In the beginning...there was chaos.

  On July 31st, 2010 I was more excited than a kid with a cupcake. I got engaged! Many were not surprised by the news simply because Josh and I had been dating for over 6 years. Some of you still do not believe me, but I WAS surprised! Of course we had talked about getting married and I had even picked out a ring that I liked, but there were more than enough discouraging factors around me to keep me thinking it would be no time soon. We have been through so much together and it was just never a good time for us to get hitched so we waited and waited and waited. Our original plan was for us to get married after graduating college. Well, we graduated in the awful year of 2009. We graduated at the same time the economy tanked. Perfect! Neither of us could find a decent job and it was really hard on both of us. When we finally got engaged it was the absolute best time for both of us and the time I had waited so very long for, was going to happen. So, we planned a spring wedding, May 28th, 2011. This is the story of the perfect storm, our wedding.

I decided to make my first blog post about our wedding because that is when our life together really began. It is also a day that I try to avoid talking about or even thinking about. I will preface this story by saying this; No, it was not the best day of my life, but I don't regret getting married and I love my life. Honestly, I should have predicted the way this would turn out and I kind of did. So, Here goes...

There is really no good place to start in telling the story of my wedding, so I will just begin with the dreams or should I say, nightmares. Shortly after getting engaged I started having horrible dreams about my wedding. The types of nightmares I am sure every bride goes through. Mine were usually all the same, the dream would start on my wedding day with me panicking because nothing is done. I would end up having to walk down the aisle with whatever was not finished such as, having no flowers, no chairs for people to sit, no decorations, that type thing. They scared me really bad at first because I am the type of person that wants everything to run smoothly and I had been picturing my wedding for years. I had wedding magazines that dated back to before I was even dating anyone. pathetic much? I ended up using the dreams as motivation to get things done and make sure nothing was forgotten. Unfortunately the nightmares still came true.

There were MANY obstacles in planning my wedding. Most of them i can't even get into, mainly because this is a blog and not a novel. I know many other brides go through the same type obstacles so I didn't even let that get me down. I stayed strong and kept my cool (as much as possible) to keep from seeming like the cliche' "Bridezilla" , but it was extremely stressful. There were many times I asked myself why I was even having a wedding. I decided the only reason I was having a wedding was so I wouldn't be able to regret not having one. Literally the ONLY reason. I made it through all of the planning with only a few bumps in the road and I was still hanging tough.

All of a sudden it was the rehearsal dinner. All I could think about was everything. There was no one thing on my mind, it was all about how this wedding was going to come together. I was worried but I just focused all of that energy into being super woman or some crazy, neurotic, version of that. The rehearsal went fine and then it was off to bed where I was supposed to get some sleep. It didn't happen, but at least I tried. What bride gets sleep the night before her wedding anyway?

Then it was the morning of the big day. My wedding was at 6:30pm in a church and the reception was in a tent outside. So my morning, beginning at 8am was spent at the tent getting it ready for a long night. The only major problem there was the dance floor. Somehow we had under ordered and it was much smaller than what it should have been so I called the rental company and they were amazing! They came out within an hour and expanded it. Crisis averted, or so I thought. With the help of friends and family, we got the tent up and running at a decent time. I remember thinking how nice it felt to be on time and not have to worry about anything.

 Then it happened. I was on my way to the church when I realized i didn't  have my beaded sash or my veil. Upon hearing me say this, my mother started to freak out a little. I tried to stay calm and convince myself my Granny had both of those. She didn't. I still tried to stay calm and I got my hair all fixed and ready. When my hair was done, it was time to spring into action. My Granny had found the veil and was going to get the wrinkles out so I was searching for the sash. My sister and bridesmaids left to go search my Granny's house while me and my other bridesmaid and friend, Caroline went to ransack my apartment to look for it. It was literally my most favorite part of my dress. We never found it. We headed back to the church and i dealt with the fact that I would have to walk down the aisle without this beautiful, expensive, beaded sash I had special ordered from someone in Israel. It wasn't easy.

Then I got a phone call. My sister called me and told me she was on her way to my Granny's house because there had been an accident. She didn't tell me what happened so I prepared myself for the worst. I remember pulling up at the church with Caroline and telling her how much I didn't want to walk in there. I decided I had to. Scared for the worst, I walked in the room where we were getting ready and saw my mom. She was upset. I started to ask her what was wrong and she couldn't say anything other than "it was an accident". I was crying at this point and begging her to tell me what was wrong and finally my older sister pulled me aside and told me what happened. My veil had been ruined. It was burned during efforts to get the wrinkles out. Fortunately the hairdresser knew someone who had recently got married and had a veil similar to mine and was on her way to get it.

I felt terrible. It really wasn't the end of the world but it was such a dramatic incident on top of everything else, that i couldn't stop myself from breaking down. Fortunately I had all my friends and family around me to get through it. It took everything I had to get myself together and walk down the aisle with no pretty sash and someone else's veil. I managed to walk down the aisle with no tears. That was a lot seeing how only a minute before I was crying a river. It wasn't a great day and it wasn't my dream wedding, but it turned out exactly the way it should.

The actual wedding and reception was a great time for all and those are the moments I want to remember. I did find out later that the caterer got lost and was late getting set up, but I won't even get into that. Ha! Here are some pics to hi-light my no-so-perfect wedding. Starting with a picture that shows my sash.