The Details

I promised to write a longer post with all of the details today. It was a very bumpy ride, but in the end our wedding was amazing. This is a long post, so feel free to just look at the photos – I sum up the wedding fails and wedding wins at the end.

The night before the wedding, I wasn’t feeling too great and was extremely tired, so I went to bed and we didn’t add the lettering to the chuppah or write our vows like we planned. Instead, we set the alarm for fairly early so we could get up and get everything done before my makeup appointment at 11. The best laid plans….

I woke up at 6 the morning of the wedding vomiting. I should mention at this point that I almost never throw up – I may get horribly nauseous on occasion, but nothing every actually comes up. I have no idea if I had some sort of fleeting stomach bug or if it was nerves, but what I do know is that it was horrendous. I was completely miserable and all I could think was, “I’m not supposed to feel like this on my wedding day!” I couldn’t even keep anything I took for the nausea  down for long. I finally took some old Phenergan (by the way Mom, that stuff expired seven years ago) which, while not completely effective, did prevent me from vomiting on the way to get my makeup done.

I thought my mom was going to take me to the makeup appointment, but she went to the farm early to set up there, so John took me and my maid of honor, Marie, to Asheville and dropped us off. Thankfully, one of my other bridesmaids, Allison, met us there and was able to take us to the farm. Even better, she brought non-drowsy Dramamine for me, which did wonders for my stomach.

Thank you Allison!

The makeup didn’t take very long, so we went to the farm afterward where we met my cousin, Ali, who did my hair. Oh, and if you couldn’t tell, my braid hair extensions didn’t get there in time. Luckily, Ali is great with hair and curled and pinned my hair to perfection. My awesome photographer, Paula Roberts, was supposed to come at 2:30 to start photos, so John and I were planning on writing our vows before then. While waiting for photos and John, I started getting a bit hungry finally. I had completely forgotten about the whole food thing, but thankfully Allison brought a cooler of snacks (and champagne!). So we sat down upstairs at my aunt’s house (in my bra – I’d forgotten to bring a button-up shirt so I wouldn’t mess up my hair) and ate baguettes with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes and waited…

My mom called at one point, asking when my aunt was supposed to pick up the cake and cupcakes we ordered. I realized that the baker hadn’t replied to my last email asking when they’d be ready to be picked up, so I called to find out. When I asked the girl who answered the phone, she said, “Maybe you should talk to the owner,” and my heart sank. It turns out, he thought the wedding was in October for some reason, though we had been emailing and I’m quite certain I know what month my wedding is in. He sounded horrified that he’d gotten the month wrong, but he couldn’t do anything at that point.

Luckily, my aunt, Randi, and my cousin, Ali, came to the rescue. They went to Sam’s and got a sheet cake with red, blue, and white flowers for us. It may not have been the Guinness chocolate cake with Bailey’s icing and mini cupcakes we wanted, but it arrived in time and was gone by the end of the night, so I guess it worked out okay.

Meanwhile, John was with the guys, setting up the chuppah. When we set it up the day before, John decided that he should make a lattice of duct tape on the top to prevent the satin from sagging and that perhaps it should be tied to the fence in addition to having the poles shoved in the ground. John also had to put the lettering on, but he didn’t think it would take that long.

Cut to half an hour before the photographer is supposed to come. I’m looking out the window at my aunt’s house, trying to figure out why the guys were still working on the chuppah, which still didn’t have the fabric on it. I finally called John who said that it was too windy and they needed to stake it down and were having issues. They finally got it up and stable, but they didn’t start changing until right before the photographer arrived.

Our Tardis chuppah

Paula and my cousin Briana (also a wonderful photographer) started taking photos of my and the bridesmaids first, then we did the whole wedding party, and then she shot just the guys while I was back at the house drinking champagne. By the time the photos were done, people were arriving, and I didn’t see John again until right before the ceremony, so we didn’t have vows written. We decided to wing it.

The processional was the Throne Room and End Title from Star Wars IV. I walked down the aisle with my dad and my step-dad to Queen’s version of the Wedding March from Flash Gordon. Our officiant read the rather brief ceremony we had written, then my maid of AWESOME read the Jewish ceremony. Marie did a fabulous job with the seven blessings and we are so grateful she was willing to do that for us. I got a bit teary at points, but every time John saw me get that “squinty look” he started making silly faces at me so I wouldn’t cry. I did at one point giggle out loud though, which I felt bad about because it was while Marie was reading the seven blessings.

When we got to the vows, they went something like this:

“I promise to take you to every vineyard in North Carolina at least twice”

“I promise to always go see the glockenspiels with you”

“I promise to always buy the big back of Jack Link beef jerky to share”

“I promise to always split the last piece with you”

“I promise to always make you watch movies from my childhood with bad special effects”

“I promise to always watch those movies no matter how terrible the special effects are.”

We exchanged rings, broke a glass, and then John and I walked back up the aisle as husband and wife to the 2008 Doctor Who theme.

No, we didn’t shove the cake in each other’s face

The reception started immediately afterward since we already had almost all of the photos we needed (and because the reception venue was about 20 yards away), and it was a blast! I changed out of my 5″ glittery Union Jack platform boots into my Converse high-tops to facilitate dancing.

I hope all of our guests had a good time; we certainly did. My only complaint is that people left far too early! That was really the only thing I truly regret about the day – not being able to spend more time with everyone.

Cheers!

The only really bad thing about the reception was that someone brought me a glass of wine and it stung me. Apparently somewhere between the booze table and where I was standing, a yellow jacket dived kamikaze-style into the wine, so when I took a sip it stung me on the lip. That was the only time I really cried at the wedding, because that hurt like hell. Luckily, Susan pulled out the stinger and my friend from high school, Dr. Jason Blatt (really), got a cigarette from someone and put the wet tobacco on my lip. The tobacco tasted disgusting, but it brought the swelling down almost immediately.

Wedding Fails

• Being violently ill the morning of the wedding
• Not getting the chuppah done until the last minute
• Not getting the hair extensions in time
• Not writing vows
• Our cake and cupcakes didn’t come through
• Getting stung by a yellow jacket on my lip

Wedding Wins

• All of our super amazing friends and family who chipped in in SO many ways to make it all come together
• All of John’s immediate family was able to come, and his mom and dad wore awesome hats
• My uber-prepared bridesmaid Allison bringing me medicine for my stomach and delicious snacks for later
• The chuppah getting done eventually and looking badass
• My cousin Ali giving me an awesome wedding updo
• Improvising our vows
• My aunt and cousin saving the day by going to get a cake for us
• My maid of honor reciting the blessings in Hebrew for us (with English translations)
• Getting John to dance with me (only once, but still)
• Getting my dad to dance with me (albeit briefly)
• My friend from high school who couldn’t make it being there via Face Time on another friend’s phone
• Seeing everyone, even though we didn’t get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked
• And the biggest wedding win of all: marrying my best friend

Despite all of the many things that went wrong, I couldn’t imagine a better day.

The wedding party

And now I shall leave you with a few more photos.

Awesome hats

The CDS crew with Caroline on Laura’s phone via Face Time