Wedding Recap

We did it! And so, wedding planning is done. I figured there's no better way to end a wedding planning blog than talking about the result of said planning. Right? Never mind the fact that the only people that I know read this were there for the whole thing. I'm going to pretend a bunch of strangers are actually interested.

After a lot of last minute stuff on Friday (funeral, Target, Costco to pick up cakes, Scancy's for ice packs for cakes, our apartment for some stuff we forgot to pack), we headed up to the farm to work on getting everything set up. Our directions were bad and traffic was worse, so it ended up taking us 5 hours to get there instead of the usual 2.5- 3. Marsha got there shortly after us and she and I decorated the heck out of our reception tent. Then we bounced over to the hotel. Darren asked me what we did that night and i laughed when I told him: grabbed some gas station food, showered, watched The Nanny, slept.

We did our hair at the hotel in the morning, then went to the farm to complete setup. My hair ended up withering in the heat, so Rebekah re-did it (in a slightly different but possibly more awesome style) it while Gina took pictures. Hooray for Gina and Marcus, by the way.

The weather forecast called for rain yesterday, but it held off long enough. It was very hot, but that was better than thunder and lightning. At least I think so. Pictures went well. I wasn't stressed at all. The whole "I'm getting married today" thing didn't really register. Except when my mom came to see me after I'd just gotten dressed and she started to cry. Then I cried. She did it again when she & dad gave me away. Silly mom, making me cry.

I only freaked out once: the wedding party was waiting in the living room before we began the ceremony. A few people hadn't arrived yet, including one of our readers. We were scheduled to begin at 4 and the clock read 4:20 and I was getting antsy. And then someone told me it was only 4:02. Thanks a lot, grandma, for your fast clock! RELIEVED!

We didn't rehearse and only met our officiant the day of. We found him online. Darren said he talked like Steve Brule (Google him!), but he got the job done.

Darren didn't write any vows, and just said what he felt right there. It was lovely. I had written mine and I literally sobbed through them. I start tearing up just thinking of myself up there, weeping.

We had a couple snafus with the music- our guy didn't fade out when we finished processing, just turned the song off. Then there was a long delay when the recessional song was supposed to start. it SO didn't matter. That's a perfect example of the small stuff that should not be sweated. Har har.

After the ceremony, all formality was done. I hung out with friends, ate delicious tacos, drank amazing beer. Most people didn't dance (so glad I decided not to rent the dance floor), and they bailed early when storm clouds started rolling in. Rightly so, as it got pretty brutal, but the whole storm lasted less than an hour. Several people planned to camp out, so those of us who did partied until about 2 am. At the end of the night, Darren and I retired to our tent. It actually sucked a little, because some rain had gotten in so everything felt damp. But we slept, so whatever. Tonight we get to sleep in our own bed.

It really was an amazing day. I'm excited to get pics from Gina for photographic proof that everything looked stellar.

Okay, this is long enough. I grabbed most of the photos that people posted on Facebook and put them on a website.

woot

Rental Lady called me back. Pip! Now she just needs to send me the invoice... dun dun dun. It won't be so bad considering we cut the stupid dance floor.

I'll be spending this evening working on program construction, by which I mean cutting them out. I finished all of the printing stuff last night (just in time- I ran out of colored ink. As a result I'll be short 8 water bottle lables. preeeeetty sure no one will notice). I also glued together the popsicle sticks, which as it turns out were the fat ones I'd originally wanted. Since I had so many, I decided to glue two together to make them longer and, in theory, better able to support the waving of the fans.

Goals for the weekend: buy the rest of Darren's stuff, finish fan construction, and make silverware bundles. And make the guest"book." And hopefully buy the last 5 vases and vase filler for all of them. I'm a friggin' machine.

stuuuuuuuuuuuuff

So! Some things.

1. I emailed the rental company on Sunday evening to give the lady our final numbers and I haven't heard back yet and I'm kind of losing my mind over it. RAR.

2. I trashed my previous programs because putting them together made me want to stab something. I changed to an easier and more effective fan-program.

3. I needed some kind of handle for my fans, so I went out in search of either a) stir sticks for paint, or b) tongue depressors. I couldn't fine them anywhere. So I finally got some regular popsicle craft sticks and decided I'll just glue two of them together, wrap them with ribbon, and handles I will have.

4. Anna is dropping off the discount form for our marriage license tomorrow, so next week we're going to get our marriage license. Yay!

5. Progress is being made in several areas, such as: programs (obvs), guest"book", decor, serving/dining stuff, road signage, and general awesomeness.

6. We're going to get the rest of Darren's fancy clothes this weekend. And the last of the centerpiece stuff.

7. I need to figure out what to get you guys for the finishing of the Ladies of Honor gifts. It might be bottles of wine (in addition to the other (secret!) things)... because shopping is hard.

8. It's Kate's birthday tomorrow!

9. I am super excited for my bachelorette party!

ties

I think I'm going to buy the dudes' ties when I get paid on Tuesday. This is just my note to self so I remember...

1 black tie for Darren.
2 hunter green ties for the ushers.
4 pear green ties for the groomsmen and Kyle.
2 olive green ties for our dads.

ikea

I'm looking for some kind of placemat-type thing to put under our centerpieces to make guest tables a little more interesting. Sooo... list of options below.

A bamboo-looking one from ikea

This one is apparently made from palm leaf.

And this one is bamboo.

More palm leaf.

bookmarks

I will buy my utensils from Smarty Had A Party.

• 3 packages each of dinner forks (maybe 6 in case people throw them away before cake) & knives, probably not spoons.

• 1 package each of serving forks and spoons.

• 5? pie slicers (1 for each cake & pie. # will depend on how many pies & cakes we actually get)
  

• 2 - 4 sets of tongs
  

• possibly serving bowls as well, if budget allows.

• guest towels as napkins

• I'm not totally sure about cups yet, but SHAP has good options. They seem a little spendy though. That said, I really like these square ones. But the regular ones are a waaaay better deal.
  

Not sure yet where the plates will come from. I like bamboo plates (the cheapest ones I found are here), or square ones, but when it comes down to it I'll probably just pick up some of the clear plastic ones at Costco. They're cheaper. :)