The good: my day was beautiful. We had so much love and our photos are amazing (will post some in the comments) and everyone had a great time. My venue was unique, the food was great, DJ (a friendor but we paid as it is his actual job) was awesome, food was superb. My s’mores bar was a huge hit! I went to the ghiradelli outlet and got 400 pieces of individually wrapped pieces for less than $100 and they were different flavors so everyone could do their own thing. I had dark chocolate with raspberry and the hubs had bourbon caramel. My husband loved his man spa day the morning of the wedding where he got a beard trim, haircut, and man facial at The Art of Shaving. My hair and makeup people were awesome and the suite we booked was great for getting ready all together. We used my dad’s 1956 Chevy Belair as our getaway car and we have AMAZING pictures with it. My literature theme was also a huge hit! My guests loved the card catalogue seating chart and having them sign the book that was their table name was super cool because now we have 12 guest books instead of 1! My hubs LOVED the John Stamos cutouts and didn’t see them until we walked down the aisle. Our dance was a tear jerker. There’s a great video of my sorority sisters at their table all sobbing because of it. We did a choreographed dance to Tale as Old as Time. Also highly recommend the photo booth! Something fun for those who hate dancing!
The bad: my dress. Two issues. My tailor kind of sucked. She took in the bodice too much and told me I had gained weight when I know I didn’t. I was taking measurements weekly with my personal trainer. My dress was too tight and my boobs were a little too out there. Additionally she didn’t hem it short enough despite my wearing my shoes to every fitting. People kept stepping on my dress the whole night and it dragged in the mud during photos. We took awesome photos with my dad’s car but I leaned on the tire in one of them and got a big black grease stain on my butt. Pro tip: don’t do that. When I got in to the reception, I saw that they were running a cash bar for liquor despite my telling them I wanted open beer and wine, no liquor whatsoever. I was super mad about that. Our coordinator shut it down quickly but it was an unwanted surprise. We had about 5 no-shows, which was irritating but oh well. What can you do? I also wish we had sprung for the extra hour in the evening and pushed back the ceremony so we could do more bridal party photos. I have a few but they aren’t my favorites. People also got confused about how to get into the venue so a bunch saw my dress before the aisle. Meh. I feel like I missed a lot of the party but I guess that happens.
I swore I wasn’t going to but I did drink too much the night before so I was super queasy and couldn’t sleep past 3:00 am so I wasn’t in the best shape either.
Finally how my life got a little crazy after. My dog trainer stayed with our dog and she emphasized how much anxiety she has. We had been talking about getting another pup in summer of ‘19 but decided to push it up before I went back to work for the school year. Turns out our new pup had parvovirus so I nursed her back to health but I didn’t sleep in my bed for two weeks after we got her because I was monitoring her sleep.
And the hardest one: my grandfather. The last time I saw him was my wedding day. He passed two weeks later peacefully in his sleep. He had dementia and had no clue who I was on my wedding day. But the man who did more raising me than my biological father got one last dance with me before he passed. My last photo of him was from that dance. My grandmother didn’t make it to any of our weddings (my cousins or mine) as she passed in 2007. My grandfather hadn’t been aware of much for the last year or so. He was gone a long time ago. It was almost like he was ready to go be with her but she told him to hold on for my wedding. I will be forever grateful for those photos.
I think thats it. I will post more photos in the comments
