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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Reception

Friday, February 17th:
I knew I should have wrote this sooner. Well, we stayed at my parents. Thursday night I had gone with my mom to OfficeMax to order my "programs." They couldnt open them on their computers because they didnt have the software. So, that night I had to re-do them and email them new copies. Friday morning Spencer & I went to pick them up. There was supposed to be little decorative swirls on the back, but they had a 1 and a 2. I was so stressed out that I was like, "Its fine Ill just put a sticker over them or something.." and we left. I quickly realized how hard that would have been and we turned around and went back. I made Spencer go in, and they did re-do them for free. I guess they even said, "Yeah, I thought the 1-2 looked weird but we thought maybe it was for 2012."
Looking back the programs were a big waste of time and money; because I went home with 100+ of them, and they ended up in the trash.
We also had to run to David's Bridal for hair accessories and Target for favors.
At 6:00 PM my mom, Heather and I had appointments to get our nails done and waxing. I got a pedicure and fake nails for the first time. They were annoying, but fun to play with.
I couldnt do anything - the worst, I found out later, was taking out my contacts.
We went to Applebees afterwards for dinner. Once we got back I printed off some signs...[Guestbook, Kids Table, Please take one, Sit wherever you'd like.]
Saturday Morning:
I woke up at 7AM and showered. Then I got to work tracing the signs in glue and adding green glitter and also putting together the favors. I hated them. Not what I wanted at all, we just ended up buying a bunch of Valentines Day candy that was on clearance and tying them in [IMO] ugly tulle baggies. I hate tulle.
Saturday Afternoon:
We had out hair and make-up appointments at 12:15. I loved my hair. It was exactly how I told her I wanted it to look, even if it was falling out before the reception even started.My make-up, on the other hand, I hated. I was already near-tears because of a text I had gotten while I was getting my hair done. Spencer's parents decided they werent going to pay the balance for the food&bar - the ONLY THING we asked them to pay for. I was furious. Seriously. I am guessing my mom paid DOUBLE the "budget" she had given us, BEFORE I had to tell her hours before the reception that now she had to pay an additional ~$5,000. I black out when I am really mad, so I dont really remember waiting to get my makeup done. The lady that did my make-up was extremely fake and annoying. I told her not to make my cheeks stand out. She did anyway. I made her take it off. I still hated it, but it was almost 4 and I still had to finish signs and favors and get the reception site by 5 for pictures.
I ran into my parents, drank a beer, fixed my makeup, worked on signs, sent Heather to Micheal's crafts, my dad and Spencer came back from setting up the lights and Spencer still had to shower and get ready andddd....YA. I was freaking out. We got to the hall at 5:10. I still had to put my dress on and no one was there to help me. Thankfully Spencer actually did really well lacing up the corset back on my dress!! We relaxed and drank some beer because I was kinda freakin. This was also a bad idea because it was freezing out and we had about 20 minutes to take pictures before it got dark.We had fun, but I do not like most the professional pictures that we took outside. While we were taking pictures Heather and her friends were setting up the tables inside. Again - not at all what I had in mind. I really wish we had done everything a few hours earlier. But then again I had no idea wed be at the salon for 4 hours.
Saturday Night - The Reception
Once we got back inside, people were already showing up. The reception didnt start until 7 and thankfully it was just my grandparents and some other close family members so we just continued to take family pictures indoor. I wrote this a few days after the wedding: "I am really excited to see the pictures but I am also pretty upset about how it all went. I wanted more of me and Spencer, pictures with the kids [it was too cold, Alikah wasnt listening.] I wanted single ones of Spencer and I but we didnt do any. I also wanted snow dammit."
Everyone started coming and I walked around and talked to everyone. Joe (Gina's boyfriend) finally got Gina on Skype after searching for a wifi signal for ever. So she was "there" via Skype from the Philippines! After awhile we got sent out into the hall to come in for our "entrance." I was already nervous but when the doors open everyone was standing for a "tunnel of love" and I dont even know. It was really embarrasing for me, but fun.Spencer's mom and Heather made speeches and after that the DJ announced my first dance would be with my dad....but my dad was outside. Ha. Ya. But totally expected. I cried like I knew I would. Mine and Spencer's first dance was to "Unique is my Dove" by Matisyahu, because of course it was.
This is also my favorite picture.
Of course, the rest of the night was drinking, eating and dancing. We had a great time.
My mom had booked a hotel room for us so when we left we went there. I had stuck to "only beer" most of the night but definitely did some shots near the end.I fell asleep on the ride to the hotel. But wait - it gets classier. We got pulled over. Some of Spencer's friends had a hotel close to us and still wanted to hang out after the reception but we declined. Anyway - I am so glad my mom did that for us - I had no idea until the day of!
We woke up and realized we had missed free breakfast - damn - so we walked to the gas station and got some snacks and beer. After that we went to my parents to pick up the kids and our presents. I didnt write any notes down for Sunday so unfortunately now, over a month later, I have no idea what we did. I think we just came home.
I whined in this entry, but looking back planning and preparing for the wedding wasnt nearly as stressful as I thought it would be. It would have been 1000x worse if we had had a big wedding ceremony. I am really glad we did it how we did it, and even though things went wrong and there wasnt enough time on THE DAY OF, it really did go well and it was a really fun experience and time - just how we wanted it.

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