May 7, 2008

Wedding Woes

Thanks to Candid Carrie's story of her first wedding, I've decided to share my own wedding woes.
First problem: Six months before the wedding we found out our 'professional' photographer (a family friend of Michael's) was going to use a Kodak Easyshot on a $10 tripod and print the pictures on her home computer with a regular printer that didn't even claim to be a 'photo printer'. EEK!
Solution: We fired her, called our new wedding planner (Michael's cousin) and she found us a wonderful photographer.
Second problem: Three months before the wedding, our priest says he won't marry us unless we have Michael psychologically evaluated because he thinks Michael has a 'deep-seated psychiatric issue'; then we would have to go to 'several months' of marriage counseling; and then we might be able to get married by the end of the next year.
Solution: Get a new priest, find a new reception location, print new invitations.
Third problem: No reception/event location big enough is available on our chosen date of March 15.
Solution: Move the date up a week (the other option was to have the wedding on Easter weekend, that's not possible in a Catholic church), book new reception site, call the invitation people and stop the previous re-order, order new invitations again to reflect date change.
Fourth problem: David's Bridal kept not getting my dress finished. It was late coming in, then only part of the alterations were done for the 'final' fitting, then they could only give us another appointment one week before the wedding (!!!!!), and we (my mom and sister, who drove up from Orlando for all my appointments) had to wait at least an hour past my appointment time to see the seamstress every time I had an appointment, and were always interrupted (not a big deal, except that we were kept waiting).
Solution: The David's Bridal district manager happened to be in town for the last appointment (a week before the wedding) and we got all the alterations and my accessories free. :)
Fifth problem: Michael would not leave the house the night of the wedding. Literally, he refused to leave the house and sleep at his parents' house as planned.
Solution: Cry, fight, yell, cry some more. I ended up sleeping on the couch (one of my bridesmaids, Jillian, was staying with us, she was using my room) and fell asleep crying and thinking 'how could I agree to marry this ASSHOLE!"
Sixth problem: The day of the wedding I could not find the headband my mom bought for me to use, which had flowers on it that were going to be in my bouquet and the crystal bead pattern on it perfectly matched my dress.
Solution: There was no solution for this one. I couldn't find it, I just had to go without it. :(
Seventh problem: I had to go to the bathroom before the ceremony, and in the process I lost the ring Jillian let me use for my something borrowed. That was really bad, because her grandmother had given it to her mom, who gave it to her. It had a very large blue stone in it (I'm not exactly sure what kind, but it was blue) which was surrounded by real diamonds. Small diamonds, sure, but who cares? They were diamonds. And I lost it.
Solution: I found it in my stocking when I was changing from my wedding gown to my 'leaving' dress. :) :) :) I could not have been happier, because losing the ring threatened to be the one thing to ruin the day for me, I felt so bad about it. Jillian was literally crying, both when I lost the ring and when I found it.
Eight problem: One of the cake layers collapsed. It just fell apart. Thankfully it was before anyone saw it, and only the people setting up the cake really had an issue (frosting on formal clothes...ugh).
Solution: Just go with it, not much else to do.
Ninth problem: Half of the guests who RSVPed didn't show. Too much food, too much cake, too many tables and chairs, what a nightmare!
Solution: Donate the leftover food and a good portion of the cake to the homeless shelter in town. It seemed only right to do what we could for other people who have so little when we had way too much, and the people at the shelter were so thankful, as they were getting low on hot food for the day.

Those were the major problems. I know there were more detail, nit-picky type things, but I don't want to think about how much stress I allowed that stuff to cause me, so I'm only giving you the major stuff. Aren't you glad you're not planning a wedding? :) Still, I wouldn't trade it for the world, because we survived, stronger than ever!

2 comments:

Candid Carrie said...

Sounds like the making of a sitcom episode. It would be even funnier if it wasn't your life, right?

Outnumbered2to1 said...

Holy cow. I think I would have eloped. More power to you both for making it thru.