Too Long, Again

That's what she said.

Okay, just kidding.

The month leading up to and the week of the wedding prevented me from forming any coherent thoughts.  I think I finished a book during that time and totally did not post about it.  I'll figure out if that's true or not.

Mawwage!

The pictures, ceremony, and reception were amazing.  So many people, so much love, and so much happiness.  It was a truly wonderful day.

Except that it took too fucking long.

I woke up at 6am.  I laid there and stared at the ceiling for ten minutes hoping to fall back asleep for just another 45 minutes before I had to get up and do a bunch of shit.

Nope, I got up and proceeded to start the day off right with a bowl of oatmeal.

Luke had helped me pack the car up the evening before he left to stay at his brother's.  So with the car already ready to go, I stopped at the grocery store to by far too many bottles of water and a bag of ice to tote around with me all day in a cooler the size of my torso.

On the way to the manor that morning, my sister texted me that her boyfriend's car had gotten broken in to.  I called her right away and ended up picking her up instead (why didn't we just plan that originally?  I'm dumb, that's why) and got to the manor at about 8am.  We brought everything inside in about an hour.  Lots of stairs.

Mom made it after a while and I drove the three of us back to my house.  Chad picked us up in the rental car and brought us to the salon.  We each had our hair done, my mom and I had make-up application, and Jessica got a mani/pedi.  We all looked purty.

Chad picked us up and brought us to the manor.  Mom and Jess changed, and then the photographer arrived.  We immediately started in on pictures; I got in to my dress, Mom and Jessica helped.  I proceeded to put on my 4" platform pump stilettos and wear them for the next 4 hours.

I saw Luke for the first time that morning after I came down the main staircase in the manor.  My parents started sobbing, and I pretty much shouted at them to shush it.  No crying allowed!

Luke had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face I'd ever seen.  I didn't really quite know what he would do when he saw me in my dress.  His lack of words said more than anything he could have ever verbally expressed.

Pictures went well.  it was a little chilly, and a bit windy, but nothing we couldn't handle.  The photographers appreciated the cloud cover, makes for better pictures.

My feet are starting to hurt after two hours in these.  At this point I'm thinking "Alright, let's just get to the damn church and get this shit over with, I'm hungry and my feet are killing me."

We head to the church.  I forget the bulletins at the manor.  Kelly, Chad's s.o., rushes to the manor and back in half an hour, just in time to have the ushers pass them out while the prelude music was wrapping up.

Prelude music consisted of:
Dearly Beloved, from Kingdom Hearts, performed by Kyle Landry in 2008 (played from a disc).
Aerith's Theme, from FFVII, played by our pianist, Kris Henry

Processional music:
Tifa's Theme, from FFVII, played by Kris Henry

Recessional Theme:
Kingdom Hearts March, from Kingdom Hearts (played form a disc).

Pastor Jim read a bit from John about love, and how love comes from God, and when you love each other, you also love God, and it changes you, and it also changes God because you love [her] in the process of loving another human.

Yeah, I can get behind that.  Love is awesome.  If there's one thing that could affect the higher power, whatever he/she/it may be, it would be love.  It's almost like this deity has a Power Bar, and the more people that love each other, the more it fills up and the more powerful it gets.

Too many people don't love others.  Actually, it's not even that.  It's that too many people hate.

Pastor Paul finished the ceremony, he didn't tell us to kiss like he said he would, just presented us to the group, and then my mom basically shouted at me to kiss Luke while everyone was clapping and the recessional music had already started.

So then we headed to the manor, and my mom got lost again.  Somehow.  I don't know how people get lost here.

Anyway, Jessica and my photographer, Ashley, bustled my dress, and I headed back down in to the party.  My family insisted on doing more organized pictures and I was ready to tear my hair out.  I changed in to my ballroom shoes, and we visited with people as they arrived (or were already there).

Dinner was wonderful.  Everyone enjoyed it.  We had a great time.  Jessica and Chad said a few things, my dad said a few things, and everyone sort of cried and laughed.

Luke and I danced our rumba to You Belong to Me by Jason Wade (from the Shrek I soundtrack).  And then my dad and I danced to All Of My Love by Led Zeppelin.  And then Luke and his mom danced to a jazz tune that was a medley of Pennsylvania 6500 and a few other songs.  We also did a garter find and Luke wore it on his arm the rest of the evening.

We proceeded to dance for a few hours, took pictures, visited, hung out, drank, ate cupcakes, etc.  It was super fun.  I eventually took my shoes off completely because my feet were killing me.

My dad took all the left over alcohol and liquor to our hours and left it all in the garage.  Chad took Luke and I to the St. Paul hotel where we spent that evening and Saturday/Saturday night there.  It was a good time.

But man, once Luke and I finally had time to ourselves it was very much wanted.  We went back down to the hotel lobby/bar and had a drink (I wore my puma sneakers because I had no other shoes and didn't want to put my heels back on) and we sat by the fire in the lobby while we drank.  I asked Luke his opinion on how the day went for him, fast or slow?  And he goes, "Uh, whoever says your wedding day goes by fast is full of crap, today went by really slow".  Maybe we had just been warned so many times about it that we were paying attention all day. :P

Back up in the room, we spent the next half hour taking my hair down.  I had about 75 bobby pins in my hair.

I'll spare you the details on what we did next.  You can figure it out.  You're not dumb.

Pretty sure I passed out within seconds of shutting off the lights.  And then for whatever retarded ass reason, I woke up at 8am.

TL;DR: Married and it was awesome.