The Wedding

As much as I’d love to say that the wedding went off without a glitch, I can’t. But I’ll start from the beginning.

We arrived in FL on the Wednesday before the wedding. We had a few things we wanted to make sure we had time to do, like get our license, put together the favors/welcome gift bags for our guests, and just, in general, make sure everything was ready to go. All of this went smoothly. In fact, everything went smoothly right through the rehearsal dinner on Friday. Family all arrived as planned, we spent some time with each side of the family before the chaos ensued, and the rehearsal got everything lined up for the big day. We both wrote our vows and were ready to go for Saturday.

Saturday morning arrives. In an effort to make things go smoother at the reception, I decided to mess with the playlist on my iPhone (my iPhone was our DJ). This was problem #1 for the day, because in my attempt, confussion occurred and I ended up erasing a couple of the songs, but couldn’t tell which ones, and had to try to figure it out. This got me all stressed… our First Dance song was one of the ones erased (“Steady as We Go” by DMB for anyone wondering). I got things back to close to where they needed to be (IOW, made sure all the necessary songs were there), and left it alone. This was all before breakfast, mind you, and delayed breakfast for me. So I had to rush down, eat something quickly, and then meet my sister to go to the spa.

The spa was good. Nothing went wrong here. In fact, it was wonderful! Massage, mani and pedi, and then hair (32 bobby-pins and one rubber band) and make-up to finish it off. So we headed back to the hotel and I was feeling good and looking good. Granted, I had no idea what was going on back at the hotel. I came to find out later that Eric had some issues of his own, mainly with the arbor reservation. But it all ended up okay before the ceremony.

Five o’clock rolls around the photographer was due any time, and I wasn’t ready. This was my fault – I didn’t coordinate well enough with my sister and mom to have them come to my room in time. But they got there, I got dressed, and everything worked fine. Our photographer, Ralph, got there and was taking pictures and was just about to wrap up when the room phone rings. It was Eric, wanted to push up the ceremony to avoid an incoming storm.

Storm? What storm??

I looked outside, and sure enough, there were dark clouds heading in from the east. It’s good luck when it rains on you wedding day, right?? So we wait for the final call from our officiant, Danny, and when he finally did, we headed out and down the elevator. It wasn’t too early from our scheduled start time of 6pm, but I didn’t think anything of it.

We get to the ground floor and step out of the elevator and Danny was just coming in. It was pouring down raining. HEAVY rain! Well… it is FL, and they do get afternoon storms on hot/humid days. But this timing sure was off. It had better be good luck to rain on your wedding! Actually, I tried to think positive… this rain shower was going to make a kick-ass sunset for photos later!

The rain came down pretty hard for at least 15 minutes, then slowed up a bit. They weren’t sure what to do… Danny had another wedding a few miles south of us at 7pm, and it wasn’t raining there. My mom was fighting for my beach wedding as they tried to move it inside. They finally came to a compromise… give the storm until 6:25 to pass, or it would be under a covered area near the hotel’s courtyard – still outside, but not on the beach. Danny was able to get his next wedding to agree to start 15 minutes later, so we were able to wait only that long before something had to happen. This brought my mood down a bit. I wanted my beach wedding!

But would wonders never cease, the rain stopped and they were able to get things dried off and reset back on the beach . But we had to go… NOW! Thankfully, we had a small wedding, or this never could’ve happened! Much over the family we had there, this may not have been able to happen! So we were off and running – literally. I got in place to walk up down the aisle and there were still people getting back to their seats. But I finally made it to the front, and the ceremony began. Short, sweet, and perfect. I could tell Eric had be running around all stressed when I saw him… but he survived. We survived. And I got my beach wedding.

After this point, things smoothed out again. The reception was just perfect… amazing food, perfect small wedding atmosphere, and when we went out for photos during sunset, our guests were content to sit and chat while they finished their meals. And what a sunset it was! Just as I had hoped, the rain that blew through made for a spectacular sunset! Ralph was snapping away the whole time – we should have plenty of wonderful pictures to choose from for both our wall and our families’ walls!

When we were done with photos, we headed back in to cut our cake and have all the traditional dances. The cake was awesome, as to be expected from Publix. And the dances made everyone cry. There were a lot of special family moments throughout the whole celebration and made it even more special and Eric and I were both so excited that everyone who made it did… my grandmother and his grandfather were definitely special guests there as we know it’s hard for both of them to travel. But they did.

After all was said and done, everything was great. Our special day truly was very special and so many memories were made throughout the weekend. I even got some beach time with my favorite niece and nephew on Sunday before they left town. Eric and I spent the rest of our time on Longboat Key relaxing and just enjoying our time together where we could finally just take it all in without anything pending. It was nice. The whole weekend was perfect.

When I get more pictures uploaded to Fotki, I'll let everyone know... it may take awhile, though!