The Wedding: PART 3

NOTE: I am including a LOT of photos in this entry, but I don't have my professional ones yet. I get them this weekend!! Yay!!! In the meantime, these are all moments that were captured by friends and family at random.

So. Back to the wedding.

My two sisters held my dress up as we walked in order to keep it off the ground. It was super windy, and a bit chilly, but the sun was out so I wasn’t complaining! As we walked, Andrew’s best friend from college, Mike, and his beautiful wife Sara and her brother Terry, and Mike’s parents were all arriving last minute. So we stopped to let them pass and get into the church. Karen, Mike’s mom, stopped and snapped some pictures of me and I am so glad she did because it was a moment that wouldn’t have been captured otherwise! My cousin’s dog, a big black lab, was also floating around and he stopped and sniffed me as I was stepping into the church. I think he was just saying good luck! 

We stepped in and I hid behind a screen that had been placed there ahead of time so that each time the door opened I would remain hidden. The string quartet began to play the prelude, and somewhere in all the confusion, the doors opened and we sent Andrew’s mom down the aisle! She wasn’t supposed to go until the next song began to play, so the quartet got all confused when they said a mother walk in. They finished their song and didn’t know what to do, so they skipped their next song, which was supposed to have been “To Sir With Love” by Lulu. This song was meant to be dedicated to my parents because it was on the Billboard Top 100 in 1967, the year they got married in that same church. I was a little bummed that they skipped it, but honestly that was the only thing that really went wrong, so who can complain. As a result, the song that was supposed to be for the bridesmaids and flower girl only, Rondeau by Mouret, ended up being everyone’s song. The string quartet just kept playing it on loop over and over until they pretty much figured that was enough. Ha! 

Finally, there was no one left in that tiny little entry way except for me and my daddy. I put my arm through his and squeezed it and then I heard Here Comes The Bride begin to play. Kyle and Kameron, two of our ushers, opened the doors and I heard the shuffle as everyone began to stand. I didn’t see anyone though. My eyes shot like a cannon to the front of the church to find my Andrew. And there he stood, so very handsome, grinning from ear to ear and his eyes wet with tears. We locked eyes and that is literally all I remember. I don’t remember who I passed in the aisle. I briefly remember thinking there weren’t a lot of flower petals, and that the aisle runner had obviously gotten stuck (which I later learned it did), and little things like that. But mostly, I just saw my Andrew. And my heart fluttered, and my face was warm, and I was smiling, and I had never been happier in my entire life, not for one single moment had I ever been that happy! 

We reached the end of the aisle in what felt like 10 seconds. My daddy gave me away, and handed me over to Andrew. One of my most favorite pictures captures that moment perfectly, because the sun came through the windows at that precise moment as my father walked away and my soon to be husband stepped forward, and I felt loved. Again.

After Bobby’s opening words, the ceremony began with my friend Henry singing John Legend’s “All of Me” while my friend Alice accompanied him on the piano. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. They were perfect together, and Henry’s voice was perfection. Andrew and I were now standing up on a small stage at the front of the church, and we turned outward to face the congregation while Henry sang. It wasn’t until this moment that I suddenly saw everyone. I began to look around the room and take in every face, every smile, every tear (yes, people were already crying.) I took time, again, to remember to take in the moment. I remember seeing so many people that I was so excited to see!! So many people came in from SO far away, and it was amazing to see them all! The church was filled, every single pew was packed to capacity, probably around 150 people. The sun was shining, people were clearly enamored by Henry’s voice, and so many people started looking up at me and smiling, giving tiny thumbs up, and just being happy. My mom and dad were beaming! I remember seeing my friend Tai grinning SO big. And I saw my boss! Ha! Sometimes I would take a break from surveying the room to look at Andrew. Sometimes he was looking at me, too, and sometimes he was also surveying the room. It was one of the most profound moments of my entire life.

The ceremony was beautiful. It felt like it lasted about 30 seconds, but it was more like 30-40 minutes probably. Bobby did an AMAZING job as our officiant, and we could not have asked for a better person to fill that role. His words were heartfelt, genuine, beautifully spoken, clear, and he added just the right amount of “Bobby” to fill in the blanks. My friend Matt read 1 Corinthians 13, the entire chapter about Love, and it was perfect. Those words mean SO much to us and are the true foundation of our relationship, and we could not have asked for any more than Matty reading those words! He held a small brown leather folder that my dad hand-glued a piece of lace that my sister found onto the front with a small flower. The bridesmaids held beautiful bouquets of purple flowers, and I held my mother’s white leather Bible from 1967, covered in lace and beautiful purple flowers. Two huge bouquets of purple flowers adorned the altar, and the beautiful integrity and natural beauty of the church did the rest.

When it was time to say our vows, I surprisingly held it together for the most part. I cried near the end. I meant every word, and I took it very seriously to read every word to my Andrew. My heart and soul was in those words, and I didn’t hold anything back. I wanted to put it all out there before family, God, and each other. His words were even more beautiful, and I felt like during those few minutes again the room emptied. It was just us, and not one single other person existed. We shared that together, and I took in every second. 

We poured purple and brown sand into our beautifully adorned mason jar that my daddy had hand-cut a wooden heart for us, on which was written, “The Gehrings, est. 11-08-14”, and sat atop a beautiful handmade piece of fabric Mama Jane gave us as a gift, that was made from homemade wedding dresses from the Phillipines, with hand embroidered lace and flowers. You can’t make this stuff up people.

 The String Quartet played John Mayer’s “Love Is A Verb” in the background, which is the song that began to play with Andrew proposed to me. After vows, exchanging rings (during which I squealed when I put on that beautiful FIVE ROWS of diamonds and the sunlight caught it and I squeaked with delight!), pouring sand, and spreading the love it was time to kiss the bride. Andrew scooped me up and we kissed….4 times….maybe 5. He squeaked and smiled and was SO happy, too! I think this picture is the best summary of that moment:

He grabbed my hand and the String Quartet began to play Bruno Mars’ “Marry You” as we exited the church down the other aisle, the same aisle which my parents ran down almost 50 years before.

We stood in the entry way to the church and greeted every guest as they filed out. Finally at this point, I was fully aware of every single person and I was thrilled to meet and greet each and every one of them with hugs and kisses and love. I could not stop smiling no matter what! I was so excited to see everyone I knew, and meet everyone I didn’t know! Once everyone was out, Andrew and I exited to a shower of bubbles and shouts of joy.

It was super cold though! But I didn’t care. I was just happy. Everyone took off for the reception really quickly since it was so cold, and Mr. and Mrs. Gehring (squeal!) along with our families and wedding party went back into the church to take the combined group photos and combined bride & groom photos. We had so much fun!

It went surprisingly smoothly and quickly, and then we went to the back to sign our marriage license with my sister and his brother as witnesses. The church was cleared out and back to normal in what felt like 5 minutes! We actually ended up getting done so quickly we had time to spare, so we went and sat in our car (which, may I just say was NO easy task to stuff me into wearing that dress!) and just took a moment to just…be. We did it. Here we were. Husband and wife! The planning was over. The marriage had begun! It was time to….party!!

We drove ourselves to the reception hall, and when we got there everyone was still in line getting food. We opted for a buffet style reception with southern BBQ as our meal. BBQ pork, baked potatoes, coleslaw, baked beans, bread, sweet tea and lemonade was the menu (though we didn’t taste a bite of it until the second day of our honeymoon and we finally dove into the leftovers!) We gave everyone a bit more time to get settled, and then we made our first official entrance as Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Gehring. Woohoo!! Our first dance was to Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors”, which is our song.  I couldn’t tell you the exact order of the reception because it was one big party blur, but here are the highlights:

The Dollar Dance – This was an idea shared with me by my big sister Leslie. The bride and the groom go to the center of the dance floor. The DJ plays a variety of songs and everyone can come up and put a dollar in a jar in order to get a dance with either the bride or groom. It was SO. Much. Fun. Almost everyone was a good sport and participated, we laughed a LOT, and we definitely made some awesome cash to take on our honeymoon!! The highlights were when I twirled and danced with my little cousin Hannah:

 when Matty requested Whitney Houston, and we had a huge dance party that even my little momma broke it down during:

 and above all when Bobby came out on the dance floor and  BUH-ROKE IT DOWN. Y’all.

He was called “that dancing preacher man” for the next few months.

Daddy Daughter Dance – I don’t know what possessed me to ever think that I could get through this moment in one piece. Heck, I couldn’t even get through it in a million pieces. We danced to Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Cinderella”. It started off fine. We were laughing and talking, and I told him how much I loved him. Then I laid my head on his shoulder, and he patted my back. I began to cry, quietly at first. Then I just began to sob. I kept telling him how much I loved him. He kept saying he loved me, that I would always be his baby girl, how much he loved Andrew, how proud he was, and how special this day was to him. I kept holding him tighter and tighter. He felt so small to me. My daddy, always my greatest hero in life. I knew that this was kind of that final moment, that real time when he was handing me over to Andrew. I’ll always be his little girl, but I knew that shift had happened. I cried and cried and cried and held him as tightly as I could. After the music stopped, we didn’t move. We stayed embraced, and it was dead silence. No talking, no hushed voices, no music. Just the sound of my crying. Finally, I was able to pull away from him and look him in the eye and he wiped my tears. I suddenly remembered where we were and I looked around. The entire reception had formed a circle around us, and everyone had stopped to watch. The first person I saw was my mom, who was sobbing herself. The next person I saw was my Andrew, who was also crying. Slowly, everyone began to clap and daddy and I stepped apart and walked off the dance floor. It was truly the most special moment I have ever shared with him, and I am forever grateful that I was able to have that moment in time with my hero, my daddy. 

The Newlywed Game – On a lighter note, we played a super fun game at some point in the evening. Andrew and I sat back to back in the middle of the room, each holding one of our own shoes, and one shoe of the other person. My sister Leslie had created a list of 20 or so questions that neither of us had seen. The DJ read them aloud, and each question was a “Who is mostly likely to…” or “Who does…” type question. So to answer, we had to hold up the shoe of the person we thought should be the answer. We were pretty in sync for the most part, but there were a few hilarious questions that we held up opposite shoes on and everyone got a good laugh. It was SO much fun, broke up the evening nicely, and we learned a few things! I highly recommend this!

Throw in some fun dancing, some great speeches, some smashing of cake into each other’s faces and you have a great reception. We had a wonderful time, and we tried really hard to get around and talk to everyone that we could! The room was lit up in purple and the dance floor simply said, “Love.”

There was no alcohol served (out of respect to my daddy), but people certainly had no shame in busting a move, shouting out and having a blast! We rounded up the evening by having an Anniversary Dance, where all the married couples got out on the dance floor, and the DJ would call out years married in increasing amounts, until the last couples on the floor were those who had been married the longest. It was beautiful to see SOOOOO many strong marriages in among our families and friends!

It started around 4:30, and I believe we left around 8:30, so it was a perfectly wonderful reception full of fun, laughter, dancing, and love. We felt nothing but blessed as we took off and headed off on our honeymoon. It truly was the best day of my life, and I could not ask for one thing more. I wouldn’t change one moment of that day, and I cannot believe it all went off without a hitch!

 I am now 4 months post-wedding. I am the happiest I have ever been. Andrew has proved to be an amazing husband, and I am daily in awe of him. I am proud of him, and love him more now than I ever have. We had a lot of people tell us after the wedding that they could truly SEE our love, and couldn’t remember a wedding in their memory that seemed so genuine and real. I am so glad our love comes across like that. Love takes work, it takes two, and it is amazing. I am forever grateful for this entire journey. It may have taken me four months to write about it, but that is only because I was so blown away by the amazingness that was our Wedding Day. Here's a sneak preview of our official wedding photos!

The Wedding: PART 2

The morning of the wedding. November 8, 2015. We wake up at some abnormally early hour, and for the first time probably ever (and likely the last) I was not grumpy and mean when I woke up. I was SO. Excited. It was our wedding day!!! We made it!!!! But not quite yet. There were hours and hours to go yet and plenty to do.

I had already pre-assigned my friends and family to certain duties, and my first task of the day was hair and makeup. Andrew drove me to Mt. Sterling to meet up with my Mom, and Leslie was meeting us there to drop off Becky. The plan was for Mom and I to go get our hair and make-up done and Becky to document the morning, and Leslie and Mary were going elsewhere to get there hair and makeup done and then we would all meet back at the house. We randomly ran into Andrew’s brother Malcolm in the parking lot at the Shell Station where we met and chatted with him for a few. Leslie dropped Becky off and left, and dad dropped Mom off and left. Then Andrew dropped me off and started to leave. One teeny problem…no one who had been dropped off had a car. So my mom and Becky and myself were just stranded in the Shell parking lot, each thinking that the other had planned on driving. It’s all in the details y’all. All in the details.

Fortunately Andrew didn’t quite make it out before we figured out our little dilemma, and I immediately gave him to Malcolm for the day and I stole the car and drove us to Morehead. Problem solved.

I had my hair and make-up done at the Merle Norman salon in Morehead, KY and they were AWESOME. I have never felt that pretty in my entire life!! But even better? As I sat down in my make-up chair to begin the process, the door opens and suddenly Leslie and Mary walk in with a dozen purple cupcakes and a big bouquet of purple flowers yelling “Surprise!!” They had never really had hair and make-up appointments somewhere else – they had also made theirs at Merle Norman with me and mom! So all of us girls got to have the most amazing morning together, laughing, getting ourselves all prettied up, and making memories. Becky snapped probably 200 photos, so it was all captured perfectly. Again, it was one of those moments where I had thought it was another thing to do, but instead it turned into such a sweet morning full of memories. Hearing my girls laugh and make jokes, and sharing each stage of our hair and make-up and just having a blast was all just perfect, and I am grateful that they came and surprised me. And everyone looked absolutely stunning. My mother straight up could have been in a fashion magazine!!

On our way home, I was starving. It was almost noon by this point and the wedding was three hours away. I knew I wouldn’t have another opportunity to eat. So, as beautiful as I was, wearing my veil and all, we went to Dairy Queen. That cheeseburger gave me life y’all! Best one I’ve ever had. Truth.

When we all got back to mom’s house it was really go time. Photo call was to begin at 1pm with Andrew’s side of the family, and mine to follow. I was still in basically my PJ’s and a veil, so there was some work to be done. Plus we all had the realization at the same time that 1.) Not one single person had one wedding clothes yet and 2.) The cake was still not put together, let alone had it been taken to the reception hall. 3.) Almost every friend/family member capable of helping was currently at the church finishing up the decorations and getting things ready, so we were short of hands.

One, or all three, of these things made my mother’s head spin and at some point she just began to lose it. And not quietly. I was NOT having it, and up until this point I actually had little to no stress at all, so I wasn’t about to begin now. I picked up my phone and called Matt. He answered and I simply said, “I need people. NOW. I don’t care what you’re doing. Stop it. Tell every single person you see in that church to come here. NOW.” And I hung up. People, I am not exaggerating when I say that it was less than 3 minutes later than an entire parade of people pulled up in my mother’s driveway and got out like it was a clown car and came in that house, eyes-wide, and hands open. I immediately assigned 17 tasks to be completed and no one asked any questions. My mom went from 60 to 0 and was grateful, and my stress levels dropped immediately. Thank goodness for amazing friends and family who were there to help without hesitation, and God Bless that church for only being 1 mile from my parent’s house!

Everyone scattered, and myself, Jane and my cousin Amy headed to the church. It was time to put on…the dress. The dress that had been the source of it all throughout this entire process was now ready to be worn for the real deal. Deep breath. Deeeep deep breath. I climbed into it, and Mama Jane helped guide me into the white abyss. Amy helped squeeze me in, and after about ten minutes I was in. Now. I had worn this dress a good solid 20 times during our marathon fitting session. But I was always just…me. But this time, I turned around to look into the full length mirror and I just stopped. Who WAS that girl?! Time just stopped for me. My hair was perfect, with little jewels in it, my makeup was nothing short of a princess, my jewelry was just right, my nails were perfection. I was a bride. In all my 30+ years I had dreamed of this day, never knowing who would be my groom, never knowing if it would even happen period, never fully seeing that reflection in the mirror. And then it was all there. In less than 2 hours I was walking down the aisle to my future and…I felt beautiful. For what I may believe was truly the first time in my entire life, I felt nothing short of radiant, beautiful, glowing, happy, peaceful, and above all…in love. 

The next few minutes or so were filled with reactions from my closest friends and family who were allowed to see me before. Matty, Bobby, Becky, my nephews, my parents, sisters, etc. Each time the reaction was nothing short of amazing, because I knew they felt it,too. I will never forget the looks on some of their faces, the tears, how we all cried, and how quiet it was. It was not a crazy flurry for that 30 minutes or so. It was just calm and quiet. We were all waiting, almost hushed in anticipation.

And then I had to pee. 

Now. Keeping it real here y’all. If you saw that dress in person, you understand it was 9 layers of fluff and puff till you blow that house down. And if you saw the bathroom in that church, you would understand that it was approximately the size of a 1950’s cigar box. And if you know me at ALL, you know my bladder is relentless and I have to pee approximately every 2.5 minutes and I have zero ability to hold it off in any way. So this was a pickle. After much discussion, my sister Leslie looks at me and says, “Well, you know what you have to do, right? You have to pee in the trashcan.”

I laughed.

Oh. She was for serious. We had seen it on TV once, and it seemed funny on Bravo. But NOW?! For REAL?! Oh dear God in heav….OKAY.  CLEAR THE ROOM Y’ALL!!!!!!! So yes. In that beautiful church in the countryside of Bethel, on a beautiful day, in a beautiful gown, I, Micha Raynee Hughes (I wasn’t a Gehring yet!) peed in a trash can. My sisters held up my gown, I thought of rivers and streams and I peed. And God BLESS my sister Mary for cleaning it out and bleaching it afterwards.

The more you know.

Well, pictures came next, and everything went really well there.  We had been scared of the weather all week because they kept calling for snow and sleet and rain, but by the grace of God we had nothing but beautiful sunshine all day. So the gorgeous purple stained-glass windows that adorned every wall of the church were just providing sunbeams left and right. I felt so much peace taking those pictures. It was another of those “Oh! Didn’t know I was going to love this so much!” moments.

After photos, we retreated back into the bridal room. After a short while I heard the String Quartet begin to warm-up and begin to play. It was 3:00. The wedding was to begin at 3:30. This was it. Becky made her way to me and handed me a small blue box from Andrew with a card. He had been sending me small gifts throughout the day and I had already saved myself from crying a few times. But I knew it was all over when I saw that little blue box. I opened it, and everyone was in the room. Inside was a stunning silver and diamond necklace. Dangling from the necklace were two hearts, the first in small diamonds and it was open in the middle so that you could see the silver heart it sat upon. Engraved on the second heart it said simply, “Two Hearts Become One” and on the back “11-08-14”. Yep. That did it. I cried. My mom cried. Matt cried. Jane cried. God cried??? Eeeeverybody cried. Bobby, very quietly stepped towards me and removed the necklace that I was currently wearing and we replaced it with the new necklace. It was the perfect wedding jewelry to walk down the aisle in. I still wear it all the time, and I wore it for about 2 weeks straight after the wedding. 

I took a moment to sit down after that. Everyone had been telling me how fast it would all go, and they were indeed right. So I wanted to make certain that I took some time for reflection. I sat down on a small bench, and for the next 20 minutes didn’t move. I took in the room. The smells. The memories of the day. The looks on everyone’s faces. My emotions.

 I thought of my almost-husband only a wall away and tried to imagine what he was experiencing. I tried to soak in every single moment, and I am so glad I did because I truly remember so much!

 I remember Bobby’s face when he saw me for the first time, put his hand on his heart and just said, “Oh my momma.”  And teared up. I remember when my little nephew Colin came in and saw me for the first time and stopped dead in his tracks. I remember little Caroline kicking us all out because she wanted to be modest when she changed into her little flower girl dress. I remember yelling, “STOP!” everytime the door cracked open so I could ask who it was and make sure Andrew was nowhere near by. I remember how warm the sun felt on my face when I leaned up towards the glass of the stained glass windows when taking my pictures. I remember holding my mom’s hand under the cross that my grandfather built that hangs at the head of the church. I remember laughing so hard with my sisters while I peed in a trash can. I remember my daddy seeing me for the first time, and how small he felt when I hugged him. I remember holding my silly little pink fan on me all day so I wouldn’t sweat my makeup off, and how I begged my daddy to not turn the heat in the church up until the last second. I remember the very first few notes I heard from the String Quartet and how I squealed. I remember as people began to fill the church how I could hear their voices begin to trickle back to us and how exciting that was.

I remember the bottle of Cherry Coke and the straw my hubby sent me, an inside thing of ours, and how I felt like the luckiest woman to ever walk the planet.

And I remember how overwhelmingly in love I was (AM!) and how not even one teeny tiny piece of me was scared. I was ready. It was all right, and it was time. At 3:25pm, my sisters, parents, flower girl, ring bearer, Bobby,  Mama Jane and myself began the parade around the outside of the church to sneak in the front to walk down that aisle. Here we go!

The Wedding: PART 1

You know what I was thinking today? I was thinking how I never actually “finished” my blog. I mean, this is a WEDDING blog, and I never even wrote about the wedding. My last entry was 11 days before the wedding, and not another entry was made. Mostly because pure crazy began from that point forward. And if I truly want to print this blog out into a memory book of some type then I need to finish it, right? So grab some popcorn ladies (and gentlemen??) because this will be a long one. I present to you: The Wedding: PART 1

I’ll actually start two days before the wedding. That is truly when it all began. I woke up super early that morning and my sister came and picked me up. We had several stops to make – picking up the last minute rentals, buying last minute things for the reception and the rehearsal dinner, etc. So we started our morning at Bryant’s Rent-All. And y’all know they messed up our order, right? I mean, do we all remember my wedding planning process? Do we remember the Kountry with a K bitch?! I had paid ahead, but when I went to pick it up they showed me owing a balance. And by that point in the game, 48 hours before my wedding, the mere IDEA of something going wrong was enough to make me climb a counter. But I maintained my cool and we were able to come to an agreement. And by agreement I mean they admitted it was their mistake. They loaded our stuff into the back of my sister’s SUV (note: without counting or doing inventory of ANYthing we were taking, which didn’t occur to me to be nervous about until like 6 hours later…)

After a massive haul at the grocery store and a few other quick stops we were on our way to Bethel. We arrived at my mom and dad’s house first where upon I realized that we had approximately 17 billion items to take to the reception hall. And, because life is awesome, it was FREEZING cold, and the wind was blowing out of control. We were shaking it was so cold. We all made it to the hall where the cleaning ladies were already hard at work. We had considered cleaning it ourselves a few days before, but after a considerably short cry session with my soon-to-be hubby he promptly decided that paying two women a hundred bucks was a MUCH worthwhile investment when the other option was to having a stressed out sneezing bride. Good call babe!

We mostly spent Thursday just trying to get everything to the hall and get it cleaned, and to ultimately decide on how I wanted the tables arranged. God bless my daddy and my “little” nephew Aaron for moving those tables about a hundred times while I waved my finger around.

Fast forward to Friday morning. T-minus 24 hours until WEDDING DAY!! This was truly GO DAY. I had scheduled pretty much everything but the wedding to happen on this day, and a huge arrival of guests was beginning to happen. And by guests I mean all of my friends that I commanded sweetly encouraged to arrive early and help lest I cut hug them. 

I was blessed with an allergy attack that morning, so I spent the first hour of the day curled up on my momma’s chair with a cold compress on my head while Leslie and Bobby ironed table cloths and my mother ran around in circles. Then we made it to the hall and it began. Matt (who arrived the night before at some ungodly hour and I made Andrew pick him up at the airport with an ale-8 and a hug so I could get my beauty sleep), and his PHENOMENAL MOTHER JANE LEONARD DOER OF ALL THE THINGS began their flurry of decorating while Bobby and I worked on the table settings. It wasn’t until about 2-3 hours in that I truly began to see it all coming together. I mean really SAW it. My heart swelled up a little bit because not only was it coming together, but it was coming together precisely as I had imagined it. Every detail was what I wanted. That hadn’t happened in like….17 years.  

Bobby and I finished up the tables for the most part, and Becky arrived as a pinch hitter to save us from going cross-eyed. I think at some point in there we did all stop and take a break, because everyone was starving and despite my plan to work everyone to death they made a valid point that I needed them to be alive for the wedding. So we ate soup and sandwiches at mom and then returned to the hall. Upon returning, Bobby and I were given one task. Just one. Jane had made this beautiful burlap set of letters that spelled “Micha & Andrew”. All we had to do was attach the letters to a piece of string and hang it. We joked endlessly like “Oooo girl, don’t mess this up!” and “Hey girl!! You know how to spell Micha, right?” and “Bitch please, I could do this in my sleep.” Well, after a good solid hour of lining up every single letter perfectly, and developing a genius partnership of hot glue gun operator and letter holder, we were SO relieved to have finished the project. We stood up, took a nice loooooong stretch, and enlisted Becky to help us pick it up delicately so as not to disturb our amazing work. Then we decided to hold it up and admire it before hanging it. And, voila!!

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Yep. I distinctly remember at first wanting to cry, then laughing SO HARD that I peed a little. Just a little though. To this day, it is one of my absolutely happiest memories of the wedding planning process. It brought so much laughter that day I wouldn’t have it any other way. And shout out to Becky for banning Bobby and I from the crafting table and redoing the project for us along with Andrew’s sister Cindy. 

After a looooong day, we actually finished the hall. I took a step back. The lighting wasn’t set up yet, and the DJ wasn’t there, and there was no food or people yet. But when I looked at it, I saw all of that and more. I saw my wedding reception! I was SOOOO happy. My little vision of burlap and lace and purple and love had come to life. It was happening! Eeek!

BUT not before the rehearsal dinner. Which we had approximately 13 seconds to spend getting ready for. Matt and his mom retreated to their hotel and the rest of us back to Mom’s. Can I also just say HUGE shoutout to my amazing mother?! She hosted a minimum of 20 people at any given moment for about 3 days straight, fed us all, AND was making my wedding cake. That woman is a Southern saint. 

The rehearsal dinner was great. We just ran through the ceremony at the church, lots and lots of family and friends were there. I wore a beautiful purple dress and purple Coach shoes I had selected for the occasion, and Amy had curled my hair. So I felt blessed and happy all around. We had a simple dinner of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and homemade pies with sweet tea and lemonade. Everyone seemed full and content, and it was just simple and quiet. Andrew made a quick speech, and then so did I but I mostly cried. We passed out a few gifts, cried some more, and just felt SO LOVED. It was one of those moments that leading up to it I hadn’t really put a lot of emphasis on it. I thought it was just one more thing to do before the wedding. But in hindsight, it was one of the calmest, sweetest, most quiet moments I was able to have before the wedding. Andrew took me aside in a private room and gave me a special pre-wedding gift and we were able to have that beautiful moment together. That night was great in so many ways, and I wasn’t expecting that, but I am grateful for it!

Andrew and I went home that night to our house and stayed just the two of us. It was our decision to do that, even though I know a lot of brides traditionally stay away from their husband-to-be right before the wedding. I wanted to be with him. He is my safe place, my happy, my calm, my present, my future. My everything. That is who I wanted to be with, and I was. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow kids.