Woah, two in a day!
I thought I'd sneak in Nablopomo Request # 2 - From both Mrs. Lukie and Melly :
- What was your wedding like? :)
- I second Melly's request for a wedding post :)
But I decided that I would search for and re-post the original Wedding Story - Circa 2003, because the details were still all fresh back then. I just re-read it again, and it's amazing how fast you forget the little details! So this one won't count for Nablopomo because I don't think you're supposed to copy paste old entries hehe.
PS - I think that we can all see that my writing skills have improved a little bit in the past 6+ years! I hope anyway... Oh and you might want to make sure you're comfortable... it's quite the novel hehe. You didn't ask about pre-wedding stuff but it was part of the original sappy story so here it is :
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****June 26th, 2003 - The day we were leaving to go up home! (Thursday)
I drove DF to work that morning (My last day of work was monday, so I could run around town to get every last detail ready, but DF couldn't get off work untill thursday night.) My father came over with his pick up truck at 11 a.m. and we went to the Imagination Decor place so he could pick up my (expensive LOL!) cherubin statues and roman arch... Dad sat all 4 cherubin angels in the back seat and buckled them up it was too funny! LOL Me and Dad then went to eat at our favorite chinese buffet, he was telling me how so many of his co-workers (truckers) were invited to the wedding that his bosses had started to ask if my wedding was a national holiday now LOL!
At 2 p.m. I went to have my acrylic nails and french manicure done. I wasn't too impressed with the results.. I hadn't bothered to make an appointment with my former nail.. person (?), and this 14 year old girl; the salon owner's daughter; did my nails. They didn't look natural enough, they looked like claws (No one else noticed untill I pointed it out.. but you know how you want every single detail to be perfect...hehe!) I ended up having my nails removed the day I left for the honeymoon I just couldn't stand them anymore. But for the pictures and everything they will look fine I'm sure.
At 3:30 p.m. I went to medes spa for my massage!!Mmmm! (Very Highly recommended in the few days preceeding the wedding!)
At 5 p.m. I picked up DF from work, and the 2 GM's we were driving with us, and we went home and packed in a big hurry (Can you believe that I hadn't even had time to pack yet.. I was still doing laundry for honeymoon clothes!) We started our 3 hour drive at 9 p.m. and were at my parent's place at midnight. My mother was seriously freaking out over how much sewing she still had to do, and I could have sworn that my father, sitting outside alone on the porch, was drunk even though I maybe saw him drunk about twice in my whole life! (my parents just aren't drinkers at all!) We drove to steph's parents where my FMIL and MOH stayed up to talk with me and calm me down... they also found other people to help with the sewing! Bless their hearts.
****June 27th, 2003 - The day before the big day! (Friday)
Thank god mom had had some sleep and reassurance that she was getting more help and she became somewhat normal again, stress-wise.
I started the day at 8 a.m. at the shoemaker's, because I wanted to try my last option before totally giving up on my shoes for the ceremony. (I had already decided (thank god) that I was going to wear the ballerina slippers for the reception). Bless the shoemaker's heart he was able to cut every single strap and add extensions at places which couldn't be seen at all, and then my shoes were fitting perfectly!! (Or so I thought until I had to walk fast when we were running late to get to the church and the shoes started to slip out they were actually too big! LOL oh well.. one of those things that didn't matter one bit in the end.)
Me, MOH and FMIL spent the remaining of the day running around town (literally) for last minute things.. believe it or not I had to find and buy a cake topper the day before the wedding!!!! We were going to use my parent's topper which they had at their wedding 25 years ago, and my mother couldn't find it ! (geez you'd thing she would have looked sooner than the day before the wedding!) The cake topper was one thing I was really really dissapointed about... So I really wanted to find a topper that I would LOVE and keep as my own souvenir... and I ended up paying way too much BUT the topper was just adorable.. One of those "precious moments" ones.
We had the rehearsal at 7 p.m, and one of the BM's (the same one that left early on my bachelorette party...) didn't even show up! I was pretty ticked off, but there was so much more going on that I didn't even mention it too much to her the next day.
We had record breaking heats that day, and we were just about to melt at the rehearsal. Everyone was emotional, it was weird... then at 8 p.m. we had a final meeting with our photographer/videographer team, and at 9 p.m. we all gathered at one of the BM's (DH's cousin) and we gave the wedding party their gifts they were a hit!.. then we all had a refreshing and relaxing pool party! fun fun!
Me and DF slept over at his parents house. (We were getting married in our parents town, 3 hours away from our own house.) My mother already had 2 good friends as guests and besides her house was way too full with wedding stuff!
****June 28th, 2003 - The Wedding Day!
At 12h00 a.m. The first hour of our wedding day, me and Stephane were still together! LOL We were at Pelletier's, in Nigadoo, where they have the best poutines ever! Mmmm! My brother and Jim (one of the GM's) were there eating (pigging out) with us. Around 1 a.m. Stephane and I kissed Goodnight and he went with Jim (him and the Best Man and all the GM's were sleeping over at steph's parents) and my brother and I went to sleep at our parent's house. (Where I had to sleep with 2 fans directly pointed at me in order to not die from the heat!)
Our wedding cake (that she had done herself) was sitting on the counter all dissembled but still so pretty. Mom and dad were in bed, and when they heard me and my brother my mom called me over for a goodnight kiss. I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed and fell asleep at 2 a.m. I had absolutely no problem sleeping despite the record breaking heat we were having! I was just dead tired.
(I was told that at) 4:30 a.m. My mother in law and her sister Nicole and my MOH's mother JUST got done sewing the flowergirl and bridesmaids dresses!!! They went to sleep at 5 a.m. !
In the morning when I woke up around 9 a.m., Everyone was already gone to decorate the hall. There had been a wedding at our venue on the Friday night and we were only allowed to go decorate on the saturday morning.. and the wedding was at 2 p.m!! Mom round up a good decorating team and I guess that it went well. Mom and dad had 2 close friends staying over in their camping trailer in their backyard. When I got up Ruth (the friend) was still wrapping little pieces of cake for guests to take home omg. She looked so tired poor her, her husband Robert was sitting at the table cutting the ribbon and she was wrapping LOL! I felt so bad for them that I immediately joined them and all three of us were wrapping little cakes and talking... untill I forgot about the time!!!
Well I jumped up, ran in the shower, forgot to not wash my hair LOL (It didn't matter in the end my hair stayed for like 3 days! haha!) When I was all squeaky clean Robert offered to drive me to the venue where my mom and the girls were all getting ready in a boardroom rented to that effect. The make up artist and the hairdresser were FREAKING out! They were saying that I would never be ready in time!
The photographer and the videographer were filming everything, through the good and the bad; The flowergirl's dress's hem, which had taken 3 hours to hand-sew during the night, was too long!! Poor 3 year old Genevieve was tripping over her dress! Annick and Guylaine went to try on their dresses and came back fuming because Guylaine's dress made her look fat, and Annick had lost some weight since her last fitting and the dress was actually too big for her therefore honestly made her look real fat.
He was also filming when I was complaining that my mother was freaking out too much! haha! I never panicked. I told guylaine that the dresses wasn't that bad on her (it honestly wasn't, she was just not used to wearing not-so-tight-fitting clothing.) I told Annick to just carry her bouquet in front of her dress like she would be doing anyways and no one will notice. The flowergirl's dress got taken to a relative's to shorten the dress (and every single layer underneath) with an overlock machine. It turned out great! Everyone kept asking me how come I wasn't more panicked. I kept replying that my mother was freaking out enough for the two of us lol!
The hairdresser was checking her watch like crazy while she was whipping me up the cutest updo... Then I realized that my tummy was grumbling because I hadn't eaten since the night before!!! Since we were getting ready in a hotel boardroom my MOH and one BM ordered room service to order a burger and fries for me. I looked like a goofball eating my fries as fast as I could in between huge clouds of hairspray, it was hilarious.. they were taking pictures that I can't wait to see.
When my hair was done I switched to the make up artist while my mother was yelling : "GO GO GO we have to get going! The antique car has been waiting for quite some time!". The poor make up girl was trying to put on my make up while her hands were shaking like crazy, I kept trying to reassure her that it was ok to just take her time that they couldn't start without me! When she was done it took me about 2 minutes to put my garter on, crinoline, bra, deodorant, dress, the whole thing! haha! (You would have had to be there, every one was running everywhere!) Me and my nervous dad finally were in the beautiful 1932 silver chevy, driving to the church.
I was only about 15 minutes late to my wedding ! heehee!
When me and my dad got out of the antique car, there were about 15 of my family members that I hadn't seen in years standing on the church steps waiting to see me before the wedding, it was great to see them all but I was affraid they would make me start to tear up! (I came so close to ruining my make up on the drive to the church with dad, it was such a happy and special time for us!) Everyone kept telling me how beautiful and gorgeous I was.. All my old gang from up home were there it was so great to see them!
I truly felt like the prettiest woman in the world right then and there. I swear... I felt like a princess and I swear I must have looked like one too. The 'bridal glow' was without a doubt blushing my cheeks.
The priest had everyone lined up for the processional and then it all began. The bridal party walked slowly down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon in D minor, the flowergirl and the ringbearer were the cutest couple of 3 year olds ever! I cannot describe the feeling I was feeling right then and there. I don't think I've even been able to identify that feeling myself. It felt as if I was numb, only then realizing that it was actually here, our wedding day! And then again I felt ready to burst because of all the emotions going through me!
Me and my father started walking down the aisle to the ever so 'this is it' notes of "The bridal march (here comes the bride)" I wanted to look DF in the eyes right I as started walking, but I was affraid that I would start to tear up. So instead, I started to look in the pews at all the 200 faces staring at the bride - me. I saw everyone's red faces and when I saw one of my old best friends, Caroline, with tears streaming down her red face... that's when I decided that I would look in DF's eyes because I was going to cry no matter what!
All through the ceremony I was grinning ear to ear to the point that my cheeks were hurting but I couldn't stop grinning. I could see that DF was so nervous, and it made it that much sweeter! We did this great thing during the ceremony where our parents each put their right hand on our shoulders and they blessed us.. it was so touching. We were kissing as husband and wife before I knew it. Then we walked back up the aisle, married! At that precise moment, all I can remember is that I was the happiest woman in the world. The flowergirl and ringbearer were walking down the aisle hand in hand they were soo cute!
We exited the church and family members and friends were coming from all sides to shake our hands, kiss us and wish us their best. I remember being so thirsty that I felt as if my mouth was going to stay glued shut at the next kiss. One of the GMs, fortunately, had a bottle of water.. phew! (My advice to you, make sure you have water for when everyone is congratulating you!)
Me and Stephane got in the back of the antique car and drove all accross town to get to our photo location. The cars passing by kept honking the horn and waving to us and smiling and we truly felt like royalty hah! It was so much fun!
We got to the convent where they have nice greeneries and flowers, and we did a ton of pictures. There were so many moskitoes and general annoying, biting, flying bugs..it was sooo hot, and I had like a billion bugs in my veil. The bridal party (mostly the men part) were complaining about all of the above. When we were done all the group pictures we gave them a break and me and stephane alone with the photographers went to the beach for some pictures. I can't wait to see how they turned out! We did some really sweet ones! (mostly informal)
After the beach pictures it was time for us to get to our venue and start welcoming our guests to our reception! Sometime after we arrived at the hall I had to go pee so that was quite the weird-funny experience : the bridesmaids and the MOH trying to hold my dress up while I sit on the toilet haha!
When the time came, we were all introduced inside the reception and congratulated with applause. Then we sat down and dinner was served. The fruit punch was to die for!! The meal was great and the dessert was succulent! The party started with our first dance - Back at one by Brian McNight. Everyone gathered around us in a circle and blew bubbles to us! It was so funny and cute and romantic! Then one bubble went up my nose (of course only me and DH noticed! LMAO)
Then the father-daughter dance came. We danced to Butterfly kisses, and we didn't want to look in each others eyes for too long because we knew the bawling would start hehe! We held our tears back until the song was over and then I hugged my father as hard as I could (I hadn't hugged him since I was a kid..) and then I started to tear up.
The bouquet toss and the garter toss went as planned; the family arranged so that a long time dating couple in the family that should tie the knot soon catched those! teehee! We danced untill I think midnight until we were about to drop, we were dead tired! We said goodbye to everybody and did our thank you speech and left for our honeymoon suite. (In that same hotel)
When we opened the door to our room, balloons flew toward us. They had filled our room with burgundy, white and silver balloons from floor to ceiling and they had filled our hot tub with plastic antenna flowers! UGH! We were exhausted, DF started to complain about the mess when his cousin Tanya (a BM) jumped up from behind a big chair where she was hidden to film the whole thing! I screamed my head off and threw a bunch of balloons at her and you actually see it on film it's hilarious! Gladfully my parents and those who were aware of the trick being played on us came to our rescue to help us throw some balloons out into the reception hall so we could actually walk around in the room. We coudn't just stomp on the balloons since it was midnight and we didn't want to wake up the whole floor.
Everyone left when we only had about 50 balloons left in there lol! And the rest of the night is censored :P
Mrs. Nancy V! (With her head still in the clouds!)