I've been wanting to write this blog for a week now - partially I have been wanting the right time to write as well as a little time to process everything in my head. So here is the recap:
Preparation
A few days before the ceremony, we got together, poured a few glasses of wine, and read it out loud. Tessa made some very helpful change suggestions, and I was just fine with whatever she wanted to change as she was the one that had to read it anyway. I wanted her to be comfortable with what she had to say. (Also, I had stolen much of our ceremony from many other ones I found on the net, and certain thing were not relevant and others were not as cohesive as I had hoped). In the end not everything was read exactly as it was written, but that was part of what made our ceremony what it was. This was also the first time I heard Nathan read his poem out loud all the way through. He was so cute, he stood up in front of us and read it quite well. He did the whole looking up and making eye contact with his audience thing that you learn in school, and he had pretty good cadence. I was a proud mom.
Time
I knew that the ceremony was short. I was thinking it would be about ten minutes, but when we actually did it I think it was less than that and it felt like a blink of an eye. It went by so fast! I remember a moment where someone was reading (I think it might have been Michelle) and wanting to say to her "slow down!" I literally wanted her to speak in slow motion, everything was going by so fast. I am glad that Jill recorded it for us on her flip camera and that we have a bunch of pictures of it, because its already fading in my mind.
Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
We didn't have either of these. I knew from day one I didn't care to have any, it didn't seem a necessary part of a low key wedding, and they seemed like 'useless accessories' to me. I had my oldest son walk me in (after hiking up around our spot where all the audience sitting down could see us - kinda silly but I did still want an entrance of some sort even though we all drove there together). Then we also had other people hang onto the rings (see below) so really, why are they needed? Well, I did realize a purpose of having a bridesmaid during my ceremony. I had this bouquet of flowers (bought them at City Market and my sister in law Angie put them together with some green ribbon I had brought down) and had a few times where I didn't know what the hell to do with them. When I did my first reading, I held them still and then held the folder that had my part written in it, but then later on when I read my vows, exchanged rings, and kissed, I gave them to our officiant. Not really her job and I think it might have been a bit humorous that she was holding them, but that's what happened.
I cried my eyes out
I knew that I would cry at some point during the ceremony. On the way driving there a stuck a bunch of tissues in my dress to pull out later on, and certainly did just that. I figured that when I read my vows to Brandon, I would certainly cry. I cried while I was writing them, I cried while I was rehearsing them, I even cried while I was thinking about them. What I did not expect is to cry at the time that I did. I had written a part of the ceremony that talked about why we dragged everyone down a dirt road to the middle of no where to get married. I spent a lot of time revising and rewriting this part (oh the first version was so comical - it had to do with picking up rocks and cheesy 'rock' quotes - ha) but the final version of it I was pretty happy with. Originally I had planned on the officiant reading this part, but changed it to me reading it later on. I think it might be a bit odd to have the bride do a reading during the ceremony but it meant a lot to me to do it. So, as soon as I started reading, I burst into to tears. I had to stop reading, pull out my tissues, and made some sort of comment about how this was 'not the part where I was supposed to cry'. I then continued to blubber throughout the whole entire ceremony. Someone said to me later that perhaps I cried when I did because it was a relief to finally get to that point where we were actually doing it after all this planning, and that just might be right.
Vows
Brandon and I wrote vows using the format "I love you because..." and then a final vow that started "and because I love you..." which is where we made promises to each other. I totally stole this idea from ofafeather, but the one thing we did different was not letting each other see the vows until they were read out loud. To try and make sure they were cohesive in a sense, we had Tessa read them beforehand and she made a minor change suggestion. Brandon's vows were so sweet and awesome. I was so touched by them, and I guess even a bit surprised at how beautiful they were. I also remember thinking "damn, mine aren't as good as his".
Rings
Brandon had his cute nephew Gabe in charge of giving him my ring, and I had Tyler, my oldest son, in charge of Brandon's ring. As our officiant was reading a bit about exchanging rings and why the ring is worn on the third finger, they were to bring up the rings and hand them off. Tyler just sat on the back row and I stared at him, hoping he would get the idea. Finally he did, but that whole thing was kind of awkward and made even more awkward by the fact that I did not seem to have a clue what finger to give Brandon to put my ring on (which is silly since I had been already wearing it on that finger for 4 months prior) and also because I got extra flustered and did not know what finger to put HIS ring on. Not my most stellar moment. And then if that wasn't lame enough, I had totally spaced that we had to say something to each other (the whole 'with this ring I thee wed' part). Luckily, Brandon went first and then I tried to just copy what he had said and said it back to him.
That's not church tongue!
When we rehearsed a few days prior, Amanda reminded us that we needed to use 'church tongue' and I believe even defined what that entailed. I was fully prepared to stick to church tongue, because who wants to make out in front of their parents and a bunch of people anyway? Well, I guess I got a little overzealous (I am fully going to blame it on the anxiety leading up to it all, the crying, the awkwardness with the rings and vows, and the whole trying to figure out what to do with my flowers) and full on started making out. I didn't even really realize it until Amanda yelled "That's not church tongue!" haha. yeah, so I made a fool of myself.
Incidentals
I was worried the weather would be a bit chilly, but the sun was up and I think the audience might have gotten a little sweaty with the sun on their faces and all that. Honestly, the weather could not have been more awesome! I think one car drove by during the actual ceremony, but other than that we didn't have a lot of interruptions. We spent too much time afterwards standing on the road taking pictures, and several vehicles went past. Most everyone honked and cheered, and I waved like I had won some sort of contest. I felt silly but I also felt great.
So, this blog is entirely longer than the actual ceremony was. My own way of slowing down time I guess.
