Just dance

(Outside our venue)

The truth is, if I didn't have so many fabulous pictures to tell this story, I would have probably said less. 

So I'll let the pictures tell the story about my reception, and I'll pop in to tell you my memories. The fact is my reception was like most, I'm sure. Dinner, dancing, etc. etc. Some things went wrong (my entire reception rushed the ice cream bar, thusly not dancing for over an hour), but these pictures don't tell that story. In fact, these pictures show me that people WERE having fun -- something I needed to be convinced of after the fact.

Without further ado...

I love this candid shot of Jeff. His redness exacerbated by the pink walls, he just looks so happy no?

These seven friends, and one husband, are the non-family people who know me better than anyone in the world. Everything you need to know about me, you could learn from one of these people. Three of them I've known since elementary school, one from middle, two from high school and my college roommate. I'm beyond lucky.

I'm not sure if this shot was candid, or staged, but I like to think it was spontaneous. These are Jeff's parents, married for 37 years. They are truly a perfect pair, one of those "I know what you're thinking without you having to say a word" couples who work in such harmony with each other it's so comforting to watch. They're like peanut butter and jelly. :)

My cousins Sarah and Katie, with their dad. These three really got the party started!

This is my cousin Tracie and her husband Kevin, who flew all the way from Hawaii to be with us on our wedding day. Obviously, that meant a tremendous amount to me. I remember when these two got married -- in fact, I was their flower girl. They are also a huge inspiration to me -- married for 16 or 17 years they still have the same dynamic with each other that they did when I was hiding under a picnic table watching them canoodle when I was nine. They have such a great sense of humor and while in many ways I'd consider them opposites -- she was a little bit of a wild child (it's true!) and he's in the Navy -- they work perfect together. And I love this picture.

I don't think I need to tell you why I love this pic :)

Jeff and I have no recollection of what song was playing during this pic. But this is one of Jeff's classic dance faces, and I luvs.

And, to be fair, here's one of mine.

My friend Grimey said he'd never seen a dance circle in real life before our wedding, he thought they were for "Britney Spears videos and dance movies." Oh no, my friends and I have a long-standing relationship with the dance circle. Exhibit A (above): Andrew.

Exhibit B: Pat. 

Ohmygosh, how I wish you could see this picture bigger. This is probably my favorite picture in the whole bunch. This is such a classic. Ryan and Sarah. You guys are awesome.

At the end of the night, my best guy friends gathered up all the rose petals off the tables and threw them over me. Apparently they looped the photog in so she could get this picture.

We don't stop at dance circles. We also conga.

And then it was the last song and last kiss of the night. We said our goodbyes and everyone went home. 

And it was over. And it was just beginning.

Party time

I know, I have not been brief, but I'll try to be now.

So, we're married.

After walking down the aisle as husband and wife,  Jeff and I take a minute to ourselves behind the bumper boat tent (don't ask.) I thought we were alone, but we weren't, and it's a good thing as this is my favorite series of photos in the whole bunch.

Happy and relieved, that pretty much sums it up right?

After we had a couple of hugs of congratulations, the wedding party headed down to the beach to take some pictures. It's funny that it appears like the pictures were effortless and caught in the moment, but in reality they took several minutes to set up, and were held for several minutes on top of that. Especially this one:

The result is funny and cool, and I'll always remember how we laughed trying to set this up. I don't want to load up this blog with a bunch of pro pics which you can all see here and here. Needless to say I'm thrilled with them, although at the time I was ready to hurry up to see everyone at the party!

We finally made it up there at the tail end of the cocktail hour, in time to snap a few pics on the carousel. Finally it was time for introductions and our first dance.

Our bridal party planned on doing fun introductions, but I guess they were rushed because the dance floor was all the way around the room, but I would have missed them anyway.

Our first dance was to Joshua Radin's acoustic version of "Only You."

It was great.

Then came the speeches, probably my favorite part of the reception. The order was my maid of honor, Katie, our best man Steve and my best friend Justin. I plan to try and post the video of the speeches when I get back our DVD, if that's possible, because I hardly remember then except to remember they were awesome. 

Katie actually left her speech at my table, so I can give you a little excerpt here:

She started by introducing herself and then said:

I met Emily in September of 1995. In June 1997, Emily wrote the following in my Hugh B. Bain middle school yearbook:

"Katie, well, we've had some difficult times. We've had a lot of fun but we've also annoyed each other a lot. But, we have all next year to make up for the fights. All best friends fight. You are my best friend and will be for a long time. Can't wait for Emerald Encore! Love, Emily."

--skipping ahead--

Emster, Emmy, Em, my homie made of foamie... I am completely happy for you and Jeff. I have been continually impressed with the way Jeff treats you and how committed you are to creating a life together. You are both very deserving of each other's companionship, care, commitment, honesty, humor and love. 

When we were on one our bridesmaids planning adventures, Emily said about Jeff, "He's all I need."

I hope you continue needing each other for as long as you both live.

Isn't that so sweet? I loved it, especially her grabbing out of our yearbook. That totally sounds like something I'd have said back then. I clearly hadn't grasped what it meant to be a good friend to someone. I'm glad Katie stuck by me while I figured it out.

Steve and Justin's speeches were both great, teasing us for our sports loving ways, Jeff's Yankee love, my bad haircuts and dorky band geek ways, and loads of other things I can't wait to listen to again. 

This was pretty much my face during all of the speeches. It's sort of an "awwww, shucks" face.

What truly great friends I have. 

OK, tomorrow, I'll wrap up the reception!!

I'll never be too old or too cool

Remember how I've been saying how real it was feeling? From the dress, to seeing the venue?

Well I'm here to tell you it doesn't get any realer than when you're about to take your first steps down the aisle. 

You open the doors, you get to the top of the stairs.

You see your dad at the bottom. He's crying. Your heart melts a little. This is your moment. 

You're talking to your dad to relax a little bit. It's a long aisle, by the way. You get halfway down and see your best friend playing the keyboards. After all he was worrying about, it sounds absolutely perfect. You knew it would. You smile at him. 

You realize that all this time you haven't been looking at your fiance. You finally lock eyes and it's incredible. You see him with a look on his face you've never seen before. You've seen him happy, you've seen him excited, but you've never seen THIS face, in the six years you've been dating, this sort of exhuberant joy bursting out of his skin and his smile and his eyes.

You hand off your bouquet to your maid of honor and grab your soon to be husband's hands. You take a moment -- while the priest is talking about who knows what -- to look around and see your friends and family all gathered there. Don't they look nice? Where is ... oh, there he is. You feel appreciative of all the people that have come and instantly forget those who RSVP'd no. These are all the people you wanted there. These are your people.

The priest asks if you vow to love honor protect and you do. Jeff says, "Absolutely I do" paying homage to Rocky. Yes, Rocky references somehow make it into your wedding ceremony. 

There's more talking by the priest. You take this time to look around a little more. A lot of beachgoers have stopped to watch your ceremony. There's a dude, with a hairy chest, plopped on a bench behind the chairs drinking out of a gatorade bottle. You look off in the distance and see a guy crouched with a camera. Hey, Jeff has that same shirt and tie combination -- his sister bought it for him at Sears. Oh, that makes sense. It's his sister's boyfriend, Rob. And he's 50 yards down the beach taking pictures... why? You can't wait to tease him about it later.

It's time for the vows. You told the priest you had to go first, you wouldn't make it if you had to go second. You take a breath and say: 

I couldn’t love anyone more than I love you… 

I love that I can tell the same stupid joke over and over and you still think it’s funny, and I vow to keep telling them as long as you keep laughing.

I love that you respect, support and believe in me, and I vow to stand by your side and hold your hand through everything.

I love that you give me a kiss on the head every morning when you leave for work and I vow to always return the favor before you fall asleep at night.

I love that you think I’m beautiful without any makeup on, and I vow never to wear this much make up again.

I love that we’re perfect for each other, that we can have fun doing nothing at all, that we can always be ourselves, and I vow to always make time for us. 

I love that you are my partner, my teammate, my best friend, and I vow to be your loving and faithful wife, supporter and closest friend always.

You think it went over well. You can't wait to hear Jeff say the super secret vows he's been writing for months. He opens his mouth and practically nothing comes out. His voice is still gone and it cracks when he says ... 

Emily, you’re my best friend, my accomplice, my playmate and one true love.

You make me feel happier than I ever imagined and more loved than I ever thought possible.

You’ve got a lot going for you…

You’re beautiful (of course). You’re smart. And you appreciate life’s finer things … sports, Seinfeld re-runs and pizza.

You have impeccable dance moves. And you can always, always make me laugh.

Truly, “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

So on this special day I promise to give you the best of myself – to be the man you deserve.

I promise to love and care for you.

I’ll always be honest, kind, patient and forgiving.

I will remind you, everyday, how beautiful you are.

I know that it’s the little things that make all the difference.

I will open doors and never go to sleep angry.

I will never be too old or too “cool” to hold hands.

I promise to demonstrate my appreciation and gratitude for you every day.

I will be flexible – but please consider that on occasion, I just may have a point.

And I’ll let you take the credit.

I will try in every way to be worthy of your love.

Through the best and the worst,

Through the easy and the difficult,

Whatever may come, I will always be there.

Ahh... you love him. The line where he says he'll "never be too old or too cool" to hold your hand is your favorite.

It's time for the rings. "With this ring, I pledge my love and faithfulness."

There's more to the wedding, but you just want to give him the kiss already. Finally you can.

And you're married. And it's wonderful. 

Work it, baby

After a failed attempt to re-enter the world of the work out, I come back to my computer and say, "Let's get right to it, shall we?"

So where was I? Ah, right, about to put on my dress. This is when it becomes real, by the way. Once your dress is on, it's a ticking clock. Perhaps that's why Jeff did this:

He was trying to savor the moment.

Getting the dress on is not necessarily an easy feat. Katie, who is quite adept at dressing me after years of practice, help me get into the goods, and then into the dress. Partly anyway, because of course you have to get the getting into the dress picture! Even if it is completely staged.

Katie didn't pass up the picture opp.

But once it's on, it's time to tuck. Tuck Katie tuck!

And now you're in. Pose baby pose!

Which is what I did, for about the next 30 minutes. I'm pretty much in love with the results, and didn't slow at the yellow, but sped right through the red with the amount of facebook pictures one can put up of themselves without looking completely self-absorbed. I have, of course, learned my lesson, so I'm just going to post a few, just a few ok? here.

A note on that last one. I nudged up my shoulder a little -- just a smidge -- and the photographers (yes there were two) went nuts. So there I stood, pushing my shoulder to the point of disjointing because I was hearing "Shoulder baby! More shoulder!" as Katie put a large fan on me and and I used two shirtless men as furniture. Some of that last part might not be true. But there was plenty of shoulder, nonetheless.

Finally, they were done with me. I was released and allowed to go over to the venue where I got to see the space all done up for my wedding. And then got to peak out the window to see all the chairs set up outside. And remember before when I said it started to feel real when I put the dress on. Well, turns out there's varying degrees of real. This made it really real. Super real. 

And I had to wait, again, for about an hour for the moment. Of course, there was enough drama to fill the time. What drama you say? 

Drama is really a strong word. But first you need the back story: the Rotunda where we got married offered a wedding arch to use. One problem, it was heinous. You can see it in the background of the picture.

Now you're saying, why is it in that picture if you hated it? Well, good question. Jeff's father had graciously volunteered to make us the bamboo arch I really wanted, and then the florist would decorate it with flowers and it would be beautiful. We knew all along we'd be facing an issue of the wind and the day of was no different. Apparently, when the florist showed up to add the flowers to the arch and put it in the ceremony spot, the arch collapsed. So a decision was made (not by me, I wasn't there) to move it inside until the last minute before guests started arriving and hope for the best. And to keep the above arch there until then.

Well there I was, from my perch inside the Rotunda, completely unable to control what was going on. I saw the four groomsman bring the arch out, completely jostling it, further breaking it because they were all walking at different heights and tearing the thing apart. It actually led to a funny moment as I was standing there, watching them bring it over and realize they were putting it down backwards, being guys, they didn't see that the flowers were only on the front. So we're standing there, my mom, my bridesmaids and I going, "Turn it around. Turn it around! Someone has to notice it's the wrong way right? RIGHT?!" They did figure it out, if somewhat comically late. Once it was set down, you could see it leaning and I was completely calm about it, but I wanted it out. I didn't want it to fall on someone's head during the ceremony! But people kept saying, it will be fine, it will be fine.

Then Katie had a genius premonition -- the thing was leaning because the fabric we had draped on it was acting like a sail, we needed to cut holes in it so the wind would blow through. So there was my maid of honor, 10 minutes before my ceremony, jamming holes in the fabric on my arch. Did I mention she's amazing? 

Then we're five minutes to the ceremony and I realize -- no one's sitting down. Why is no one sitting down? I still need an answer about this. Who goes to a wedding and doesn't sit down in the chairs with at least 10 minutes to go? We had Andrew out there playing (he did an amazing job by the way), signifying a wedding would occur soon, but no one was sitting down. I'm not exactly sure on the times, but I'm pretty sure we started the ceremony late. 

And then it was a blur. All of a sudden my mother and my bridesmaids had left me, down the stairs and the aisle. And I was alone in the Rotunda. My father was meeting me at the bottom of a long staircase, and Jeff was waiting for me at the end of the aisle. My stomach was in knots and it was time.

.... and I swear I'll get to the ceremony next.

But first, you want to know how the arch turned out. Well, take a look.

I'm happy to say, despite it's left leaning and string spewing, it made it through the whole ceremony. And then collapsed 10 minutes into the formal pictures :)

Dum, dum, da dum

I don't think I'm going to even try to attempt to boil my wedding day (Aka the best, if not happiest day of my life) into one single blog post. That somehow seems disrespectful of the moment.

Then again, we'll see how this goes.

Fortunately, and amazingly, I slept well the night before my wedding. Well, I should say I fell asleep fine, thank a week of getting up early and two glasses of wine for that, but I woke up around 7 a.m., and well, once you're awake and there's sunlight on your wedding day, you're awake for good.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately (I have yet to decide) I didn't have anything to actually DO until 11 a.m. but be held hostage in my hotel room. Jeff and I had sort of an unspoken feeling about staying apart the day of our wedding, and I do agree it makes it that much more special. I must say I cheated a bit by calling him twice as well as peering at him through windows at various points of the day, but I digress.

I had a brief moment of pause when I called him in the morning to track down the facewash I'd left in his room, and he didn't answer. I sent my mom over to the room, and he wasn't there. I called again and our friend Mike (aka Grimey -- but not in how you're thinking) answered the phone because he had crashed in Jeff's room the night before and said he wasn't there. I thought, for maybe half a second, he'd bailed on me. No, of course he hadn't... he had been getting his golf clubs out of the back of my car, but what girl isn't scarred for life after the Sex and the City movie? When he finally did call me back, his voice was still gone. 

Anyways, I was stuck in my hotel room until 10 a.m. -- when the boys were leaving our small hotel (I should mention that right? Our hotel had just nine rooms, hence increasing the liklihood that we would run into each other) to go play golf on what was, if you can remember back to two Saturdays ago, an absolutely beautiful day. I commissioned my mother to go downstairs to get me a bagel (they kept telling me, a girl's gotta eat on her wedding day!) and sort of wallowed for a few hours until sneaking down to Katie's room on the first floor. Down there Katie showed me the 400 pictures her boyfriend Ben had taken of our rehearsal and we spotted Jeff and his guys outside the window in what can only liberally be called golf gear. 

Finally, around 10:30 they left, and I was free to roam around. The plan was for the girls to meet around 11 a.m., go to a sandwich shop near our hair salon, have a leisurely lunch before going to our hair appointment at 1. Sounds like plenty of time, right? Wrong. Silly me.

First issue was that I had actually apparently told everyone 11:30 in my e-mail. Whoops. And then when we got to the sandwich shop, it took. forever. Seriously, 30 minutes to make 7 wraps. From there I cut Katie's lunch short to have her traipse around Bristol for some contact solution as my brand new contacts were making me cry. I was having visions of being on the beach and sand flowing into my contact and... ouch. Katie, the world's greatest maid of honor said "No problem" and was off. Meanwhile I ran ahead to the salon because I knew the bride needed to get beautified and was STRESSED about time.

When we got to the salon they started me right away in the makeup chair. Now let me say, clearly, I never wear makeup. And I made it very clear to the makeup artist that I still wanted to look like me, but a glam me. And boy did she deliver. If it were just me in the chair staring at my face, I probably would have thought there was a touch too much foundation, but having 6 other women telling you how awesome you look sort of takes that doubt away. The hair was the cherry on the sundae -- I was very happy with the way it turned out -- even if it did put us another 15 minutes behind schedule and facing even more traffic back to Newport. 

What do you think?

Before makeup/hair

During

After

I raced back to Newport (yes I was driving) because our photographer had already arrived at the hotel and I don't do well with being late. Again, again, again it was totally fine. By the time I got back to the hotel, not only was the photographer there, but the flowers had arrived and all the girls-- who I had sent back from the salon -- were ready. 

And before I knew it, it was time to get into the dress. 

I'm back baby!

Back to life, back to reality, and ready to blog about it.

I might not have started this soon, but my landlord apparently thinks we're still not back and started drilling on the house at 7 a.m. Brilliant.

I can't believe it's all over. I hate wedding cliches like the plague, but it really did go by so fast. I'm going to try and recap it all in as much detail as I can, which might take me some time. I don't want to feel that this daunting task of recapping the last 10 days of my life to be like homework, and I don't fool myself into thinking there's anyone out there who really wants every blow-by-blow. (Most people are probably happy with a handful of pictures, a "It was great!" and let's talk about something else.)

But for my sake, when my memory fades, I'd like to have as vivid a description as I can of the happiest few days of my life when I'm old, gray, and they implant my blog into the computer in my head.

With that. We'll start at the rehearsal.

We all met down at the beach at 1 p.m. on a beautiful day to run through our rehearsal as quickly as possible -- which is nearly impossible. Silly me had scheduled our nail appointments for 2 p.m. and in Bristol -- half an hour away. So although the rehearsal was something I considered very important, I stood there with the "Go faster, go faster, go faster" face on and upped my anxiety level about 13 points (Of course, in the end, it was totally fine. I mean, damn, we're just walking right?)

Still had time for some pics though! Notice my awesome ribbon bouquet courtesy of my fabulous MOH Katie.

Dad walking me down the aisle.

Gotta practice the smooch!

Cousins!

We jetted off to get our nails done and I got my first ever pedicure. I'll tell you right now, I'm strongly considering making that part of my beauty regimen :) My feet looked/felt awesome! Moving on...

Most people probably wouldn't mention their rehearsal dinner, but since mine was probably, oh the best night of my life, I figure it's worth a mention.

We decided to eschew the normal sit-down rehearsal dinner for a cocktail style welcome party. We found a place in downtown Newport called Pop! Kitchen and Cocktails and met with the owner who was more than willing to work within our budget.

It was the best decision we made!

I managed to show up on time and find a great parking spot, two strokes of lucky considering Friday traffic and all. We had the bar all to ourselves for three hours which was, again, amazing and the food started rolling out shortly after we got there. Initially I was worried about the food, both the quality and the quantity, but damn, what was I worrying about (You'll hear that alot in this space). The food was, in my opinion, really, really good and plentiful. I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the night.

What was so great about the rehearsal dinner was that it brought together people from all over my life. And it made me realize, the people in my life could be the best set of people in the world. Am I exaggerating? Maybe. But everyone was so friendly. There were no wallflowers. No one hid in a corner. Our friends from San Diego were talking to my family and our straight shooting friends were talking to our wild ones and everyone got together amazingly well! You know those kind of nights. Where everyone around you seems to be having a great time, there's no awkward silence, everyone's eating and drinking and you just feel... full of happiness.









The only hiccup, and it wasn't even really one, was that my surprise groom's cake MELTED on the way to the rehearsal dinner space and sort of started to tilt to one side. Oh well. I wasn't upset about it at all, but my dear cousin Tracie, who picked it up for me, was pretty upset. I told her no sweat! People still thought it looked great and it tasted awesome. I think Jeff liked it.



At the end of the night, totally unexpectedly, the owner of Pop! brought out champagne for the whole wedding party and we had an impromptu toast which was a nice moment. Since I was driving and had two glasses of wine already, I passed my glass to my champagne loving fiance.


Jeff had just as much -- or more -- than me. He was beboppin' and scattin' around that room having the time of his life. Too much fun in fact, because at the end of the night I could hardly hear him, he had lost his voice. The night before our wedding.

To be continued!