Wow. I'm so glad it's all over now...and life can go back to normal.
I don't even know where to begin. First...it was chaos. Things went wrong. Not normal things...it was like totally off the wall mishaps. The day before the wedding my sister and me went for our manicures and pedicures. And while we were there...she insisted that I get my eyebrows waxed. I've been kinda wanting to do that...since it hurts like hell to pluck them. But I was kind of worried about redness. The lady who was doing it assured me that the redness would only last a few hours...and it would be fine for the wedding the next day. So...I let her rip my eyebrows off my face. OUCH! Immediately my eyebrows...or where they once were....turned bright red and swelled up. I think the after effect was more painfull than the actual ripping of hair from my face. 6 hours later...they were still fiery red and swollen. By bedtime that night...it was even worse. And it burned like hell.
That night, before I went to bed, I decided to take a look at my dress. (I had picked it up from the cleaners a few days earlier and had peeked at it...but didn't really examine it) When I pulled the plastic bag over it...I noticed something wasn't quite right. All of the beads were missing. Gone. Vanished. Vaporized from my dress. Every last single bead. Now...it didn't have alot of beads. But the dress had a nice bit of beadwork down the front...kind of a floral design...the same color beads as the dress. I was like...you've got to be shitting me! And where each bead once was...was now a little indention in the dress. Kind of like an embossed design...where the beads once were. I didn't really freak out. I just kinda sat there looking at my dress...wondering what else could possibly go wrong. I put the dress on...to see how it looked beadless. And it actually looked ok. If you hadn't known there were beads at one time...you would just think it had a lovely little embossed design down the front. It just wasn't as pretty as it was when it had beads.
Before I went to bed, I put some hydrocortisone cream on my eyebrows...hoping to stop the itching and burning and swelling. At 5am...I woke up because they were burning worse and my right eye was so swollen it wouldn't open all the way. I could see my eyebrow swollen over my eye when i looked up. It was bad. So I got up and put some aloe vera gel on them to sooth them and then put ice packs on my eyes. When I woke up at 8am...the swelling was still there but the burning was better. All I could do was hope that by 3pm the swelling would go down. And hopefully I could hide the redness with makeup. (I was ready to kill the eyebrow waxing lady! All I kept hearing was her saying in her little vietnamese accent...."It ok...red be gone...few hours". Yeah right!)
While I was getting my hair done that morning, my sister called me. She had heard about my wardrobe malfunction...and was at a dress store. She wanted me to stop by after I got my hair done because she had found a dress for me. I told her that I was going to just wear the dress I had...but she insisted. So I stopped by. It was a beautiful dress. But...I wouldn't have been able to sit down...lol. I decided to just stick with what I had. But I thought it was so sweet that my little sister was insisting on buying me a $150 replacement dress the morning of my wedding. I'll have to remember that when she gets married!
After that things pretty much went smoothly. The swelling in my eyebrows had went down to
almost normal. I managed to hide the redness thanks to a $15 tube of green concealer. (Green counteracts the red) And my dress looked ok once I put it on with my shoes and my hair and makeup done.
The wedding was set to start at 3pm so around 2:45 I walked next door. I swear...before I walked over there I knew my vows. But by the time I got there...I could not remember one word of them. LOL. Luckily Jon had them on paper in his pocket. I was so nervous all of a sudden. I think it was because of all the people that were there. I was paralyzed with fear. Everyone was gathered in the living room...and the minister was thanking everyone for coming...and when we should have walked out there...my feet wouldn't move. Jon was like...are you ready....and I remember saying...no...i'm not. And he was like...what do you mean your not. I think I saw fear in his eyes...lol. I just couldn't move. I remember the minister making a joke about if the bride and groom were going to join him...lol. And I think Jon had to drag me out there. LOL.
But once we got out there...everything went fine. Once we got to the minister....and the ceremony started...it seemed like there were only 3 people in the room...me, Jon and the minister. Oh...and the photographer that kept flashing the camera in our faces. Jon almost cried when he read his vows...which of course made me cry. Reading the vows that we had written made the whole ceremony so much more special. And now of course...since its all over...I remember our vows word for word...lol.
I, Jenny, take you Jonathan, to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I know that our love was heaven sent and I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand my heart and my love from this day forward. As long as we both shall live.
It was a beautiful ceremony. It was definately the happiest...most special moment of my whole life.
To bad we don't have it on video. That was the next thing that went wrong. Before the ceremony, Jon gave our video camera to my mom and asked her to find someone to tape it for us. Our camera is super easy to use. You just open the little viewer screen thingy...and switch the switch from off to record...and aim the camera. It was all set up. That was all ya had to do. LOL. We watched it the next day. Things were going good...the camera was aimed and recording us and the minister. And just as the minister said..."Jonathan and Jenny will now recite there vows to each other".....the camera went down...and for the rest of the ceremony we had a lovely view of the floor. I don't know what went wrong. LOL. It's kinda funny. You can almost hear us in the background saying our vows. At least we have alot of pictures that were taken. I'm definatly keeping that video though...lol. I'm sure the grandkids will get a kick out of it.
The rest of the wedding went beautifully. About 25 people showed up. I was really happy to see that 3 of my friends from my old job came. They were the ones that knew about me and Jonathan before my family knew. They saw how much he changed my life and how happy he made me before anyone else. So it was important for me that they were there.
There was tons of delicious food thanks to my Mom, Mawmaw and Aunt Melanie. The cake was pretty...but not as pretty as I had hoped it would be. But once it was on the cake table with all the other decorations, it really worked out nicely. When it came time for the toast...I think both me and my dad could have strangled my mom. She insisted for him to do the toast. And for anyone who knows my dad...he's a man of few words...and is so shy that just the thought of public speaking would be enough to make him pass out. So he got up there....and it went a little something like this. "I'd like everyone to raise there glasses and toast Jenny and Jonathan. Congratulations!" And that was it...lol. It was cute though. Because everyone knows how my dad is.
After everyone started leaving, we stuck around and helped clean up before we headed off to our hotel room. I felt kinda bad leaving the inlaws here to fend for themselves. But we made sure they were settled in and had everything they needed before we left.
The hotel was amazing. We had a room on the 30th floor of the Marriott. It overlooked New Orleans and we could see all the way to the lake. (You know...the whole area destroyed by Katrina! LOL) But it was really nice. At about 9pm there was a huge fireworks display on the river and we could see it from our room. And the next morning we ordered roomservice and had breakfast in our jammies. After that I was ready to run home and see my babies. I missed them horribly. I'm not used to sleeping without a bed full of furry critters.
We really enjoyed having Jon's parents stay with us. They are such cute people. So happy and cheerful. They are the type of people that you can't help but feel good around. It's like they rub off on ya...lol. Now that they are gone we miss them and can't wait for them to come visit again. They were suprised by how welcome my family made them feel. They said they felt right at home in our house and around my family. I was kinda worried for a while there...knowing how nutty my family is. I'm glad it all worked out.
And that my friends...is our wedding story! Despite the small mishaps...everything worked out beautifully. And I'm glad its all over and life can go back to normal now. Well...better than normal...because now...I'm the happiest woman in the world...and I'm married to the most wonderful man ever!
Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the wedding pictures that I can post here!
