The (Big) Wedding (as told by the bride) In the past several months, Tim and I have confused a lot of people with phrases like “our first wedding” and “our courthouse wedding” or “the October wedding” and “the big wedding.” Well, you can refer to the story about “The First Wedding” for the details on why we did it this way, but here is the story of our wedding day, October 12, 2008. If you are familiar with my insane obsession with lists and schedules, you’ll know that I had the morning over-planned. I met with my bridesmaids, Tami, Erin and Kellie, at Shear Excellence for hair and make-up. Our stylist, Lisa, has been doing my mother’s hair forever, and all three of us sisters have gone to her as well. She was willing to open on a Sunday just for us, so we had the place to ourselves and it was fun to sit around, eating bagels and sipping coffee while we got hair and makeup done. My mom showed up a bit later to have her makeup done and model the two outfits she was still deciding between. My dear friend Emily (whose husband, Ben, was our pastor) stopped in, too, just to hang out and share in our excitement. It was so fun to relax with some of my favorite people! Miraculously, we finished up a bit early at the salon and headed over to the hotel room to get dressed. My darling husband had sweetly left us some snacks! It didn’t take long to get all put together, and I think most of our time was spent trying to pin Kellie’s bra to her  dress. Tami helped clasp my necklace, which was actually jewelry I’d worn when I was her Maid of Honor two years ago. That counted as my something old. For something new, I had barrettes I’d stumbled across at Michael’s just days before the wedding. My something borrowed and something blue was a garter Tami lent me for the occasion. We were again ahead of schedule, so I called Tim to make sure we weren’t arriving at the church at the same time. He couldn’t see me until I was coming down the aisle! When we got to the church, we hid out in the Youth Room, which conveniently had a pool table, foosball, and ping pong. (My photographer was pretty excited about that.) From that room, we had a great view of the parking lot, and we watched as people arrived. As more and more people got out of their cars, my stomach began to tighten and I began feeling a bit nervous as I realized that there were going to be a lot of people looking at me! (Since this is told by the bride, I’ll fill you in on what the groom was doing with his groomsmen on the morning of our wedding. They met up for lunch, then got dressed and sat around playing cards until the ceremony began. Boring.) When our guests were settled in their seats, and the slideshow of baby pictures had played through a dozen times, we got our cue to take our places. Everyone lined up outside the doors as they’d practiced the day before. I was shooed away, hidden around a corner where Tim couldn’t see me, and told to stay put. My heart was pounding, and it was kind of nice to have a few moments standing alone to process the day so far. Already it was moving too quickly. My processing was interrupted when I realized that the song that everyone was supposed to be walking down the aisle to was halfway through, and still the line hadn’t moved. I tried to communicate this to my bridesmaids with whispered shouts and crazy hand gestures, but I kept getting shooed back around the corner. Oh well! I’m not sure which bridesmaid was walking down the aisle when the song ended and there was an awkward pause before our sound guy realized what had happened and restarted the song. At last, I took my place with my father and watched as my mother and mother-in-law lit the tapers for the unity candle. As we began walking down the aisle, I had a huge smile on my face. My eyes were fixed on my handsome groom. I was told afterward that Dad had a proud, military-like look. When I told him this, he said it was all his practice holding the banner for the AOH in parades. So if you ever need someone to walk you down the aisle, my dad’s a pro. The ceremony flew by. Tim and I had selected two of our favorite hymns, and it hadn’t occurred to me until they began that I didn’t really know that words very well. So I sang the parts I knew, and laughed through the rest. Sorry, Ben, but I honestly can’t remember much of what you said at our wedding. I know it involved a metaphor of a hand. Jared was kind enough to catch the ceremony on video for us, though, so I’ll have to watch that to refresh my memory. When the ceremony ended, Tim and I and our bridal party dashed to the Strand (the downtown waterfront in Kingston, for you non-Kingstonites) for pictures. Our photographer had suggested the location, and we thought it was a great idea. What we didn’t know until that day, however, was that there was an Italian Festival going on that weekend. The Strand was packed with food vendors and a huge crowd. We finally found parking and then managed to locate our photographer and bridal party members. While we squeezed through the crowd, it was first a little embarrassing, since Tim was in a suit and I was in a wedding dress, but we soon embraced the fun and chaos, and appreciated the hundred “congratulations!” that were shouted to us along the way. One vendor tipped off our photographer that a boat was going to be doing a water show in a few minutes. That sounded picture-worthy to our photographer, and so as the boat approached, Tim and I were posed so it could be seen in the background. Suddenly, people started oohing and ahing, and our photographer started snapping pictures. Apparently this water show had begun, but Tim and I had our backs to the water and had no idea what it looked like. Finally, I had to turn around and see what was so exciting! After running around behind our photographer, ducking through crowds and trying not to knock over trays of sausage and peppers, he was satisfied that we’d taken advantage of enough of the gorgeous colors of the leaves and buildings, and we headed to the cocktail hour. Our guests clapped for us as we entered the room. It was incredible to look around that room and see so many of our family and friends all in one place. The reception was a lot of fun. Our first dance was to “Rest of My Life” by Blessid Union of Souls, a song about a friendship that turns romantic. Tim and I think the lyrics tell our story well and we love the line, “When I said I love you, that’s what I meant, and I’m going to show you if it takes me the rest of my life.” Next, I danced with my dad and Tim danced with his mom to Louie Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” We tried to catch up with our guests, many of whom we hadn’t seen in months or years. We ate and drank and danced. Later in the night, we did an anniversary dance. All married couples are invited to the dance floor, and as they dance, the DJ announces, “Everyone married less than one day, please leave the floor,” and then one year, five years, and so on, until only one couple is left. Now, traditionally, the elimination begins with one day, and the bride and groom have to leave the floor. In our case however, we had been married since March, so a few couples who had gotten married this summer were actually the first ones to sit down. After that first batch was gone, the DJ ask that all couples married less than six months, 24 days and three hours leave the floor, and that was when we had to sit down. The last couple dancing was Tim’s grandparents, and we celebrated their long marriage with them. Another thing that was fun at our wedding was that my god-daughter (and daughter of my Matron of Honor, Tami), Cora, happened to be celebrating her first birthday that day. We’d asked our DJ to acknowledge her special day, and so we sang Happy Birthday to her. As our guests slipped out and things began to wind down, I was reluctant to let the day end! It had been so much fun and I wanted it to last forever. But when the only people left were my immediate family, we quickly cleaned up and loaded the car. Tim and I drove back to our hotel, exhausted. The next day, we stopped at Tami and Matt’s home in West Point for Cora’s birthday party. From there, we went to a little bed and breakfast and spa in Pennsylvania for our honeymoon. We had massages, visited Crystal Cave, played min-golf, and ate some amazing breakfasts. After five nights at the B&B, we felt rested and refreshed, and returned to our home in Maryland on Saturday, with enough time to catch up on laundry and mail before going back to work on Monday. Tim and I are so glad to have shared our wedding day with so many of you. We feel so blessed that we have so many people rooting for us in this marriage. Your love and support is felt and is appreciated. Next Story -->  Return Home