Weddingbee Blog

With the dress on, flowers in hand, and friends and family surrounding me it was finally time to get to the church! This part completely flew by, and I wish I remembered it better. My mom and I walked to the elevator and I couldn’t help but think that just a half hour earlier, Champ had walked right past the room where we were getting ready, and he had already experienced the ride to the church. I couldn’t wait to see him.

We had plans to take a few photos before heading to the church, but when we got out of the elevator we forgot to take into account the mountain had just closed for the day and skiers and snowboarders would be flowing back into the hotel and lobby. I got a few stares from the dude with the snowboard, but mostly smiles!

We passed a girl who was on crutches, crying, and clearly in pain. I thought, ‘the most important day of my life could be the day this girl fell on the mountain and broke her hip.’ I’ve had four pretty recent surgeries on my knee from a skiing accident, and I felt so lucky to be pain free the day of our wedding. I’ll never take my health for granted again after that accident.

As I was waiting for the “all clear/no groom in sight” cue, I looked up and saw my godmother. It took me completely by surprise to see quite a few guests in the lobby and I kind of freaked. It’s not that I didn’t want to see anyone, it’s just that I didn’t expect to have to shmooze before the ceremony!

I was so happy to see guests who I knew had traveled so far to celebrate with us, but I booked it to the other side of the lobby. I guess the excitement just got to me, and well… I got nervous!

I squeezed by my mom and she had the cutest smile on her face. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but our wedding was also her birthday! We had a small celebration earlier that morning, but I had big plans for later!

I was so focused on getting to a quiet corner that I breezed right by Champ’s parents and even right by my own dad!

I realized I was being a total spaz and turned around to say hi. It actually made for kind of an awkward moment and it felt more like a “first look” reveal then just a hello.

I am SO BLESSED to have such a wonderful support system. Champ’s parents and sisters have welcomed me into their home and they’ve always been supportive of our relationship.

I’m not going to really go into the details of my “portraits”, but I’ll just say they were poorly executed and completely unorganized. We stood in the lobby and tried to find a good backdrop for photos (something I believe in my non-pro photographer opinion should have been done prior to the portraits). Whatever, I’ll just show you the photos and move on.

Love my girls. They are such great friends.

And of course, my fabulous MOH kept us laughing. Proof that bigger bouquets are not always better!

Hey, at least the photos weren’t taken in the parking lot, right? OK, OK, I’ll move on. After our photos, we snuck into the manager’s office to wait for our limo.

I love how this photo shows the gorgeous color of my grandmother’s fur stole. You might remember I was torn as to which one to wear, and I chose the darker of the two (Grandma Hazel’s fur) and my mom wore her mother’s lighter color stole.

Here’s my mom with my cousin wearing her mother’s stole.

As we waited for the limo in the manager’s office, I paid a little tribute to my bee character—the champ-pag-na.

Remember the Uggs I got the gals? They came in handy as bouquet holders. So classy.

We all brought our Uggs with us and most of the bridesmaids ended up wearing them the entire night.

The limo arrived, and we were ready!

A quick toast in the limo. We laughed and laughed and I swore a million times my dress was going to burst.

We pulled up to the church and I saw my K and D letters I had worked so hard to paint and glue. They were completely crooked and looked so pathetic, but honestly… I realized none of these details mattered anymore.

I looked inside and saw a church full of family and friends and thought, ‘this is it!’

Details or no details, it’s all about one thing: the marriage and the commitment between two people. I couldn’t wait to celebrate!

Did you run into unexpected guests before your ceremony? How did you deal with it?

Previously:
Champ Wedding: Becoming the Bride
Champ Wedding: Pants Party
Champ Wedding: Girls Get Ready
Champ Wedding: Gift Exchange
Champ Wedding: Perfect day to Get Hitched!
Champ Wedding: Antlers and a Sing-Along
Champ Wedding: Practice Run
Champ Wedding: Quick Visit to the County Jail
Champ Wedding: Finally in Colorado