Nikkiana & Matt's Wedding!

[nikkiana]

Friday, August 11th

It seemed like everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, went wrong on the day before my wedding.

In the morning, Matt decided he needed a new outfit to wear to rehearsal dinner. Why, I'm not entirely sure... Our rehearsal dinner wasn't going to be fancy, we were going to eat pizza in his parents back yard. But he insisted he needed new clothes, so we stopped by TJ Maxx on the way to go pick up his tux. He bought a new outfit, and I bought a skirt and a low cut v-neck sweater that needed something to go under it, and I figured I probably had something at home.

We went and picked up his tux and then went home to change clothes.

I didn't have a single thing that looked good under the sweater I bought, nor did I have anything that matched my new skirt in my closet... I was beginning to get kinda upset. I had been planning to wear a t-shirt and jeans to the rehearsal dinner and the outfit that Matt bought was a lot nicer than a t-shirt and jeans, I felt obligated to dress up at least a little bit...

The trouble was this... It was about 75 or so all day Friday. The rehearsal dinner was outside and in the evening so you had to plan on the temp being in the upper 60s to lower 70s. So, you wanted to wear something warm.... but not too warm. As far as my "nice clothes" go.... They're almost ALL for temperatures that are below 35. The rest of my "nice clothes" are several years old and I don't fit into anymore.

I was standing in my closet sobbing uncontrollably because I wanted to wear a t-shirt and jeans. Matt ended up having to pick out my clothes for me.

I was also hungry, so this was more of a crisis than it needed to be.

So, Matt reheated some leftover pizza for me.

And I ate it.

And you know how sometimes the spices of whatever your eating sometimes get stuck to your front teeth (think like a piece of black pepper)? Well, that happened to me while I was eating, so I reached up to scratch it off... and part of my third tooth to the right from the center near the top chipped off.

Then it was time to go pick up the flower arrangements for the tables at the florist.... Meanwhile trying to come to terms with my broken tooth and my mother not helping things. We arrive there, put the flowers in the back of the mini-van and leave.... and when we turn a corner, several of the arrangements fall over and spill out all their water. Great. Now the back of the van is soaked.

Then, it's time to go to rehearsal.... Everything goes smoothly. We set up the room, we do a run through.... Great. Except the best man just got here from Massachusetts and hasn't gotten his tux yet. It's 4 PM, we're a half an hour away and it closes at 5. We drive like a bat out of hell to get his tux in time.

We meet up with BIL and SIL who are going to pick up the pizza a block down the street and talk to them for a few minutes, go buy a water at the drug store and then drive to the best man's hotel to make sure they can get back to Matt's folks house... We hang out there for ten minutes and watch some of Cash Cab, my mother calls us twice wanting to know where we are...

Then to rehearsal dinner. Not too eventful.... We sit around and eat pizza and drink beer and talk... until 7:45ish when most everyone leaves... We leave to go home around 8.

Now, my ILs live off of one of a really busy road.... It's the business district where most of the restraints and retail stores are. It's two lanes in each direction, and it's always congested and small fender benders are common. We're driving down the road and a guy in one of those HUGE Dodge pickup trucks decides he wants to change lanes and doesn't actually bother looking to see if anyone's in the other lane and plows into the side of our car.

Matt was extremely upset. Less because his car was damaged and more because the driver of the other car was driving a large truck. Matt's opinion of large pickup trucks and SUVs is unless you have a very specific reason for owning one (i.e. you're going to tow a horse trailer on a regular basis or your job is a contractor), you have no business owning one.

In our area, most of the really really bad drivers drive very large pickup trucks and SUVs... They treat their large truck like it's a car and try to maneuover it as such... and then things like what happened to us happen.

In Matt's eyes, if it had been another small car that had hit us, it would have been fine... an accident.... but to be hit by a truck wasn't just an accident, but also an insult.

It didn't help that the road this happened on is rubbernecker central and many of the rubberneckers can't keep their mouths shut and kept yelling to the TRUCK OWNER how much it sucks that his precious truck was damaged and then giving US dirty looks as if it was our fault for him sideswiping us.

We went home and Matt paced for a good two hours before coming to bed.

[nikkiana]

Saturday, August 12, 2006

I got up at 7 AM and took a bath. I wanted to keep my hair dirty so it might possibly stay up (fat chance of that happening!) but I wanted the rest of myself clean so a relaxing bath was just the thing... Plus, it also meant that I could half sleep in the tub for 20 more minutes.

I ate scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Then the scurrying began... I had to put the dresses and my desktop and all my accessories into the car, which took almost an hour in and of itself because NO ONE was helping me. Matt realized we didn't have a cable we needed to hook into the sound system, so he promised to stop at Staples and buy one on the way to the wedding.

I went with my mother over to Pats Peak to get ready at 9 AM.... She grilled me the whole way about Matt and the accident and how my father doesn't trust his driving (WTF!?! The accident wasn't even OUR fault!) I tried to ignore her.

When we got to the Peak, Jenn (MOH) and Thea (BM) helped me take everything in.... MOH did my hair, and then Jodie, my friend who was doing makeup came. She did my makeup first while Jenn and Thea did their hair, and then did their makeup. And I got dressed.... and then the little girls showed up, and then the little boys, and the photographer and my friend Sandra and her little boy Felix... Getting ready went by so fast!

The ceremony went pretty well with only three minor glitches.... Glitch number one, the timing we'd practiced for the processional ended up being off... I was supposed to enter on the crescendo, but they started the music too early... My mother wasn't supposed to go down the aisle with the song, but it got turned on so I was 20 seconds after the crescendo.... Oops. Not a huge deal, probably no one noticed but me where I was muttering, "****! ****!" but there was no stopping to do it over!

During the processional, one of the ringbearers lost a shoe halfway down the aisle. (He didn't want to keep his shoes on when he was getting ready), and he lost the other shoe sometime through the ceremony.

And we joined hands too early in the ceremony...

Nothing that was too big of a deal, but the sort of stuff that sorta ends up happening because you're nervous and such.

The ringbearers really impressed me during the ceremony. I wasn't really planning on having them be up with us since they're so little (23 months) but Rich (bestman) and Bob (groomsman) held them and they were VERY VERY good. One of them kinda started babbling a little bit, which was more cute than anything else. It made me smile and a little less nervous. http://www.mustloveweddings.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

Photos felt like they took forever despite the fact that Larry did a very good job in making sure they went by quickly... Though, we did leave location for some of the pictures so we could have some done at the old Henniker Train Station...

[nikkiana]

You know.... It's kinda funny... After the ceremony, I totally forgot about the fact we had to do pictures. Particularly, I forgot about the large group photo we'd planned to do on the side of the hill... and everyone got sent upstairs to the reception area only to have to come back outside again in the picture.... and none of my grandparents are in the picture because I totally forgot to tell anyone to not have them go upstairs yet.

Since the grandparents were already upstairs, that meant we had to switch gears and do all of our posed pictures indoors to accomodate them (which allowed all my school buds to heckle me the entire time). It ended up not being such a bad thing because by this time, it was noon and noonday sun isn't the best for pictures...

Upon arriving back, we were introduced again as bride and groom and sat down to eat. We had a spinach salad and some rolls which were pretty good... and then dinner which was roast beef, chicken with maple and apple, wild rice, and a vegetable medley. We were served but everyone else was buffet... Since they did two lines, people were served relatively fast considering but I was done eating everything by the time the last people were going up for salad. (Then again, I ate like a bird).

The one thing I regret is not going around and talking to people when I was done eating... I kinda was feeling shell shocked. I kinda stuck to the head table a little longer than I should have.... I was bored out of my mind. Sensing my boredom, my BMs made me go get drinks with them and we had a fun few minutes talking to the bartenders about how whenever you walk up to a bar to order something, you all of the sudden can't remember any drink names other than "Rum and Coke".

Surprisingly, other than two sips of Champagne, I didn't drink at all during my wedding.

When we were returning from the bar, I noticed the cake. The frosting on the top layer of my cake was melting. I didn't freak out, but I told Jenn to tell my mother and Matt told Rich and Rich told Will (the guy who was in charge) and we told Coby that we were going to cut the cake.... Right in between salad and dinner. Luckily, the back of the cake still looked fine so Larry (my awesome photographer) snuck in behind it and got a few shots from the good side.

I dunno.... I wasn't as impressed with the cake as I'd hoped I'd be.... I don't think it was an outright crummy cake, but I dunno.... it wasn't exactly what I'd pictured. I don't really think it's necessarily the baker's fault... I think it's more my personal taste.... I like cheap grocery store cake with sugary frosting.... and my cake was definately more gourmet than that... I don't think I really realized that I really don't like butter cream frosting.... I knew it wouldn't be pure white because it's butter cream, but I wasn't expecting it to be so yellow either... (I think the contrast of the brown in the room and my dress made it look even yellower too) and butter cream frosting kinda tastes like.... well.... butter. When I had to eat my little piece of cake, I nearly gagged on it. I really should have asked to try the frosting before I ordered... Coby heckled me over the fact that we didn't do the cake smear... My Uncle took a wonderful picture of me giving him the evil eye.

After the cake cutting, I was bored again. And I was hot. So, Matt and I decided to go outside and get some fresh air and watch some of the kids who were running around outside... We spent most of the time talking to Larry until Coby came outside to tell me he was taking charge of the reception and we had ten minutes until the first dance... Which, of course, is when I decided that I needed to go pee.

When seeking out reception venues, check the bathrooms. Make sure that they have a handicapped bathroom where your bridesmaids can stand to the side of the toliet, holding up your dress and allow you to sit NORMALLY on the toliet. Otherwise, you're going to be peeing facing the wall.

Matt was extremely self conscious during the first dance.... To the point where it was more annoying than romantic... and it was quite obvious that by the time we got to the parents dance, he didn't want to dance. In fact, he disappeared for the rest of the dancing.

The dancing was the part of the reception I felt most dissapointed about actually. Dancing was always my favorite part as a kid... it still is.... and I'd thought I'd budgeted more time for it... but due to photos taking longer than expected, it got taken out of my dance time... There were a bunch of songs I wanted to hear but didn't get played OR I was doing something else at the time and didn't get to hear them.... It also seems like no one likes dancing... The only people who were dancing with me were kids and my bridesmaids.... For one or two songs, some of my cousins got up.... but that was it... and why is it that hardly any men ever get up to dance? It's ALWAYS women!

We wrapped things up around 4, and then picked up.... I actually got to talk to some people in the parking lot... and then we went to Colby Hill Inn for the night...

[nikkiana]

Colby Hill Inn (http://colbyhillinn.com/).... What can I say... Microfibre robes are AWESOME and they have some of the most WONDERFUL food I have ever eaten. Dinner was expensive, but it was well worth it.

I'm usually not one for gourmet dining.... I was kinda afraid actually... I was worried we'd have to go down the street to Daniel's to find something I'd actually eat... but I lucked out and loved what I had... I got chicken in a maple sause (no apples this time, LOL!) garnished with these teeny tiny onion rings. I have never had more tender chicken in my life. It was AMAZING. We had mojitos to drink... Those were really good. I need to have more of those and we had a root beer vodka float for desert which was simply awesome. Root beer, ice cream and vodka... Who knew? It's definately my new favorite drink!

The bed was a little hard for my tastes... I didn't sleep too well because I didn't have my pillow.... so we ended up coming home pretty early on Sunday morning so I could sleep...

[nikkiana]

Sunday was definately our LAZY day. We got home around 9:30ish... My parents were headed out the door to Sunday brunch with the family... If I'd actually gotten a good night sleep, I might have gone with them because I was hungry and if there was one thing I didn't care for at Colby Hill, it was gourmet breakfast.... I'm not a breakfast person to begin with.... and raspberry french toast and quiche aren't really my thing...

But, I chose sleep.... My cousins came back to the house a little after noontime and they all took naps.... and my parents and grandparents went to go visit somebody....

We ended up going out for dinner at Pizzaria Uno's, and then coming back to the house and opening presents and playing cards...

[nikkiana]

And now.... It's picture time!

From my cousin Tom & Kirsten's set...

http://static.flickr.com/88/216900638_cf57c8779a.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/216900638/)
Tommy and Ricky being accompanied by their mother.

http://static.flickr.com/60/216901476_098598a237.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/216901476/)
The shoe.

http://static.flickr.com/71/216904991_ff65882945.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/216904991/)
My father and I.

http://static.flickr.com/93/216914040_a21c506750.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/216914040/)
Man and wife!

[nikkiana]

http://static.flickr.com/75/216926833_939ec27621.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/216926833/)
Cutting the melting cake. Check out that top layer!

More pictures that Tom and Kirsten took are in this album (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/sets/72157594239306065/).

[nikkiana]

Photos that my brother took...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206001.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=0)
Maggie and Autumn, the flowergirls.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206003.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=2)
Tommy & Ricky and their mother.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206006.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=5)
Thea the bridesmaid.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206007.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=6)
Jenn, the maid of honor.

[nikkiana]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206016.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=15)
Maggie and Autumn during the ceremony.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206044.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=43)
Maggie and Autumn

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206047.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=46)
The kids hanging out in the ceremony circle.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/normal_wedding081206049.jpg (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=100&pos=48)
Dancing with Dad.

More of my brother's photos can be seen in his album which is here (http://ourwebalbum.com/pictures/thumbnails.php?album=100&page=1).

[hummingbird521]

Everything looked beautiful.

[MOB Karen]

Looks like you had a few snags, but your pictures are great, Nikkiana!! Your venue was beautiful!! Thanks for sharing!! :)

[ladymelissa]

Congratulations! You are so beautiful!

That is horrible that you had a car accident the night before, I am so glad you were okay!

[JennF]

I sat there reading about the last day before your wedding and I could feel my eyes getting wider and wider.

But you know what...in spite of all the hitches...it all came off in the end. Your pictures are really lovely. Now I understand why so many people like outdoors weddings. The sunlight really made the photos. And that picture of the melting cake? That might actually be my favorite. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. My favorite thing about weddings is the fact that the bride and groom usually look so happy. And you look like you're having fun in that picture! 20 years from now you'll be looking at that photo and thinking, oh yeah,the cake melted...And I bet you'll be smiling when you do it. :bbwink:

[AngelinLove]

I am sorry that you had so many things go wrong...but in the end the thing that really mattered went right!! Your pics are great and you look really happy!!!

[mariaandmanish]

Congratulations, Nikkianna... Even though there were a few snags along the way, you looked as though you had a beautiful day for the wedding. And you both looked incredibly happy! Congratulations, again, and thanks for sharing your pictures!

[StaceyMc]

Your ring bearers and flower girls were adorable! I love the ring bearer and his lost shoe!

Thank goodness you guys weren't hurt in the car accident!

You looked beautiful and your husband looked handsome and your smiles in your pictures say it all!

[nikkiana]

Thanks everyone!!

The mother of the ringbearers posted this photo from my on her MySpace account today so I "borrowed" it to share...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b215/dance798/tommyandricky.jpg

[MOB Karen]

Ooooh, that's an adorable picture!!! Thanks for sharing it with us, Nikkiana!!! :D

[nikkiana]

More Photos! These are the ones that FIL took...

http://static.flickr.com/62/221329188_ed9636ab7a.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/221329188/)
No.... I'm not a disgruntled bride, am I?

http://static.flickr.com/73/221357845_695f35ce88.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/221357845/)
BIL enjoying his beer.

http://static.flickr.com/77/221335183_0090fd577f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/221335183/)
The ceremony site.

http://static.flickr.com/84/221347763_c6f6fa48e9.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/221347763/)
The twins.

More photos in this set can be seen here (http://flickr.com/photos/nikkiana/sets/72157594246039836/).

[AngelinLove]

The pic of the twins hugging is adorable...just tooo sweet!!!

[countrygirl]

Well, aside from your little mishaps, the pics turned out wonderful. I love the one of the shoes wonder. It's too cute.

[PurpleFlower]

Your day looked wonderful and fun even with the snags! Everyone looked happy and beautiful!! congrats!!