We woke up refreshed so Deonna and I drove back out to Brighton for hair appointments. Deonna had been warned to "make sure she eats!" so we took a bagel from the hotel bar after the lady said, "just take it!" The hair appointments led to us getting our makeup done at Elder Beerman by Deonna's friend, and only a small amount of frantic stress from Mom getting lost and trying to get her ducks in a row. I purchased my slip for that night, we found a "something blue" as a anklet and toe ring, and split up to pick up the dresses and get food, respectively. My favorite joke from that day was picking up Deonna's dress at the bridal suite for her, and walking in all tiara-ed and veiled up. The two people at the counter looked up at me and I asked, "Help! Do you sell wedding dresses here?" to some good laughs.
We met at the church to get ready, the new steamer from Mom worked beautifully and Beth arrived just in time to get some good pictures. Everyone was more nervous for this ceremony but it went beautifully. Our verses were about "building your house on a strong foundation to weather the storm", and as soon as we started it began to POUR outside. Trees were blowing all over the place, lighting was running rampant, and it was quite fitting. Father Dave told us AFTER the ceremony that if the power had ever gone out even for a second, all of the alarms in the church sound until they are reset. He had people standing by, but it was still a lucky miss.
Walking down the aisle, I just remember grinning ear to ear. Most people were happy and smiling, but there were some tears and Mom (in particular) was just BAWLING. I quickly looked to the other side of the church where Steve and Ray were standing as ushers, since their main job all weekend was to just "stay sane". They did a remarkable job, and although Dad was crying happy tears I stayed composed. We had some pictures afterward and did a quick change and over to the rehearsal dinner.
I had a very Jackie O dress for the dinner, I wanted to look like a sophisticated married lady and in my pearls I don't recognize myself in some of the pictures. Austin had a black polo on, so we still looked quite the bride and groom. The dinner went great, I know a lot of the out-of-town guests enjoyed it more than the wedding even, possibly, but Austin and I turned in early. Deonna and Shawn had set up some bubble bath, candles, and bath goodies at the hotel's giant Jacuzzi tub and we enjoyed it muchly.
Posted by Janine at August 01, 2003 04:25 PM