The rest of the day is a blur, at some point there was breakfast, a light lunch, finishing touches on my veil and flower arrangements, my brother-in-law shoving wine down my throat to make me chill the f* out and then we got to an hour before the wedding. So an hour before the wedding, I'm in a cool summer dress, with big blow dried Tyler hair, no make up and flip flops, sitting at my sister's kitchen table. Bruce sister is working on my hair and I realize that we probably should started that sooner. We're gonna be late for my wedding! Greg says "here Tyler, have more wine" and doesn't give me time to object. So I'm drinking wine, Haley still isn't ready either and things are moving at snails speed. All of the sudden like 10 till 5 and we really need to be out the door, the wedding should be starting in 10 minutes.
I was internally freaking out and trying to stay calm about it, luckily Haley was 3 months pregnant and could handle the Bridezilla-ness for me- that girl was in control! Then like it was the novel idea ever- I realized they can't start with out me, they're just gonna have to wait. As long as Bruce and I end up married that's all that matters, right? Call the Groom and tell him we're gonna be late. We packed up the car and got there a little after 5 and I thought that was fine. Once we got to my mom's house I ran into her room, the designated changing room, and finished getting ready. The photographer was there, my family was there, everyone was where they were supposed to be, they were just waiting on me. Which is fine, it was my wedding so why shouldn't they have to wait. The goal is to get married, not to stress out about it before it even happens.
A few minutes after 5:30 we were ready to start. All the guests were ushered out of the house, my maids were ready, my parents were ready and it was time to begin. I walked down the aisle to a beautiful acoustic guitar version of "Edelweiss", escorted by my handsome and beaming father and met Bruce at the beautiful gazebo-arch-thing my mom and Deirdre had decorated. The 5 minute service is a blur, we got the "I do"s in there so that's good and then we walked back down the path while our friends and family pelted us with dry hydrangea petals. Bruce and I took pictures and sent everyone off to the restaurant. Then we realized we left the marriage license at Haley's house.
After a brief detour we made it to Maggianos to meet everyone and had our lovely reception. The food was great, my apron was a total hit, the cake that I had one bite of was great and the toasts were tearjerkers. After Maggianos those that could joined us at Fiascos for the after party. The bar where we first met and first did karaoke together.
We partied at Fiascos into the night and sang and drank and drank and sang. It was perfect and I'm so happy so many of my friends came out to support us that night. It was untraditional, my dress was short, we were late, we had our first dance in a bar, someone tried to give my husband a very interesting wedding gift and my dad made an international friend.
A year later I totally believe what everyone says about the first year being the hardest. While it certainly wasn't all hard, there were a million and one emotional experiences this year. But after all of them I wake up every morning and still love my husband very very much. He makes me laugh, cry and smile as much as he did last year. But after the year we've had, I expect to wake up tomorrow for day one of year two and have everything be perfect! We totally deserve that :)
