I know it's been three months but it just seems like yesterday. The absolutely most perfect day of my life. The day when I married my best friend. I hope to always remember every moment because the entire weekend was so perfect and so much fun! Honestly, it gave me a glimpse of heaven. Nearly all of my friends from various parts of my life, all in one place.
But let me start from before the Big Day. I didn't have a wedding planner and had been pretty busy with work during the planning process so there was a lot of room for errors and things going wrong. I made the decision from the beginning that I wasn't going to get stressed about it. After all, it's just a wedding and the more important part of all of this was that Brian and I would be starting our lives together. In the end, the details didn't really matter as long as we had a bride, groom, and minister. So honestly, I really wasn't stressed at all. I did have a to-do list that I slowly checked off and my sister Laura came up the week before the wedding and I had a couple of days off to finish the list. Even having a possible run-in with bed bugs (from my trip to Korea) two weeks before the wedding and then getting hives six days before, things went so smoothly!! Once the wedding weekend was here, I was ready to go!!
Stick with me here, I'll try to make it as concise as possible but also include all the awesome details!!
Family and wedding party members started arriving Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday was such a busy day!! My dear friend (and my pastor's wife), Audrey, hosted a bridal luncheon for my girls. It was the first time we had all been together and it was just a really special time. My friend Missy's mom drove up from Virginia Beach to join us which made it even more special. Audrey went out of her way to make the luncheon so wonderful! Afterwards, some of the bridesmaids and a couple of very special friends and I went to the church to decorate for the reception. I had bought all the decorations but they made it even better than I pictured it in my head!
I ran home to change for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and was about five minutes late arriving back at the church. Brian started to get worried! :) He said I had never actually RSVPed to the wedding! But we had the rehearsal and it was just so neat to have most of the most important people in our lives all in one place. I had asked several of my friends to play in a brass quintet with organ for the wedding and they were all there to rehearse as well. Brian told me that I could plan the ceremony because well, I'm the bride and he knows nothing about music. Luckily even before we were engaged, I had to work an overnight shift while POTUS was somewhere else in the world. So I had had plenty of time to pick out the most perfect songs! Anyway, at the rehearsal, the quintet came into the sanctuary after practicing the music I had given them. They rehearsed the processional as I was practicing walking in with my daddy. As soon as they started to play, I started to tear up! It was a rush of emotions! A) I couldn't believe that I was actually rehearsing for our wedding and B) it sounded so much more awesome than it had in my head beforehand. Seriously, people. Not to brag, but it was EXACTLY what I planned and dreamed about.
After the rehearsal, we all headed to Mount Vernon for the rehearsal dinner. Again, it was even better than I had planned. We kind of were late to the game in planning the rehearsal dinner but I couldn't have asked for things to work out any more perfectly! We had such a great time with our friends and family. I admit I didn't eat that much because I was busy talking. Shocking, I know. But it was cool to see our families and friends get to know each other! We were able to introduce our bridal party and tell everyone how much they meant to us. We had such an awesome time with everyone and my only regret was that it could have lasted longer!
I couldn't figure out where to stay that last night. I thought about going to the hotel and staying with my parents. Or staying with some of my bridesmaids. But in the end, I was exhausted and I still had a couple of last minute things to take care of so I came home and slept in my own bed. Before I went to sleep, I wrote a card to give to Brian before the wedding, telling him how excited I was to be officially beginning our life together! I couldn't have asked for a better last day of single life!
