Whew, it's been awhile, hasn't it? I guess it has only been about 3 weeks, but what a 3 weeks it has been.

First, the wedding. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I wanted, and I can't think of one thing that I should have done differently. I don't have the pictures back yet, but when I do, I'll post a link to them. I think, all told, I spent about $8500 total, and that is with a full church wedding, 5 attendants each, 3 little people, cake, liquor, and meal for 325 guests and honeymoon for 6 days.

We decorated all day the day before and the hall looked absolutely gorgeous. The balloons and table decorations and cake table all came together perfectly. I can't say how much my family came together for this. 5 sisters, my mom, his mom, a friend of his from high school and me spent about 6 hours putting it together. I WISH I had the pictures back, but that'll have to wait.

The wedding itself was absolutely exactly the way I wanted it. It was a full Catholic mass, but no extra stuff. No Unity Candle, no "flowers to Mary" thing. Just a regular Mass with our vows, blessing and exchange of rings, and the special blessings the priest prays over us. The singer and organist played/sang very well (and made me cry), and the entire congregation joined in singing and in the responses, which is what I wanted. I wanted full participation from the congregation, and they did it. Putting the extra effort into the program was worth it, so they could follow along.

A little humor during the ceremony...the priest forgot to get the holy water to bless the rings with, so my brother, an alter boy, went back to get it for him. He leaned over to us and said "I forgot the holy water. It'll just be a second." The best man replied, "That's ok, I forgot the rings." He had been saying things like that all day AND the day before, so I knew he was joking, but the priest didn't . So the priest kinda freaked out a bit, but DH and I just giggled.

I thought the three young kids were going to have a meltdown immediately before the ceremony started. The two girls were fighting over the flowers, and the ring bearer was sleeping. We had to take the flowers away until they were next in line to go up, had to wake him up and keep him from being grouchy, and then we hooked their arms together, gave them their flowers, and sent them up. They were so cute, and they were very good once they were out in front of everyone. No trouble at all, even though they were all 3 years old. Could have been trouble! The ring bearer fell over for some reason when we were all up at the front, but the best man just picked him up and put him back on his feet, and he was ok.

When I walked out of my little "hiding" room, I first saw my friends from Texas at the back of the pews. They were a little late, and I actually am glad they were, because they were the first people I could see. That made me even happier, that they could be there. Then, I turned the corner and could see my guy at the end of the aisle, and I couldn't get my dad to walk fast enough so I could get up there. We had a kneeler in the middle of the aisle with chairs behind us, so it felt like we were in our own little world...not having to look out at the congregation, like the priest was only talking to us. Everyone said how nice the ceremony was, and I agree.

The reception and dance were really good, too. It went too fast, and I didn't get to spend time with everyone I wanted to, but it was so much fun. Food was awesome, cake was awesome. The Grand March was a lot of fun...there were a lot of my friends that hadn't done that before, but I think they had a good time. We had one dance by ourselves, another dance with the entire wedding party, and then everyone could dance. We stayed until the end, til the lights came up, and then we left for our family and friends to clean up

If I had to do it over again, I would:
- leave more time to get ready and take pictures. I knew we were going to be late, no matter what our intentions were. That is just how my family is. We should have said pictures were 30 minutes earlier than they were, so we could have had more of them.
- pick out the songs the DJ would play. I thought that because she was a professional and supposedly did this kind of thing all the time that she would know what songs would get people out on the dance floor. But she didn't, and played a lot of weird songs. That was a disappointment. AND she didn't play the Flying Dutchman (which I had explicitly told her to), but I didn't remember that until the next week.
- keep a list of everything you buy for decorations, and what you plan on doing with them. I had some things that I forgot what I was going to do with them cause I had bought them 3 months earlier!
- figure out that hooks, eyes and a snap on your halter wedding dress will not hold up your boobs if you don't have a bra on. Especially if you are a double-D like I am. Somehow, get yourself some support. When you try your dress on, dance around, jump around, bend over, hug people, etc. Don't just stand there like a statue with your tummy tucked in, cause that is not what you will be doing for 10 hours that day.

Long story short, I am so glad I put the time in months before hand so I wouldn't freak out the week before the wedding (I left work a little early on Thursday and decorated on Friday. Everything else was done, so I didn't have to take off a lot of time before hand). I kinda impressed myself with how I handled all the arrangements, cause I didn't have much help, as vain as that sounds. I have only heard good comments, and believe me, if something had gone wrong, someone would have told me about it. We are very happy, we were surrounded by our family and friends, we had good food, good wine, good atmosphere, no one got in a fight, and everyone got home safely. Can't ask for more than that, huh?

Next blog...honeymoon.