Well friends, I've been married for 13 days, and since that is our lucky number (I know, right?), I figured it was high time to get the first of the wedding posts up. There are going to be 3.5 of them for starters, with more to come when I get the official photos from the photographer.
Part 1 - Preparation
There will also be a post entitled "The Saga of the Wedding Gown" over at my sewing blog.
I'll hyperlink each of the titles above when I get them written and posted!
(Thanks to Matthew Bowman, Amanda Dominick, Emily Grace and M.R. Graham for the photos!)
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| Meg and Vicki creating some special stuff... see honeymoon post for more! |
So, Sunday, five days before the wedding, Nathan and I went to pick up my friends Vicki and Hannah from the airport. These amazing young ladies had generously come out early to provide any and all help I needed. They stayed at my house for three days and were amazing - they did everything from creating the wedding program, sewing my bridal cloak, finishing the centerpieces and helping with the seating chart, to cooking food and folding laundry. How we would have survived the Wedding Dress Saga (post to come soon!) without them, I simply don't know. They saw me at my very worst and still want to be friends with me... they are absolute angels!
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| Vicki and Mary Rose doing more wedding stuff. |
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| Me and Amanda, Sisters at Heart! |
After the insanity of wedding dress madness on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was SO READY for a day just to enjoy people. Nathan and I went back to the airport to pick up my friends Amanda and Matt, and one of the groomsmen, Dan. We then took them out to the Original Pancake House for a fantastic brunch! SO fun!
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| Amanda, Me, Nathan, Dan and Matt. |
Matt, who is also my big brother by mutual adoption, write an awesome post about his experiences coming up to the cold snowy north for the wedding.
Check it out here!
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| The girls chill out in the back row |
Then it was time for the rehearsal! It was a blast, and so fun to spend some time with all of the amazing people in our lives.
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| Wedding Party lines up! |
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| Nathan and I practice walking up stairs |
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| Nathan and I practice putting on rings |
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| Abby (Bridesmaid and lifelong friend) and I listen to my Father-in-Law's welcome speech. |
Then it was time to head over to Olive Garden for the Groom's Dinner. This is the very same restaurant where Nathan and I had our first date, January 17th, 2013. The food was great, and my father-in-law gave a hilarious and touching welcome speech.
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| Matt tells us to be cute, and snaps a picture! |
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| I tell how Nathan and I met here a year ago. |
I also gave a speech. I like giving speeches. I'm also going to write up a blog post about our whole courtship, because it was rather unusual... but for now I'm just getting all the wedding stuff up.
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| Meg modelling her fur cape! |
I made necklaces and fur capes for all of my bridesmaids. You'll see the necklaces in the wedding photos, but this is the best one I have of the cape. All the girls loved them!
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| The Marchen Sisters - and Liz! |
To explain the caption above... Meg, Amanda, myself, Vicki and Hannah became dear friends and virtual land sisters on Regina Doman's Fairy Tale Forum which I began and administered for five years. Although I'd met all of them in person before, this was the first time all five of us were in one location! Technically, Hannah (known as "Liz" on the forum) isn't one of the Marchen sisters, but rather a niece, so she always get's tagged "And Liz!" in photos. Thankfully she finds it hilarious...
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| Karina does my gorgeous make-up |
The next day we girls all convened at Meg's house to get ready. However, as you'll notice in the photo above, I'm looking a bit pale and wan... unfortunately it was about this time that a migraine began kicking in for me. While everyone else did get ready, I spent two hours in a dark room, with my mother, sister, sister-in-law(to be) and fiance hovering over me, calling my doctor, and trying to make me better.
I was finally able to go to the chapel, get my hair done, and get into my dress, but I was not getting better...
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| The Church is set up |
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| The flowers are in! |
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| Getting what photos we can... |
I was able to do a 'first look' photoshoot with Nathan, and then we got a few with our whole wedding party, but at that point the noise and lights just got to me and I fled out to the portico, begging that I be allowed to escape with just Nathan to rest my head. We sat out there - yes in the January cold - until nearly the ceremony start time. During that time only my father and one personal attendant were allowed to disturb us, and the cold fresh air kept my nausea at bay, while the freezing temperatures numbed some of the pain.
Nathan stayed out with me the whole time, with his winter coat and my wedding cloak wrapped around us. He made up a story about me being a fairy tale princess and him being a dashing rogue to distract me from the pain while we waited.
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| Friends try not to worry about the missing bride... |
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| Our photographer does wonders and gets what photos she can. |
It was bad, folks. I knew I was going to marry Nathan, but I was beginning to think it might take place out on the porch with just our parents in attendance. My dad kept talking to me and working through what we could do to make it manageable, and we determined what ceremony details could be cut down. Then my doctor arrived and started some whirlwind supplement testing that calmed my body enough to get me into the chapel...
...which leads us on to PART 2. (coming soon!)
2 comments:
There are many "d'awwws" in this post. :)
Lovely pictures! Thanks for sharing!
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