Wedding Wednesdays: The Prologue

A lot of things happened during our wedding weekend.

There was a tornado warning 15 minutes before the rehearsal (cut to me driving a car full of my out-of-state-bridesmaids through Oklahoma City as the siren blared, the group of them screaming, and me totally oblivious to their concern because #Oklahoma).

Nearly all of our rehearsal dinner guests shared the most sincere, heartfelt speeches.  One of Joe's groomsmen told a story about him that I had never heard before, and it wrecked me that night.  I wish so badly that we'd had a videographer for that dinner as opposed to just the following day so I could replay that story in particular for our kids.

The woman who baked 200 strawberry cupcakes for our wedding reception was nowhere to be found the morning of the wedding, and didn't answer a single one of our 78 calls until one of my bridesmaids drove to her residence and repeatedly banged on the door (she appeared with the cupcakes in hand, if I'm not mistaken, and was totally unfazed by our concern).

On the way to the wedding, my law school roommate and member of my House Party accidentally ruined the groomscake by stacking 16 heavy boxes on top of it.  She then showed up to the wedding wearing 2 different shoes.  (That same law school roommate would later Uber home from the wedding, not realizing until the following day that the ride cost her $150+....my response when I learned this: "That's the price of a flight to Denver!!?").

I did my own makeup, because Kate Middleton did hers.

I wore the same dress my mom wore when she married my dad.

My sister wore a different dress than the other matrons of honor because her nursing boobs made her "look just like Lady Kluck from Robin Hood and would have otherwise taken all attention off the bride" (her words, not mine).

That same sister cried uncontrollably during the ceremony and I was so touched by her affection for me until she explained the root of her sentiment: she was watching Joe's mom watch Joe, which caused my sister to imagine watching her own son get married one day (I rolled my eyes at the time but this is totally something I would do, and have done, now that I have a son).

We weren't permitted to write our own vows during the ceremony due to church policy, so we had a quick private ceremony after the church cleared out, which was so sweet and surreal.  We read our own vows then.

I threw my bridal bouquet away at the earliest possible moment because I am allergic to any and all flowers and sniffled loudly and uncontrollably throughout the entire ceremony (people later told me they just thought I was realllllly emotional).

When we exited the church to head to the reception, we realized we didn't have a ride there (we had stayed behind for photos and had totally forgotten to plan for a vehicle, whoops).

When we arrived at the reception, Joe accidentally stepped on my dress and ripped the bustle out, causing a 30-minute freakout and delaying our grand entrance (I later found out some older guests were offended by how late we entered 😬).

We danced our first dance to Jared Leto's version of Stay, (for the ceremony, my processional song had been Lana del Rey's Young and Beautiful - the instrumental version; our recessional song was Beyonce's Crazy in Love - the Life is But a Dream remix).

Joe built me a flower wall fit for Kimye (it was absolutely perfect).

We had the most fun reception of all time -- just pure magic.

We danced our last dance to Forever Young (Beyonce and Jay-Z's live On The Run version) and it was straight out of a dream -- everyone spontaneously circled around us and sang along to the words.  Goosebumps just thinking about it.

We made our getaway into a limo and headed to the honeymoon suite while our friends stayed out until the wee hours of the morning.

But something else happened that night: 3 different people asked my husband some variation of "Hey, who planned your wedding? My daughter is getting married and we want to hire whoever planned this one."  When Joe told them that I had planned it on my own, they seemed surprised.  A couple of them joked, "Well, then she should be a wedding planner."

Have you ever heard the saying, "Just because you're good at baking pies doesn't mean you should open a pie shop?"  I hadn't heard it yet, and because I hadn't heard it yet, I decided to start a wedding planning business.

I was already planning on taking a year off in between law school and the bar exam, and had planned to do contract labor for a law firm, but decided: why not also start a business, lead a creative team of 12 people, and contract for an ungodly amount of weddings in an obscenely short amount of time?  What's the worst that could happen?

The good news is: the worst that could have happened never happened.  The even better (for you) news is: What did happen was so crazy, unbelievable, outlandish, inconceivable, and unthinkable that I could fill a freaking book.  So.  Many.  Stories.

Maybe someday I will write a book about my experiences owning a wedding planning business.  Maybe in said book, I'll share the stories about Steph Curry and Kevin Durant nearly ruining one of our weddings, or the bride who accused me of committing multiple crimes (one of which included -- wait for it -- stealing a safety pin from her Maid of Honor).  Maybe I'll share the story about the time we accidentally played the wrong playlist (and boy, was it the wrong playlist) for the pre-ceremony seating arrangements -- Lord knows I can't tell that story without crying from laughter, so maybe a book is where the story belongs.

But until I write said book, I will share those stories here.  On Wednesdays.  As part of a 'Wedding Wednesday' series.

You are very welcome in advance.  See you next Wednesday.