The Big Day

As my dear friend Cherry so kindly pointed out (awhile ago), I am way behind on my blogging. Thanks CCBB for the reminder! Time to get to it.

**Warning: this will be a long one!**

On June 30th, almost two whole months ago, Jason and I got married. Somehow, it feels like just yesterday and like forever ago at the same time. Let me attempt to walk you through the craziest day of my life.

I went to bed late the night before, and woke up early, surprised I even slept at all. Amber (my wonderful maid of honor who flew in from CA) texted me and asked if I was awake, then told me to go back to sleep but that was impossible. I don't really remember what I did all morning besides try to eat some yogurt and make sure Jason was not around. At about 10:30 we finally headed over to the church to start getting ready. I remember being so anxious, and scolding Amber for driving so slowly. In her defense, it was rainy and she wanted to make sure we didn't crash on my wedding day. Good looking out Amber!

When we arrived, we discovered that my wedding was having its first (and thankfully only) catastrophe. The wedding was in two hours, and nothing was set up. As you can imagine, I was not a very happy bride at that moment. Luckily, Jason and I had our families and friends who were there set up as quickly as possible while I was getting my hair and makeup done. We definitely could not have done it without them, and I'm SO grateful it was able to get finished in time!

As I got ready, I really didn't have time for it to sink in that I was about to walk down the aisle and marry the man of my dreams. I was about to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine. It was too hectic and crazy for me to even fathom at that time. All I cared about was having some Diet Coke, but I probably only managed to have a few sips of it. I was also really hungry and starting to get shaky. Persephone, Jason's adorable niece, was kind enough to offer me some goldfish crackers :) I was running around like a crazy person trying to get all pretty, but at the same time trying to check on the status of the setup, and making sure Jason was okay. He didn't understand why I had insisted that we not see each other that day until the actual ceremony. Call me old fashioned, it's just something I always envisioned about my wedding day.

Gotta have my Diet Coke!

A huge thanks to Christie Marlatt for doing my hair, she did great!

Once I was all dolled up, my bridesmaids and dad started to torture me and try to make me cry...I mean, they complimented me and said how beautiful I looked. However, that is the last thing I wanted to hear.  I was trying extremely hard to NOT cry during the wedding and it hadn't even started yet! I told them all to shut up and tell me I look fat or ugly. My dad started in about how proud he was of me, and I wouldn't let him finish. People clearly don't understand--don't make the bride cry!

Being the wonderful procrastinator that I am, I had just barely chosen the wedding music the night before, with help from Amber. When Jason and the rest of the wedding party walked down the aisle, it was to All You Need Is Love (by Vitamin String Quartet--they are absolutely brilliant). It was perfectly happy, upbeat, different, and everything I wanted it to be. When it was my turn to walk down with my dad, the song changed to Angel Eyes by Jim Brickman.

The walk down the aisle felt like forever. I told my dad we needed to walk slowly so I wouldn't trip over my dress. He started walking too slowly, and I remember whispering "Not that slow, we look retarded!" which caused both of us to laugh. I don't remember looking at anyone's face on the way up there, I don't remember walking past our cake, I don't remember seeing our wedding party up front, I don't even remember what any of the decorations looked like. All I could focus on was my future husband, standing at the end of the aisle, looking extremely handsome in his gray suit and bright yellow Converse :) He had gotten both a regular yellow tie and a bowtie, and he hadn't decided which one he was going to wear. Luckily, he had gone with my preference, the bowtie, and looked absolutely perfect.

My handsome groom!

Once I got to Jason, not crying wasn't really an option for me anymore. Most people don't know this, but the few weeks before our wedding were obviously extremely stressful, and let's just say Jason and I had gone through a lot during that time. Standing up there, hand in hand with him, was very emotional just thinking about what we had been through, and where we were now. I remember mouthing to him that his face was all glittery. He rolled his eyes and smiled, and mouthed back "my mom" (she was wearing a very sparkly dress). As President Bippert (aka Bobby B) began the ceremony, I honestly couldn't focus on anything he was saying. Jason just kept looking at me with this adorable, sweet smile that made it impossible for me not to cry. So I chose to stop looking at him, and look attentively at Bobby B instead, even though it was fake. I have no clue what he said.

Trying to keep it together!

Anyways, we both said I do, exchanged rings, kissed, and were pronounced husband and wife! We walked out of the chapel and were greeted with hugs from our family and wedding party. I don't remember who (I'm guessing Michelle or Isabella), but someone came up and told me that Kim was broken. Confused, I searched to find her. Then I saw what they meant. My poor baby sister was bawling her eyes out haha. Oh Kim. I guess she had been crying the whole ceremony. I did too, so obviously I can't judge but it is still really funny! The other funny thing I remember about that time was Lance, my new brother in law, hugging me and saying "You know, you didn't just marry Jason--you married all of us, even me!" I replied, "Why do you think I'm crying?"

Pictures and the reception immediately followed the wedding. It is all a big blur of people, music, dancing, and not getting nearly enough food. Every time we managed to sit down at our table, we were pulled away to go do something else (first dance, cutting the cake, garter toss, etc). Oh well, I guess that's pretty standard for weddings. We had our first dance to Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up" and to my surprise, Jason sang the words to me. If you know Jason at all, you know he doesn't sing, so it was really sweet that he did. I couldn't say much then because it was right after he had stuffed a huge piece of wedding cake in my mouth, so the majority of our first dance I was chewing and swallowing the cake (which was made by the lovely Emily Peet!! She is awesome for volunteering to make our cake). His car was decorated in an inappropriate fashion of course, and we drove off into the sunset...except not really. We drove to my house, where we opened up our gifts, changed our clothes, loaded up the car, and headed up to Bothell for the first night of our honeymoon. We stopped at Burger King on the way, since we hadn't eaten hardly anything all day!

So that was our big day. It was crazy and wonderful and hectic and stressful and amazing and happy and did I mention crazy? But I wouldn't change a thing :)