September 3, 2011

Let me tell you about September 3, 2011. Best day of my life. (So far.) I don't have many pictures at the moment, but maybe I'll swipe some off of Lucy or Amanda's facebook. I can't WAIT until I get to see all of my wedding day pictures taken by my FABULOUS photographers, Rae and Wesley Leytham. They were so much fun! Hilarious. They made my day. As you may know, Tropical Storm Lee ruined changed my wedding plans. I needed some comic relief, and I got it. Here's a link to our "sneak peek" from them:

http://www.raeleytham.net/?p=5042

I told you they were good.

Our wedding week was less than smooth. Just a few highlights: on our way to Carillon Beach, the bank called Matt's cell phone and informed him that his account had been hacked and someone was charging hotel rooms in Virginia to his debit card. Excellent. Then somewhere between middle of nowhere and Pensacola, we had a blowout. Fabulous. We got out of the car on the side of the interstate so that we could put everything that was in the trunk into the backseat so we could get our spare tire out. Too bad there was poison ivy on the side of the interstate. Perfect. When we got to Matt's mom's beach house, I washed my legs and feet like a maniac. I didn't wash my arms. So I had poison ivy on my elbow. Thank you, Jesus, for only letting that poison ivy be on my elbow. It could've been tragic. As if all that wasn't enough, Katie and I had an appointment at a spa to get our nails done on Friday. Except they overbooked us and couldn't do it. That's a whole other story. It ends with me missing the first half of my bridesmaids' brunch on Saturday. Faaaantastic.

So they say that if it rains on your wedding day, it's good luck. The Chinese say that it means you'll be rich. Well, folks, here's to hoping that's true. Because if it is, we're going to be the luckiest, richest people in the Western Hemisphere. It did not just rain on our wedding day. It monsooned. Torrential downpour. Thank you, Tropical Storm Lee. My mom woke me up at 8:00AM Saturday morning. I heard the rain. I said, "Mama, is that going to stop?" She said, "No, darling. It's not." I cried. Then I cried some more. Then Emily, Amanda, and Sandidge, three of my bridesmaids, hopped on my bed and threatened to hold me down and put Preparation-H on my eyes if I didn't stop crying. Emily said, "You cannot have puffy eyes on your wedding day. Do you want butt cream on your face? This is gonna be the best damn day of your life, so cheer up or we are going to get the Preparation-H!" She was convincing. It made me laugh. Because I knew they were dead serious. Fortunately, by the grace of God, it somehow stopped raining a few minutes before we started taking our pictures, and the rain stayed away for most of the wedding and reception. I consider that in itself very lucky, considering at 6:00AM the next morning, Matt and I were toying with the idea of getting in a closet due to the hurricane-force winds outside our window.

I truly have the best friends on the planet. There's no way your friends are better than my friends. After the Preparation-H threat, Katie and I went to get our nails done (third attempt). My bridesmaids went out and found blue rain boots. They did everything they could to cheer me up, make light of the tropical storm, and remind me that my marriage was more important than my wedding anyway. I would've been a puffy-eyed mess without them. I love them so much. Let me introduce you to them!

From left to right:

Alison. I've known Alison almost my whole life. We grew up in church together, went to elementary, middle, and high school together (although she was my cool two-years-older friend). We were cheerleaders together and then in high school we were on drill team together. We've come a long way since having crushes on our church camp counselors, huh Mill?

Ashley. My cousin... and my stylist! Ashley and I have always been really close. She's my family, so she's been there through everything in my life. She's one of those people who always looks like her hair and makeup has been professionally done, even if it's Saturday morning at breakfast. She did my hair and makeup for the wedding, and I loved it! She found a picture of us when we were little--I must've been about 2, she was about 4--and she is putting eyeshadow on me. Someone took a similar picture of us on my wedding day, and I want to frame them next to each other!

Lucy. I've known Lucy for most of my life as well. We have grown up together since kindergarten. She once had a backwards-birthday party. Everyone went dressed with their clothes on backwards. I will never forget that. I think it's hilarious. I may throw my kids backwards birthday parties. She went to Auburn, but we like to say we were friends before we chose sides. Thank goodness, because I don't know what I'd do without her friendship!

Katie. My sister. My only sibling. My maid of honor. What else is there to say? My grandfather used to call us Pete and Repeat (Get it? Ha.). That pretty much sums it up. 

Emily. We met in college. Second semester of General Chemistry. I remember at one point I thought her name was Martha. I have no idea where I got that. We quickly became study partners. After we met, I don't think there was a class that we didn't take together at Alabama. I will never forget when we went out one weekend night, Emily declared, "Laura! We're officially real friends. Not just class friends. Real friends!" We were. We are. Real friends.

Amanda. Camp friends! We worked together in the summers during college at Camp Kahdalea. Best summers of my life, by far. We've done a lot of weird things together. Examples: got inside trashbags and hid in the woods; dressed up in hula skirts and pretended to be tribal crazies wanting to sacrifice small children... If I take this list any further, you may question my sanity. Despite the fact that she's a Tennessee alum, I love her. 

Sandidge. Her name is Lauren, but no one calls her that. Well, no one from Greenville anyway. She's been through everything with me. We've had millions of life chats over vanilla Dr. Peppers with extra vanilla from Sonic. She's a cartographer. That's right, a mapmaker. How many of you have friends that make maps? I just think that's cool. 

So those are my BFF's. My bridesmaids. Thank y'all, for everything. 

Back to the wedding...

We were supposed to have a beach wedding. A private, beautiful little beach that, in February (when we visited) at least, had perfect white sand and bright blue waters. Hardly any waves at all. So peaceful, quiet, lovely. Come September, however, there were 10 foot waves crashing violently onto what was left of the beach. So much for that.

We had a beach rehearsal at least. To say it was windy would be the understatement of the year. The beach rehearsal was also unfortunate because after we decided to switch the wedding to the postcard-worthy chapel overlooking the lake, no one knew what the heck they were doing or where they were walking. The chapel wasn't big enough for all of our groomsmen to stand on one side and the bridesmaids on the other, like we'd practiced. So they had to pair up. Girls in front of guys. It could've been a train wreck. It wasn't. I don't know how they got to where they needed to be, but all I know is that it looked perfect when they opened the doors, and Daddy and I started down the aisle. Lucy said she was having a near-panic attack because she thought my dress was going to catch on fire from the candles lining the aisles. They were fake candles. Sorry for all the unnecessary anxiety, Luie. I didn't know they were fake either!

Rehearsal

Another funny thing was that I forgot to tell Matt that we were lighting a unity candle. See, I love the unity candle. I love the idea of it. I don't know if it's a Baptist thing, but apparently a lot of people had never seen one. So just in case you don't know, there are three candles. Two smaller ones are placed on either side of a larger one. The mothers each light one of the smaller candles after they are escorted down the aisle. Then, during the ceremony, the bride and groom pick up their smaller candle (that their mother lit) and use it to light the bigger candle together. Then they blow out the smaller candles. It symbolizes two-becoming-one. Genesis 2:24 says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh." I love that the unity candle is a symbol of that verse, of God's intention of marriage. However, a unity candle was sort of out of the question on the beach. There's no way we could've kept candles lit. So, even though Matt thought it was the cheesiest thing ever, I decided to do the "sand ceremony" alternative. It's basically the same thing, except you pour two smaller vases of sand into a larger vase. Same concept. Matt thought it was corny. However, when we moved our wedding inside, I decided that we could do the candle after all! Silver lining. Except I forgot to tell Matt. And he literally didn't know that there was a candle until we went to light it. It was funny. Good thing he's a smart kid. He caught on real quick. My genius little husband.

The rest of the ceremony was perfect, until we headed back down the aisle. Mr. and Mrs. Newman, in all our newlywed glory. Except that people had moved their chairs into the aisle so they could see better. And they didn't move them back. So we couldn't fit. I had no idea what was going on, but Matt started drifting behind me, still trying to hold my hand instead of keeping my arm in his. I was whispering, "WHAT are you DOING? GET up here!" He let go of my hand and followed me down the aisle. Finally, I realized what was happening. He was stepping all over my dress. And my veil. Great. Excellent. He managed to not rip any of it, and when we got past the chairs, he caught up with me. Everyone in the video is cracking up, and we walked arm-in-arm out of the chapel, laughing hysterically.

So that was our wedding. Perfectly unperfect. But I wouldn't change a thing. It was the best day of my life. The reception highlights are for another day (due to the fact that this is the longest blog post ever). However, I will leave you with a link to a video created by our friends Katie and Cullen. It's so cute!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2PQJCpHMg