From Start to Finish

Well as I said, here's a LONG post about the events of my wedding.

My "wedding weekend" actually started on Thursday night as I had taken Friday off to run errands before the big day. I came home that thursday and we worked on getting our front yard in tip-top shape for the rehearsal dinner. There was much to do, but it went quickly and ended up looking pretty nice when it was all said and done.

That Friday I decided to sleep in a little and get some rest as I knew it was going to be a hectic couple of days. After waking up, I met up with Meghan and my mom and we picked up my wedding dress (!!!), got pedicures, picked up the groom's cake and dropped all of my wedding-related items off at the hotel.

Before I knew it, we were at the Brandywine Country Club starting out rehearsal. It was a slightly rainy night, so we luckily had the canopy over us to keep us dry. Mary Kate from the BCC (who is amazing!) walked us the through the whole process we'd follow the next day and had us out of there as quickly as possible. Afterwards, everyone came back to our house to enjoy some food and hanging out. It was a tight fit getting everyone in, but it worked out well enough.

That night I said goodnight to Ryan and went back to the hotel for the evening. Meghan later met me there and we stayed up half the night babbling to each other until we both passed out. Even though I should have been tired, Meghan and I woke up bright and early the next morning ready to go. We met the girls at Perkins and got breakfast before getting our hairs did.

For our hair, we went to Cat's Eye on Main Street. The owner brought in bagels and mimosa's for us ladies to share. they were delicious. they really made it a special morning. After everyone's hair looked jazzy and wonderful we were on our way back to the hotel to wait for the photographer and get our selves ready.

the girls all goofed around in the room with under garments trying to figure out what worked best where and get them selves all did up. After a little while my parents arrived and Laura Novak was there to start photographing the getting ready shots. It seemed like seconds later that the flowers were in the room and we were getting a couple of formal shots of me with my bridesmaids.

THEN! On to the Country Club for the events to really start rolling!!!

As soon as we arrived, we were ushered into the "bridal suite". The guys were already there and seating guests. I think everything got started slightly later then expected, but I was in no rush at all. I was surprising super calm the whole day. Everyone kept asking if I was freaking out and really, I was not at all worried, concerned, nervous or anything. Just excited!

After everyone went down the aisle to their selected Bealtes songs, it was my turn! I remember the wind start blowing and the flower petals started blowing slightly as I was walking down the aisle. It felt so 'romantic'. As we got to the end of the aisle way, the wind was still blowing and my dads both stepped on the hem of my dress! Whoops! I remember my first look at Ryan as I turned the corner and he seemed so cool and relaxed.

The ceremony was quick as I had expected. My brother Scott read a poem that I really like and he did a great job. I remember there were some clouds overhead during the ceremony and I thought I heard some thunder, but the photogrpaher said the backdrop was great for photographing with the amount of light, etc - so I wasn't worried.

After the ceremony, Ryan and I huddled with the bridal party and got some formal friend/family photos. I think the highlight of my day was the time following that. Ryan and I climbed in a golf cart and got to drive around the golf course with the photographer getting (what I hope are) some great wedding photos. We really had a chance in that hour or so together to get some great pictures and just enjoy each other. We both agreed it was a fun time.

Before I knew it though we were heading back for our pre-dinner introductions. The bridal party got introduced to the Star Wars theme and Ryan and I to the Indiana Jones theme. Ryan and I immediatly went into our first dance song. We didn't want a traditional song so we chose "swing life away" by Rise Against. In addition, we made the song fun by having a few seconds or "fun dancing" to mix things up.

Dinner and the father/daughter and mother/son dance songs all flew by. The food was great and the songs really fit the relationships we have with our parents. After putting as much food down our throats as we could (I made a point to eat!) we walked around and greeted our guests. After getting about half way through it was time to cut the cake.

Ryan and I had been saying for quite some time that we would be smashing. I remember standing next to the cake and he politly asked me if I still wanted to. I had previously thought that the cake cutting would happen much later in the evening so was ready for it, but took his offer to do a friendly exchange to keep myself looking as pretty as possible for as long as I could. It was sweet - everyone was cheering for a smash as we nicely exchanged the cake with on another. It was delicious! I want some more just thinking about it!

Then we did as much greeting as we could with the people who were still seated and then it was a free for all to have fun. Ryan had his dress shirt off and was dancing right away while I spoke with guests and did as much socializing as I could.

People are 100% correct that the time FLYS by. I really tried to enjoy every second of it.

After dancing and everything else it was back to the hotel on the shuttle. What a fun ride. The driver must have hated us for sure! Back at the hotel we tried to hit up the hotel bar (it was still kinda early) but it was too busy, so we went next door to another bar. There was at least one other bride in there (the white dress really made it obvious) but may have been more. Ryan didn't last very long though so we were out the door and back to the hotel room before it got too late.

It was exciting sitting in bed opening up all of our presents!

The next morning we had breakfast and packed up our stuff and were on our way back to the house to finish getting ready for the honeymoon. We had a few friends over and talked about the events of the day before. It was really such a FUN FUN FUN day!

I was planning on blogging about the honeymoon too - but I think I'll save that for a later day!

Enjoy.