Wedding Blog

WHERE WE HAD LEFT OFF:

• The wedding schedule is thrown off by late makeup appointments
• I come home to find that all of our bouquets are dead, after our florist put them into the freezer instead of the fridge!
• Bridal portraits begin, I begin to doubt my choice in photographer
• Bridal party portraits begin, the photographer embarrasses my family and friends
• Mr. Shortcake and his groomsmen get ready with the help of a ping-pong table
• We leave for the chapel, and the rain (and our nervousness) begins!

NOTE: As usual, my recap photos are from a variety of sources. All post-processing has been done by me with each individual’s consent and permission.

*Feel free to play our processional song while you’re reading this post (my entrance was at 2:00)

Tip-toeing across the wet grass, my bridesmaids had gone ahead of me. We left the dry warmth of the limo and stepped out, me clutching my bouquet, my sister and maid of honour clutching my train. It was time. Because there was nowhere to wait, we huddled together outside in the rain, next to the church doors, straining to hear the music inside. Inside the groomsmen were in place, and the mothers had begun their walk down the aisle early.

The bridesmaid nearest the door frantically whispered that they had started the procession early - and without the planned music. I hissed back at her to make them change the music; so trying to be as conspicuous as possible, she ran up the aisle with my emergency CD, and then ran back outside to our group. Our chapel, being smaller than a cathedral and no bigger than a living room, necessitated careful timing for the processional. I had chosen an orchestral version of Pachabel’s Canon in D, and had it planned so that every thirty seconds a different person would walk down the aisle - leaving my entrance to the gorgeous swell at 2:00. We had practiced it beforehand, and it had worked like a charm, but the minister had decided to send the groomsmen and the mothers down on her own schedule.

Breathe. I was doing math in my head, and trying to identify which part of Canon in D was now playing.

“Okay, walk slowly girls. Left together, right together. We have to try to time this again.”

My first three girls went down the aisle, walking as slowly as they could without losing their balance and falling over.

I tried to hear the music over the pouring rain. Twenty seconds until the upswell. SHOOT! In one of my few bridezilla moments, I shoved my sisters ahead of me, hissing, “GO! GO! GO FAST!” but we still ended up all walking down the aisle at the same time! Whoops!

From the moment I stepped through the heavy oak doors, however, I wasn’t thinking about timing. I wasn’t thinking about the rain, and I wasn’t thinking of everything that had gone wrong already. I was fixed on Mr. Shortcake, grinning at him until my cheeks hurt and I thought my heart would burst.

Left together. Right together.

Smiling faces and happy sighs.

Left together, right together.

All I could feel was love. All I could hear was love, and the only thing that I could see, waiting up for me at the altar, was love.

A veil lifted by a teary father….

A tight hug and a whisper: “I love you, princess.”

And a reply: “I, I love you, too, Daddy.”