Monday, November 10, 2008

A Wedding in Bits and Pieces: Piece 3: the WEDDING

I was tired. I’ll admit it. I wanted my hair appointment to be later in the day. I hit the snooze. I didn’t bounce out of bed. I finally did get up, and went to put coffee on for my guests. I stumbled into the shower where I realized this was my last shower as a single woman. It’s weird. The little things you think of as your “lasts” when you are getting married. I was so glad I was surrounded by my friends that morning. They relaxed me and I enjoyed having them there to share all this excitement with me.
In all the excitement, A and I left to go to the salon, our appointments were in shifts. R was in charge of the last shift, which meant going to get MIL and bringing her to the salon. Problem? Yeah, I parked R in and we took A’s car to the salon. R calls me, I was already in the chair, as was A. Spare keys? There are none. So I had to call F, who was at the airport getting the passenger van. It was a cluster. And R was none too pleased when she arrived, 30mins late for her hair appointment. CBF went and got MIL, they were both late as well. A and I dashed up to Costco to get food for everyone, and R calls me again, “Where are you?” Poor R, she got quite a lot of the shaft that day. I was 5 mins late getting back to the house where again, poor R hated her hair and ended up doing it herself anyway. (I found out later MIL did the same thing because she didn’t like her helmet head hair. *sigh*)
My hair was fabulous. Just sayin.
I got my make-up done by my fabulous Mary Kay Lady. It was all a blur and I’m not sure she did all the little treatments she said she was going to do, like I know we didn’t do the lip softening thingie. Anyway, make-up was fabu, the sandwiches we got from Costco, excellent call because Second Eldest Sister and her man hadn’t eaten, and I hadn’t either. And Sailor Mouth kept me from putting my lip stick on until “AFTER YOU PUT YOUR DRESS ON”. (somehow I still managed to get lipstick in the hip region of my dress??????) It was a flurry of activity! SES finished applying her makeup while Eldest Sister re-strung my necklace to include the locket from F. R and CBF got their make-up done. SES-BIL (second eldest brother in law) packed the van with all the crap we would need and even Febrezed it because he said it smelled. Finally we all clamored into the van and headed to the church. I think CBF even sang “We’re going to the chapel and you’re gonna get maaaaaaaaaaarried!”
It was all so surreal. The Church was so quiet. Because it was raining it felt kind of cocooned. It was really calming; I can’t wait to see the pictures. The photographer was a little late and CBF had to prod her into taking pictures.
I was alone in the bridal “suite” when Old Priest came up. “Let me see your hands.”
I flashed my hands to him, he was checking to make sure I’d removed my engagement ring to my other hand. “Good girl. Now I need you to sign these, 3 copies.”

My marriage license.
This was it. I was signing something legal to make me a wife.

“How do I sign? Do I sign for who I am NOW or for who I’m GOING to be in about an hour?”
“That’s up to you.” (thanks for the help there padre)

I signed as who I was going to be. So weird.
I was dressed.
My lipstick was on.
I’d de-shined my nose.
Some pictures had been taken. (not all the group shots I’d wanted, I was a little ticked.)
I was alone. All my girls had gone downstairs to line up for their entrance.
I fingered my locket as I said a quiet prayer to my Dad.
The music started.
I could see nothing! I was told I couldn’t come to the front of the choir loft because people would see me. I peeked out around the wall, I HAD to see!
I saw F. Alone at the end of the aisle.
Surreal.
My girls and his guys made their ways down the aisle.
The music changed.
I jumped as the wedding coordinator told me to go to the head of the stairs.
Oh sweet goodness. I was so HIGH UP!
I started down the stairs, and I was doing fine without the railing, until my heel caught in the carpet. I reached out and gripped the railing. I slowing made my way down. And there was mom, waiting with my flowers.
I saw nothing. I had tunnel vision, and yet I couldn’t focus on F. The aisle seemed so long.

I didn’t faint. Is that what you thought I was getting at? Well it isn’t. I couldn’t focus on F, not because I was about to faint, but because I was just so, I can’t explain. I saw him, I saw the people in the pews, and yet I saw nothing at all. It was dream like. So no, I didn’t fall down the stairs. And no, I didn’t faint. So stop waiting for a disaster. geeez.


We reached the end of aisle and mom handed me off to F who kissed her on the cheek.
And then, F kissed me.
BUSTED by Old Priest. NO KISSING before the “I Dos”!!!!
Everyone laughed.
I was still in dream world.
I didn’t shed a tear.(neither did he)
My voice didn’t crack.(neither did his)
It was just F and me.
I saw no one but him.
My heart fluttered as we said our vows.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
WE WERE MARRIED.
Everyone clapped.
We walked back down the aisle as husband and wife, hand in hand.
As everyone cleared out of the Church it was just F, our 2 photographers and ES-BIL(eldest sister_brother in law) who was driving us to the reception.
It was quiet.
The dream world held us in our bubble.
I fingered the ring on F's hand.
We smiled at each other.
We were married.

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