We did see each other before the ceremony, we had to because of our photo situation (we only had a very few hours with the photographer), but when I entered the gazebo where everything was supposed to take place, everybody was there already (because I was a good hour late, as aforesaid) so they all got to see me at once. And there was jaw-dropping en masse. My father in particular couldn't stop telling me how 'stunning' and 'fantastic' I looked. True to my prediction, when I finally saw some of the pictures my friends had taken of me, it's hard to recognize myself -- I just have never seen myself looking quite like I do for the wedding photos. Not that it's bad, it's just so utterly alien. My brother's eyes just about popped out of his head, and he couldn't stop grinning, every time he saw me, which was a nice change from the quiet, somewhat negative personality he shows normally. We have a picture in which I was messing with him, giving him bunny ears, and he knew about it and was smiling for the picture . . . it's a picture I'll treasure, because my brother almost never smiles in photographs. But he had fun on my wedding day, and I am pleased about that. One of our goals was to make sure that our guests felt comfortable and to ensure that they had fun.

We got some very nice photos, even by friends and family, so I can't wait to see what our professional came up with, who, by the way, was AMAZING. Friendly, competent, totally unobtrusive, able to put everybody at ease, with a great sense of humor -- this guy is a keeper. He even got my almost 1 year old nephew to smile! Though I don't know if he captured the smile on camera. Photographer says we may have edited proofs and all the rest of it as soon as Sunday. Yes, this Sunday. Less than a week. He says he's going on an extended vacation and doesn't want to make us wait until he gets back, is that cool or what? The coolest part was that he almost instantly picked up on who we were and what we wanted, and with very little direction really got in touch with the kind of pictures we wanted. I cannot wait to see them. So excited!

As for the rest, there are probably 200 or so pictures taken by friends and family to sort through, so I'll try to post some of them ASAP, once I weed out the closed eyes and the blurry frames and the odd angles and so on.

The ceremony itself was just lovely. Very low key but intense, traditional and beautiful all the same. There was a huge sense of peace and love and support, among other positive vibes, and I couldn't help (Afterwards, of course, when I had time to think) comparing this ceremony to my first one, where all of that was missing. What a difference it makes when you know you're doing the right thing! I got cheers when I said 'I give myself' in response to 'Who gives this bride away' and at the rehearsal, when Dad asked if he was going to give me away and I said (gently, and not in so many words, but the general point got across) 'No, I love you, but I'm not that young girl anymore,' he was disappointed but he understood and got over it very quickly -- he had a ear-splitting grin on his face throughout the ceremony, so I know that Dad is ok with my decision.

We also surprised and pleased our guests when we included them in our unity ceremony. Not only did we involve our parents with pouring their specific sand colors into the bottle, but we also included a bit for our guests, in which our pastor talked about the support of a community and asked the guests en masse if they'd support Fish and myself, to which they all responded resoundingly with 'We will', which was nice to hear. Heh, some of them even started clapping :)

I have no idea what was going on around me otherwise, I was only focused on Fish, who had confided in me a bit earlier during one of the picture posing (and I noticed that his hands were shaking) that he was nervous. I really wasn't paying much attention to anything else except Fish during the ceremony, I have no idea where the photographer was or what anybody else was doing. My world totally narrowed to just the two of us.

I do remember focusing intently on Casey, our pastor, to make sure I got the words right. Due to my neurological issues, I have a very hard time remembering what I hear (reading stuff is a different matter altogether) and I have a tendency to stutter quite strongly when I'm in the grip of a strong emotion. Thankfully Casey, a few seconds into it, understood the difficulty and gave me fewer words to repeat each time, which I was very grateful for. That helped a lot and allowed me to not only remember what to say, but to have time (more neurological stuff) to actually feel the emotion associated with the words, instead of just rattling them off. I can't quite name the emotions, but I know I felt them. We both got teary when we said our vows, but nobody actually cried. I can't speak for our guests, but I know that neither Fish nor myself actually had tears on our faces, though we had tears in our eyes.

The music was wonderful, I was listening to it when I wasn't saying words, and it really was very nice. I wish I'd thought to bring my digital voice recorder, because I wanted to record the ceremony, but I forgot it at the hotel and didn't think about it once we got to the ceremony. I forgot our videocamera too, because I'm not used to having one of those. That was a real bummer, but I think the utter largess of so many pictures will ease the irritation of not being able to get a video of the ceremony and reception.

I am so blessed to have so many talented and generous friends. The musicians were all my friends and they did it out of love, travelled here, spent time rehearsing, paid for a hotel room, put up with the massively icky weather, and managed to sound absolutely fabulous. And my friends put up the decorations, unloaded the truck, and helped me in and out of my wedding gown and helped corral the guests and kept the family from getting irritated when myself and my bridal party were so late, they kept an eye on the presents and the guest book stuff, they even squeegeed the concrete path to the gazebo so that the hem of my dress (with its antique lace) wouldn't get sopping wet before we took pictures. And that was just for the ceremony!!!

After the ceremony my friends packed up the chairs, took down all the decorations, made sure everything got back into the truck, and then proceeded to the reception site, where they unloaded the truck, and did it all over again -- this time with the addition of tables, centerpieces, and plates/glasses/silverware.

And after the reception, they packed everything up AGAIN (this time with the help of some of my clannkin and my brother, who pitched in without waiting to be asked) and loaded the truck for us to drive home.


. . .

[Whitewater]

Speaking of the reception . . .

It was a fabulous, fun time. The sun was shining, we managed to sneak away and get the pictures we wanted early enough that guests were still arriving when we got back, there was plenty of delicious food (roast turkey, pulled pork sandwiches, rolls, pasta salads, bean salads, veggie salads, fruit, hummus and pita, home-made soft pretzels, crackers and dip, and even vegetarian haggis! Among other things), and everybody got to let their hair down, change out of their fancy clothes, and have some fun. Our cake was AWESOME and looked just like our design. How often does THAT happen? Seriously? Our guests were amazed and the fondant held up exceptionally well. We could have waited for hours to cut and serve the cake, but we didn't. The heat and humidity were getting to everybody and we did the ceremonial cutting, then ran off briefly to the bathrooms to change. I changed *just* in time to avoid heat stroke, by the time they got my dress off I was shivering and had stopped sweating, so my friends (again! Did I mention I have wonderful friends?) stripped me down, gave me towels soaked in cool water, cold water to drink, and fanned me with paper plates from the potluck tables. I laugh about it now, but I was pretty **** embarrassed about it then. That's why, when you see the reception pictures, I'm in the dress I wore for my rehearsal dinner. The original plan was for us to stay in our dresses and so on, but the weather killed us -- almost literally --- so we were forced to change. It was something like 92' F and 85% humidity! And sunny.

After we ate we did our first dance, a paddle dance, which we chose because it makes EVERYBODY dance and Fish and I had had enough of being the center of attention. We know and love paddle dances from our historic re-enactment background, but our families and non-re-enactor friends were kind of going 'What?' so we demonstrated. My mother joined the dance out of duty the first time but by the end she'd forgotten her inhibitions and was having a lot of fun. Dad jumped in the line right away! Which didn't surprise me, he's the party animal in that relationship. Once people got into it, they discovered that it was quite fun, and our first dance lasted for about a half hour.

We served the cake after everybody had gotten something to drink and gotten to sit a little after the paddle dance, and after that, though we'd brought out 'normal' music (everything from the Beach Boys to Nat King Cole, Elvis and swing/big band . . .also Wierd Al), nobody wanted to dance, I think they were all tired out. Which suited me just fine, neither Fish nor myself dance, and we were content to sit around and eat cake and chat. The Ipod and speakers thing worked out great, though I wouldn't recommend it for a large amount of guests or in an indoor setting.

The cake, by the way, was YUMMY and *gorgeous* and people couldn't stop talking about how good it was, both in flavor and in looks. We still have a ton of it in the freezer, after giving it away to roughly 20 or so people, not including the top layer, which we were able to save. We also gave away those few chocolate favors that people didn't eat (they got snapped up too, people like chocolate! Which was good, because after making 250 of them, I didn't want to see another molded chocolate candy for the rest of my life. They didn't take long at all to make, but that's a lot of chocolate!) and the centerpieces. What were we going to do with a dozen bud vases, a bunch of 'ting' and a gazillion roses? We still have roses, but that's ok, we can put them in the living room as long as they last. I guess we can sell the rest of the vases on Craigslist or something, we'll figure it out eventually.

All in all it was a great day, just exactly what we wanted. We had fun, our guests had fun, and though it wasn't a traditional affair in any sense of the word, our wedding really reflected our community and our kin and our selves, which is also the point. Nobody had to adhere to painful, formal etiquette and we could all be ourselves, which was a blessing. I wouldn't trade a single moment, and the only thing I'd change would be the brief spatter of rain right around the ceremony. The kind of cool thing for me, too, is that the only thing that really went 'wrong' (and it didn't go wrong so much as make us revise our schedule on the fly) was that the stylists, getting there so late in the morning, started an avalanche or possibly a chain reaction, of lateness. But because we didn't care or get uptight about it, our guests never even noticed.

God, that was a fun time. And my darling Fish and I are married, too -- bonus points! *grin*

I'll post pictures as soon as I get them uploaded and sorted out.

[Mrs.Goff]

Sounds like you had the time of your life. Congrats again and welcome to the Mrs. club!

Can't wait for the pictures! How about a teaser? haha

[Ninedays9]

Congrats!! I am glad it went well! The weather was pretty hot that day, but I'm glad it didn't ruin things for you, other than having to change out of dresses.

Now you have your Disney honeymoon to look forward to!

[Goders]

Everything sounded wonderful. I'm glad you had such a wonderful day, minus the heat. Can't wait to see the pictures!

[gwenshack]

What a fabulous day. Thank you for sharing the details! :)

[jamt]

congrats i am glad you had such a fun filled day i can't wait to see your pics as i read your journal last week an i so want to see your dress i bet it turned out really pretty you are very lucky to have such good mates who gave you so much help on your big day it sounded like you had a perfect day

[NOTKT]

Sounded like an awesome day! Congrats!

[VickiLynn84]

Congrats! It sounded so awesome and your dress was gorgeous! :)