Well, on Friday, August 13th 2010, my sweetie and I got married.
Here is a long rambly summary of our super duper wedding...
Let's start with the day before: We paid extra money so we could have our Venue (Old Arizona Theater) for two days, so we could do set up the day before. This was HUGE and if anyone has this option, its SO worth it! We got in there about Noon on Thursday, and family started trickling in to help with set up, flower arrangements, rolling silverware, folding napkins. We couldn't get a concrete delivery time from the rental Company (aarcee) so luckily had enough other tasks to keep people occupied. Once the tables and chairs arrived, we got those all arranged, table cloths on, napkins at places, seating chart finalized, etc.
We then did a quick 2 rehearsals with our officiant (one for the indoor space, and one for the outdoor space). it was a lot of "blah, blah, blahs" (literally), because she told us if she shared her words for the ceremony, it would "ruin the wedding". I am SO glad we didn't hear any of it in the rehearsal, we just went over the logistics, who stands where, who goes in what order, etc.
We then skedaddled out to Robbinsdale to have our RD at Nonna Rossa. The staff was so accommodating for our large group (think there were 17 of us), the apps were great, wine kept flowing, and food was alright, The Hubs and I split a dish, and both ate about 2 bites - we had no appetite. We gave out our thank you gifts to people, and then I had to ask family to go home. We went back to Old Arizona with just a few people, and was able to much better narrow in on the remaining tasks, hanging bunting, making picture boards, without the stress of 20 people asking me what they can do now.
We got out of there about 11 or so. Had to go home and take a shower after such a sweaty bustling day, then packed up my stuff for the wedding, went to my my best friends house, and we finished up my veil, which turned into a hair piece, because I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. In some ways, I wish I would have just stayed at home, and spent the last night with FI. It would have made things a lot less stressful. He was up all night finishing up the escort cards, think he went to bed about 6 am! Yikes. I felt bad. But I didn't get much sleep myself... but strangely woke up on Friday feeling totally fine. I began stalking the weather websites immediately, and it was RAIN, RAIN, RAIN predicted all day long, but it wasn't raining yet...
There were a few last minute errands to run on Friday, but my BF took me out for breakfast, which I hardly remember, I don't think we talked much, I was just sort of in a haze! I had to go home, and get some things I forgot, so the Hubs hid while I gathered what I forgot. We wanted to not see each other before the "first look" - that was maybe dumb - we could have helped each other that last morning if I hadn't been so stubborn.
Then my mom picked me up, we went and got my sister, and off we went to the hotel (Chambers) for an early check in. I had been concerned that even though 3 different times staff members had told me I could do an Early Check in, that I would get there and they wouldn't have a room available for me. Well, it turns out they did have a room, even though the guy at the desk gave me a little look and some attitude when I asked. Whatever, no biggie. We got our room. Got settled a bit, then, the hair dresser arrived. I wish I could tell you who did my hair. She was great. Her name was Kim. She does my mom and sisters hair, and came to the hotel to do all of ours for the day of. I don't actually know what salon she works at. I should find this out. Anyway, started with my hair, which I loved. Kept an eye on the grey grey skies. Still no rain. Ate a little lunch my sister brought to the hotel. Little. I was so not hungry. Just eating because I knew I had to. Drank a lot of water, too. Photographers arrived (Render Photography). Started make up. Annoyed, because I was doing my own, then my mom and sister kept asking me about this or that, and in the long run, didn't do as much with my makeup as I would have liked, because I was giving them a lesson. Sky was becoming less grey! Mom and sister got their hair done. Dress went on, shoes went on. OOOOHHH... let me back track here. The Dress! It was made for me by a friend of FI's family, using the material from my Grandmothers 71 year old wedding dress. It was supposed to be done on July 14. I did not see the final dress until August 12, the Thursday morning before the Friday 13th wedding. I did not have a chance to try everything on, shoes, dress, jewelry, etc, until the day of my wedding, in the hotel room, with my mom, sister and photographers standing around. I do not recommend this. I loved the dress, and in the end it was fine. But to have some time to get used to being in the dress, and seeing all the pieces together would have been nice. I would have changed some things if I had had the chance to think about it all together a bit more. So, sky seems to be clearing. FI calls. He forgot his tie at home, so he's scrambling home to get that. He might be a little late to pics. We leave the hotel, and head to Loring Alley (by Cafe Lurcat and Lunalux) for pics. We are doing first look, so can't start anything without him. He finally arrives. Do our little first look. This was nice, but dont think it was all it was cracked up to be, at least not emotionally. I might have rather waited to see him when I came walking down the aisle, but logistically, this just didn't work for our day. So we did that. Family is waiting around for pics. Get through almost half of the formals, and I feel a raindrop. Get the Bride an umbrella! We all dash to cars as the sky opens up and downpours! We head back to Old Arizona to finish up the remaining photos. Thank goodness we did, there were a lot of last minute details that still needed to be sorted out - like that I had never given anyone the task of getting the centerpieces on to the actual tables. Thank you cousins! For some strange reason, a TON of family decided to arrive more than an hour before the ceremony. WHAT!? Who does this? Partly this was helpful, and partly this was extremly stressful. I just tried to ignore people. We finished up our formal pics at old arizona. not ideal for shooting the group shots. :(
Throughout all of this, I still want to do my ceremony OUTSIDE. Really bad. Someone pulls up the radar on their phone, the storm has passed. Quick, family members that came early, help move chairs outside. DJ (Neon Express), move equip outside. We are gonna do this! So we all get ourselves assembled for our 5.30 ceremony. I need to go pee. I realize this is it. I am about to get married. The day has been so hectic, so whirlwind, I haven't had a chance to let it all sink in. I'm the bathroom for maybe 10-20 seconds and someone is knocking at the door, "Are you alright in there?"... seriously people, give me a f*cking moment! I barely got a chance to look at myself in the mirror. I would have liked to reapply some make up, adjust myself in the dress, etc, but I felt too rushed. Wedding party is assembled and out we go. We are lined up, and I hear the music start. FI and his parents walk up. We can see out the window, watching them walk up the aisle. I'm getting emotional. My mom see's one of my Aunts, and says, "Oh no! Jill is already bawling. How am I going to do this?" I never took the time to think about the fact that my parents are emotional in all this too. Then go the rest of them, MOH and BM, RB and FG... Then signal the DJ that its time for ME! The music changes (Buddy Holly, Dearest) and the guests rise. I cry and smile as I walk down the aisle. I haven't seen pics yet. I'm afraid my face is going to be one contorted mess. I tried to walk slow, tried to look at people in the audience, tried to look at FI waiting for me at the end of the aisle, under the trees where we were about to become Husband and Wife. And you know what? I don't remember a thing. I don't remember him looking back at me, I don't remember seeing anyone's face as I walked down the aisle. I don't remember saying thank you to my parents, or giving them hugs. This makes me so sad. I wish I knew what my dad said to me as he handed me off. I wish I knew what I said to my mom. Nothing...
Then the audience disappeared, and I was listening to our officiant, Emma. It was just me and FI and her. I lost track of anything else. The ceremony was amazing, and having not heard anything that she was going to say before hand, made me listen that much more intently to what she was saying. She's a good friend from highschool. The ceremony was really really personal, and it was touching. At some point I loosened up a little bit, and started to take in my surroundings. I saw my SIL whisk away her daughter, I imagine it was a bathroom emergency. I noticed a car drive by (we were getting married in a fenced in courtyard right at a busy intersection in Minneapolis, there are cars and busses going by, airplanes flying overhead, people walking down the street). It became very REAL. My best friends did a reading for us. (I like you, by Sandol Stoddard Warburg) Then the VOWS. Earlier in the day Emma had called me to finalize something in the vows, and read them to me over the phone. I got choked up just listening to her read them to me on the phone, so I knew I was going to have trouble getting through them. I cried my way through the beginning, then there was this guy walking down the street on his cellphone. He really put me at ease, and I was able to finish them. People told me later that while I was speaking the guy on the phone crawled up on the fence a little bit, to see what was going on, jabbering away on his phone the whole time. Once he realized it was a wedding, he went on his merry way. Oh, and at this point, the sky is getting really dark. I think I feel a rain drop or two. And then FI did his vows. And then we were married. Just like that, Husband and Wife. We walked down the aisle, and then the plan was to hide out for about a half hour. Guests would start cocktail hour, apps would be served, and then we would come and make our grand entrance. It started to pour down rain shortly after we went to hide. The timing could not have been more perfect - i got my outdoor ceremony, so I didn't care what the weather did. I heard someone say there was a rainbow. We got our photographers, and went out side for some more pics. We ran into some of our guests, which wasn't really the plan, but ohwell...
Then we gathered ourselves and the wedding party to do our grand entrance. The DJ had phonetic spellings of all of our names, and he didn't call me Kristen, so the night felt like a success :) We got guests seated. Got to go eat our yummy yummy food from Brasa. Though, we really barely ate anything. We still had no appetite.
Got up and mingled some with the guests, had intentions of getting to all the tables, and sadly, this did not happen, we'd be headed to talk to someone, and get stopped by 6 other people! Oh well. We tried! I kind of wish we had done some sort of receiving line, so that we could have at least said hello to everyone. Then I hear an announcement, can't remember if it was my dad or the DJ that the food was running low, and they were going back to the restaurant to get more, and the last few tables would have to wait a bit for food... UHWHAT?! That was really embarrassing and I had no idea what was going on. Maybe luckily I hadn't been there when the catering manager came over and asked Nate what he wanted to do, as they were running low on Food. His decision was "feed our guests". Good call husband!
So there was a bit of a delay, we did toasts and stuff then, which hopefully helped kill some time for the hungry tables?! The toasts were super touching and my family has a tradition of for big celebrations, they get together and write a song to sing to the celebrating person/people. They handed out the song to all our guests, and they all sang the cute song they had written to the tune of "Oh My Darling", with verses about each of us growing up, and then us as a couple, and it was adorable. I teared up through it all, it was really touching to just realize we were surrounded by so much love and so much support, all in one room. It was really overwhelming.
Once people had eaten, we got around to dessert, well, really I think the only reason we got to dessert was our photographer asked if we wanted a pic of us feeding each other. We had two desserts. A traditional Danish wedding cake, called a Kransekage, which, I being the Dane, don't like, but Nate loves, so that was his Grooms Cake, and then I got cupcakes for the secondary dessert. I realized in planning a wedding I don't love dessert. I didn't really care what we had. Cupcakes seemed easy. So we got pics of us doing our desserts. Then we did our first dance, and father daughter, mother son dances. I have a vague recollection of our first dance. Very vague. Or maybe we did dancing then dessert. I can't remember anymore! My mom had to come rescue me from the father daugher dance. It was a polka, and I don't really polka. My dad was a good lead, but it must have been pretty obvious that I was struggling :) And I thought I picked a short song, but my goodness, it seemed to go on FOREVER. Oh, and I was worried my boobs were popping out of my dress the whole time, too!
The rest of the night was a mix of dancing on the dancefloor with nieces and friends, or chatting with people outside. Oh yeah, the rain stopped, and the night cleared up, and we were able to open the huge garage door which opened out onto the courtyard, and made our venue space really lovely. It had been the big selling point to us when were looking at the venue, so it was a hot humid august night, but still a great night for being outside/inside :)
Whatelse?! I know this is super long, and rambly runon boring, but its fun to write it down, and remember the little things. No one got out of control that I know of. Seemed like everyone was having a wonderful time, we received a bajillion compliments on what a great party it was, so hopefully it really was. We had an excellent time. Went back to the hotel and CRASHED. We were exhausted. And then woke up the next morning and were Husband and Wife. And we live happily ever after... THE END :)
Here is a long rambly summary of our super duper wedding...
Let's start with the day before: We paid extra money so we could have our Venue (Old Arizona Theater) for two days, so we could do set up the day before. This was HUGE and if anyone has this option, its SO worth it! We got in there about Noon on Thursday, and family started trickling in to help with set up, flower arrangements, rolling silverware, folding napkins. We couldn't get a concrete delivery time from the rental Company (aarcee) so luckily had enough other tasks to keep people occupied. Once the tables and chairs arrived, we got those all arranged, table cloths on, napkins at places, seating chart finalized, etc.
We then did a quick 2 rehearsals with our officiant (one for the indoor space, and one for the outdoor space). it was a lot of "blah, blah, blahs" (literally), because she told us if she shared her words for the ceremony, it would "ruin the wedding". I am SO glad we didn't hear any of it in the rehearsal, we just went over the logistics, who stands where, who goes in what order, etc.
We then skedaddled out to Robbinsdale to have our RD at Nonna Rossa. The staff was so accommodating for our large group (think there were 17 of us), the apps were great, wine kept flowing, and food was alright, The Hubs and I split a dish, and both ate about 2 bites - we had no appetite. We gave out our thank you gifts to people, and then I had to ask family to go home. We went back to Old Arizona with just a few people, and was able to much better narrow in on the remaining tasks, hanging bunting, making picture boards, without the stress of 20 people asking me what they can do now.
We got out of there about 11 or so. Had to go home and take a shower after such a sweaty bustling day, then packed up my stuff for the wedding, went to my my best friends house, and we finished up my veil, which turned into a hair piece, because I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. In some ways, I wish I would have just stayed at home, and spent the last night with FI. It would have made things a lot less stressful. He was up all night finishing up the escort cards, think he went to bed about 6 am! Yikes. I felt bad. But I didn't get much sleep myself... but strangely woke up on Friday feeling totally fine. I began stalking the weather websites immediately, and it was RAIN, RAIN, RAIN predicted all day long, but it wasn't raining yet...
There were a few last minute errands to run on Friday, but my BF took me out for breakfast, which I hardly remember, I don't think we talked much, I was just sort of in a haze! I had to go home, and get some things I forgot, so the Hubs hid while I gathered what I forgot. We wanted to not see each other before the "first look" - that was maybe dumb - we could have helped each other that last morning if I hadn't been so stubborn.
Then my mom picked me up, we went and got my sister, and off we went to the hotel (Chambers) for an early check in. I had been concerned that even though 3 different times staff members had told me I could do an Early Check in, that I would get there and they wouldn't have a room available for me. Well, it turns out they did have a room, even though the guy at the desk gave me a little look and some attitude when I asked. Whatever, no biggie. We got our room. Got settled a bit, then, the hair dresser arrived. I wish I could tell you who did my hair. She was great. Her name was Kim. She does my mom and sisters hair, and came to the hotel to do all of ours for the day of. I don't actually know what salon she works at. I should find this out. Anyway, started with my hair, which I loved. Kept an eye on the grey grey skies. Still no rain. Ate a little lunch my sister brought to the hotel. Little. I was so not hungry. Just eating because I knew I had to. Drank a lot of water, too. Photographers arrived (Render Photography). Started make up. Annoyed, because I was doing my own, then my mom and sister kept asking me about this or that, and in the long run, didn't do as much with my makeup as I would have liked, because I was giving them a lesson. Sky was becoming less grey! Mom and sister got their hair done. Dress went on, shoes went on. OOOOHHH... let me back track here. The Dress! It was made for me by a friend of FI's family, using the material from my Grandmothers 71 year old wedding dress. It was supposed to be done on July 14. I did not see the final dress until August 12, the Thursday morning before the Friday 13th wedding. I did not have a chance to try everything on, shoes, dress, jewelry, etc, until the day of my wedding, in the hotel room, with my mom, sister and photographers standing around. I do not recommend this. I loved the dress, and in the end it was fine. But to have some time to get used to being in the dress, and seeing all the pieces together would have been nice. I would have changed some things if I had had the chance to think about it all together a bit more. So, sky seems to be clearing. FI calls. He forgot his tie at home, so he's scrambling home to get that. He might be a little late to pics. We leave the hotel, and head to Loring Alley (by Cafe Lurcat and Lunalux) for pics. We are doing first look, so can't start anything without him. He finally arrives. Do our little first look. This was nice, but dont think it was all it was cracked up to be, at least not emotionally. I might have rather waited to see him when I came walking down the aisle, but logistically, this just didn't work for our day. So we did that. Family is waiting around for pics. Get through almost half of the formals, and I feel a raindrop. Get the Bride an umbrella! We all dash to cars as the sky opens up and downpours! We head back to Old Arizona to finish up the remaining photos. Thank goodness we did, there were a lot of last minute details that still needed to be sorted out - like that I had never given anyone the task of getting the centerpieces on to the actual tables. Thank you cousins! For some strange reason, a TON of family decided to arrive more than an hour before the ceremony. WHAT!? Who does this? Partly this was helpful, and partly this was extremly stressful. I just tried to ignore people. We finished up our formal pics at old arizona. not ideal for shooting the group shots. :(
Throughout all of this, I still want to do my ceremony OUTSIDE. Really bad. Someone pulls up the radar on their phone, the storm has passed. Quick, family members that came early, help move chairs outside. DJ (Neon Express), move equip outside. We are gonna do this! So we all get ourselves assembled for our 5.30 ceremony. I need to go pee. I realize this is it. I am about to get married. The day has been so hectic, so whirlwind, I haven't had a chance to let it all sink in. I'm the bathroom for maybe 10-20 seconds and someone is knocking at the door, "Are you alright in there?"... seriously people, give me a f*cking moment! I barely got a chance to look at myself in the mirror. I would have liked to reapply some make up, adjust myself in the dress, etc, but I felt too rushed. Wedding party is assembled and out we go. We are lined up, and I hear the music start. FI and his parents walk up. We can see out the window, watching them walk up the aisle. I'm getting emotional. My mom see's one of my Aunts, and says, "Oh no! Jill is already bawling. How am I going to do this?" I never took the time to think about the fact that my parents are emotional in all this too. Then go the rest of them, MOH and BM, RB and FG... Then signal the DJ that its time for ME! The music changes (Buddy Holly, Dearest) and the guests rise. I cry and smile as I walk down the aisle. I haven't seen pics yet. I'm afraid my face is going to be one contorted mess. I tried to walk slow, tried to look at people in the audience, tried to look at FI waiting for me at the end of the aisle, under the trees where we were about to become Husband and Wife. And you know what? I don't remember a thing. I don't remember him looking back at me, I don't remember seeing anyone's face as I walked down the aisle. I don't remember saying thank you to my parents, or giving them hugs. This makes me so sad. I wish I knew what my dad said to me as he handed me off. I wish I knew what I said to my mom. Nothing...
Then the audience disappeared, and I was listening to our officiant, Emma. It was just me and FI and her. I lost track of anything else. The ceremony was amazing, and having not heard anything that she was going to say before hand, made me listen that much more intently to what she was saying. She's a good friend from highschool. The ceremony was really really personal, and it was touching. At some point I loosened up a little bit, and started to take in my surroundings. I saw my SIL whisk away her daughter, I imagine it was a bathroom emergency. I noticed a car drive by (we were getting married in a fenced in courtyard right at a busy intersection in Minneapolis, there are cars and busses going by, airplanes flying overhead, people walking down the street). It became very REAL. My best friends did a reading for us. (I like you, by Sandol Stoddard Warburg) Then the VOWS. Earlier in the day Emma had called me to finalize something in the vows, and read them to me over the phone. I got choked up just listening to her read them to me on the phone, so I knew I was going to have trouble getting through them. I cried my way through the beginning, then there was this guy walking down the street on his cellphone. He really put me at ease, and I was able to finish them. People told me later that while I was speaking the guy on the phone crawled up on the fence a little bit, to see what was going on, jabbering away on his phone the whole time. Once he realized it was a wedding, he went on his merry way. Oh, and at this point, the sky is getting really dark. I think I feel a rain drop or two. And then FI did his vows. And then we were married. Just like that, Husband and Wife. We walked down the aisle, and then the plan was to hide out for about a half hour. Guests would start cocktail hour, apps would be served, and then we would come and make our grand entrance. It started to pour down rain shortly after we went to hide. The timing could not have been more perfect - i got my outdoor ceremony, so I didn't care what the weather did. I heard someone say there was a rainbow. We got our photographers, and went out side for some more pics. We ran into some of our guests, which wasn't really the plan, but ohwell...
Then we gathered ourselves and the wedding party to do our grand entrance. The DJ had phonetic spellings of all of our names, and he didn't call me Kristen, so the night felt like a success :) We got guests seated. Got to go eat our yummy yummy food from Brasa. Though, we really barely ate anything. We still had no appetite.
Got up and mingled some with the guests, had intentions of getting to all the tables, and sadly, this did not happen, we'd be headed to talk to someone, and get stopped by 6 other people! Oh well. We tried! I kind of wish we had done some sort of receiving line, so that we could have at least said hello to everyone. Then I hear an announcement, can't remember if it was my dad or the DJ that the food was running low, and they were going back to the restaurant to get more, and the last few tables would have to wait a bit for food... UHWHAT?! That was really embarrassing and I had no idea what was going on. Maybe luckily I hadn't been there when the catering manager came over and asked Nate what he wanted to do, as they were running low on Food. His decision was "feed our guests". Good call husband!
So there was a bit of a delay, we did toasts and stuff then, which hopefully helped kill some time for the hungry tables?! The toasts were super touching and my family has a tradition of for big celebrations, they get together and write a song to sing to the celebrating person/people. They handed out the song to all our guests, and they all sang the cute song they had written to the tune of "Oh My Darling", with verses about each of us growing up, and then us as a couple, and it was adorable. I teared up through it all, it was really touching to just realize we were surrounded by so much love and so much support, all in one room. It was really overwhelming.
Once people had eaten, we got around to dessert, well, really I think the only reason we got to dessert was our photographer asked if we wanted a pic of us feeding each other. We had two desserts. A traditional Danish wedding cake, called a Kransekage, which, I being the Dane, don't like, but Nate loves, so that was his Grooms Cake, and then I got cupcakes for the secondary dessert. I realized in planning a wedding I don't love dessert. I didn't really care what we had. Cupcakes seemed easy. So we got pics of us doing our desserts. Then we did our first dance, and father daughter, mother son dances. I have a vague recollection of our first dance. Very vague. Or maybe we did dancing then dessert. I can't remember anymore! My mom had to come rescue me from the father daugher dance. It was a polka, and I don't really polka. My dad was a good lead, but it must have been pretty obvious that I was struggling :) And I thought I picked a short song, but my goodness, it seemed to go on FOREVER. Oh, and I was worried my boobs were popping out of my dress the whole time, too!
The rest of the night was a mix of dancing on the dancefloor with nieces and friends, or chatting with people outside. Oh yeah, the rain stopped, and the night cleared up, and we were able to open the huge garage door which opened out onto the courtyard, and made our venue space really lovely. It had been the big selling point to us when were looking at the venue, so it was a hot humid august night, but still a great night for being outside/inside :)
Whatelse?! I know this is super long, and rambly runon boring, but its fun to write it down, and remember the little things. No one got out of control that I know of. Seemed like everyone was having a wonderful time, we received a bajillion compliments on what a great party it was, so hopefully it really was. We had an excellent time. Went back to the hotel and CRASHED. We were exhausted. And then woke up the next morning and were Husband and Wife. And we live happily ever after... THE END :)
