(WARNING: This is kind of a lengthy post with our ceremony readings, vows, and etc. If you’re not into these kinds of posts, feel free to skip this one. In a nutshell, we went totally old school with our ceremony but used a couple of slightly less popular scripture readings.)
After we made it to the front of the church, Pastor Mark wasted no time in jumping right into the ceremony. We stood there patiently, our fingers nervously intertwined as we gave each other sideways glances. It almost felt like I was back in junior high trying to catch the attention of the cute boy across the classroom—except the cute boy had already asked me to marry him, and we were moments away from being husband and wife!
Pastor Mark began with a brief statement on the gift of marriage:
“We gather in the presence of God to give thanks for the gift of marriage, to witness the joining together of Justin and Rachel, to surround them with our prayers, and to ask God’s blessing upon them so that they may be strengthened for their life together and nurtured in their love for God…in marriage, husband and wife are called to a new way of life; created, ordered, and blessed by God. This way of life must not be entered into carelessly or from selfish motives, but responsibly, and prayerfully. We rejoice that marriage is given by God, blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and sustained by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, let marriage be held in honor by all.
Let us pray: Gracious God, you are always faithful in your love for us. Look mercifully upon Justin and Rachel, who have come seeking your blessing. Let your Holy Spirit rest upon them so that with steadfast love they may honor the promises they make this day, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.”
After his opening statements and prayer, Pastor Mark addressed each of us so that we could give our declarations of intent.
Up until this point in our big day, I only had the minor urge to cry once (while reading Mr. A’s love letter to me.). However, I was resolved to hold back the waterworks for as long as possible because I just really hate crying in front of people and didn’t want any of those ugly cry pictures (I’m not a pretty crier) in our wedding album. The song I had chosen for my entrance, however, was one that I knew would get people emotional, especially my family—whose little girl had grown up and was now transforming into being a woman and wife. No one except for Mama Dillo, our pianist, and Mr. A knew what I was walking down the aisle to until this exact moment, and the feeling I expected to have as the doors flung open and I made my descent with Papa Dillo in tow was not even close to the exhilaration, emotion, happiness and something that could only be described as utter bliss that I actually felt. In that moment, I was in Heaven.
Our pianist started to play the faint, yet immediately recognizable tune of “When You Wish Upon a Star” in the effortless and emotional arrangement heard here (seriously, you’re gonna want to play this one):
I’ll admit, when the doors first opened, my eyes fell upon Pastor Mark, probably because he was front and center. I quickly found Mr. A, though, and his soft and highly emotional smile put the hugest grin on my face.
Everything had been set up just perfectly for the ceremony. It was exactly how I imagined it, with our DIY programs and initials displayed in the foyer leading to the sanctuary…
At around 4:45pm, Papa Dillo at last made it into the parlor, and he waltzed in with a “ta da!” When his eyes fell on me sitting in the wing-back chair in the corner, though, I could immediately see tears welling in his eyes. You should know that Papa Dillo is definitely not a crier, and seeing him get so emotional made ME tear up a little. I fought the waterworks back, however, as he crossed the room, knelt down next to me, and gave me a big ol’ hug.
I wanted to wait as long as possible before I got dressed in the hopes that my mom would be able to come help me. I’d always imagined getting dressed with my mom there to assist with putting on the final finishing touches, but like me, she was running behind (in case you were wondering where my lack of punctuality comes from). It was around 4:15 when she finally came rushing through the parlor doors, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she helped get me into my gown.
We may or may not have staged this photo. I’m not telling!
I wore a petticoat underneath my dress, and with it on, I totally couldn’t see my feet. So, my lovely ladies helped me get into my shoes.
While James, our photographer, was out taking photos with the guys, I was busy inside the parlor of the church getting ready for the ceremony.
Like I said before, we didn’t really get many photos of me and my girls “getting ready,” which was totally my fault for being so behind schedule. James did run into the parlor after I had done my hair and makeup to snap a few photos of me before I put on my dress, though.
Here I am writing my love letter to Mr. A. This is kind of funny, because I had been bugging/reminding him to write his all week, and I ended up waiting until the last possible minute to write mine! Typical Mrs. A behavior, right there.
I wore the Plum Pretty Sugar robe Mr. A got me for Valentine’s Day while I was getting ready, and I’m so glad James was able to capture a few pictures of me in it! And although I had only about an hour and a half to get my hair and makeup done, I didn’t really feel rushed at all. The only snafu was realizing I had not brought the eyelash glue for my falsies, so BM Dancer ran to the nearest CVS to pick some up for me. Aside from that, the whole getting ready process was golden, and I was so glad I decided to DIY my hair and makeup. Being able to concentrate on something so familiar and routine for me like putting on my makeup really took away a huge chunk of the stress I had been feeling. And the DIY makeup trials I had done before were completely irrelevant by the time our day rolled around. I simply did a heavier version of my everyday makeup with liquid liner and false eyelashes. Badabing, badaboom. Done and done.
When I finally made it to First Presbyterian, the first thing I noticed was how absolutely gorgeous it was outside. Blue skies with white, cotton ball clouds framed the exterior of my childhood church, and the temperature was at an absolutely perfect 72 degrees. It was crazy windy, though, and as I climbed out of the car, my dress bag got caught in the updraft and almost flew away from me! I held on for dear life, however, and marched inside to camp out in the church’s parlor, where a few of my girls had already assembled.
You guys, the morning of our wedding day was insane.
The original plan was to wake up around 7:30am and get to the reception venue by 8:00am, since that was when we’d officially be able to get inside to start setting up. But staying up until 3:00 in the morning the night before tends to put a wrench in any early wake-up plans, so I realistically didn’t wake up until around 8:30. By that time, Mr. A and his groomsmen had already made it to the venue with Papa Dillo and were arranging tables and chairs and putting tablecloths down, so I threw on some jeans and a bra, pulled my hair up in a messy knot on the top of my head, packed my car full of wedding junk, and made my way over.
A sleepy and slightly disoriented Mr. A awaiting his set-up instructions from yours truly.
The day before our wedding day looked something like this:
So, I figured the day before our wedding was probably going to be pretty hectic. I imagined it would be something like being the director of a musical production being put on by our local community theater and the feeling one gets on opening night (I’ve directed many a production in the past and it’s a crazy mad dash to get everything finished up before people start walking in to see the show.). But you guys, the day before the wedding was like that feeling times a million. Nothing, NOT A THING, could prepare me for the craziness of the day before our wedding day; I was running around non-stop that entire morning and afternoon to try and take care of last minute things, and then 3:30 in the afternoon hit. Mama Dillo called to tell me that the 50 cupcakes I had baked from scratch a few days before were now completely pulling apart from their liners, and I totally lost it. Not because I was bummed about the cupcakes necessarily, I was just so stressed out and pressed for time as it was and there was NO WAY I would have time to make another 50 before the wedding day. The minute she heard me start to cry on the phone, however, she went into “taking care of business” mode, told me not to worry, and that it would be taken care of. I trusted her. (Spoiler alert: Mama Dillo came through and baked 50 more before our rehearsal dinner. She’s a machine!)
Well, hive, guess what today is? Mr. A and I have offically been an old married couple for an entire month! I seriously can’t believe how fast time has flown by, but married life is seriously even more awesome and amazing than I ever thought it would be. It’s taken a bit of time to adjust to us being on random work schedules (I’m a consistent 8:00-5:00′er and Mr. A alternates between day and night shifts.) But that amazing guy of mine sweetens the deal as much as possible by doing things like bringing me breakfast in bed when he gets off at 6:45 in the morning. (Best way to wake up EVER.) He may be spoiling me too much for my own good, but you’ll get no complaints from me!
Since we’re marking one month after tying the knot today, I thought it would be the perfect time to start our recaps. Our $8500.00 day was full of emotion, stress, excitement, euphoria, and literally everything in between. I want to share as many of those feelings with you as possible because I feel like that’s what really brings the bees’ recap posts to life. Even with the little hiccups and stresses the day brought, though, it couldn’t have been more perfect. I’ll take you through the entire experience, from the day before the big day to when we climbed into our getaway vehicle and pulled away from our reception venue. At the end, I plan on doing a budget breakdown post because when I was wedding planning, I found the bees’ posts about where they spent their budget to be the most helpful thing ever. Last but not least, I’ll offer some tips and guidelines from the other side for brides who are planning on doing pretty much everything themselves, like we did.
The night before our last morning in Fredericksburg, Mr. A and I went to bed wondering if we’d be provided breakfast the morning before we checked out of our room. At 9:00a.m., though, our question was answered:
That’s a Tex-Mex inspired breakfast casserole, fruit salad, sausage patties, and cranberry scones. Delish!
We lounged for as long as we possibly could in our bed before getting dressed, packing our bags, and climbing into our car to head back home. I was really wishing we could stay another night, but we both had work the next day and it just wasn’t an option.
Day two of our Fredericksburg adventure began like this:
Belgian waffles with warm, syrupy peaches in between them topped with fresh whipped cream and pecans, scrambled eggs, sausage links and strawberries. Pretty much perfection.
We got out to Main Street earlier on day two because the plan was to get our souvenir shopping done, get our fill of German food and still have time to drive out to Enchanted Rock to see what it was all about. What really happened, however, was that majority of our time on Main Street turned into a bizarre, Wizard of Oz themed game of “I Spy.” I don’t know what the connection between Fredericksburg and The Wizard of Oz is, but I swear, every other store we went into had some kind of Oz merchandise for sale. Don’t believe me?
After a day full of wandering half of Main Street and getting our fill of delicious food and Fredericksburg history, Mr. A and I headed back to our room for a lazy night in. We lugged our Chinese takeout back to home base, opened the door, and found this waiting for us on our coffee table:
Leslie had left us a plate of delicious chocolate-covered strawberries and a sweet handwritten note. Seizing the opportunity, we threw our takeout in the fridge, grabbed the bottle of the Messina Hoff Riesling we had bought at Crossroads the night before along with a couple of wine glasses, and took our plate of treats outside to adventure on the Hoffman Haus grounds.
We ended up stopping in the estate’s garden to enjoy our wine and strawberries. The atmosphere was perfection. We sat nearby a quaint little Koi pond where we could hear the soft sound of water trickling and take advantage of the aroma of someone firing up their barbecue grill not too far away.
After our whirlwind of a first day in Fredericksburg, waking up to the soft, heavenly sound of a polite knock on our door and a cheerful, “Good morning, breakfast!” was exactly what this newlywed couple needed. I opened my eyes to see faint streaks of sunlight bouncing off the exposed beams of the vaulted ceiling in our room:
Mr. A slipped out from underneath the covers of our cloud-like California king bed, made his way to the front door, and cracked it open to find a cheery staff member holding an adorable vintage picnic basket. After she had given the basket to him, he made his way back to the bed and I sat up as we opened it to see what goodies lay inside for us.
To start off the Armadillo Mini-Moon recaps, let’s pick up from the moment we left the reception.
After a blissfully incident free evening of dancing and being with our closest friends and loved ones, Mr. A and I drove away from our venue in a swanky borrowed car (can’t wait to show you guys later!) and made our way to the local Hampton Inn where we had made wedding night accommodations per the awesome gift certificate we’d won at our local charity ball a month earlier. Exhausted, excited, and relieved that the extremely long (yet amazing!) day was coming to a close, we climbed out of the car in our fancy tux and wedding gown, made our way into the lobby, and were greeted by the receptionist with a hearty “congratulations!” We politely told her we had a king suite reserved for the evening, gave her Mr. A’s last name, and to our surprise…the receptionist couldn’t find our reservation.
Mr. A pulled up the confirmation email he’d received on his phone we he made the reservation, showed it to the receptionist, and after a few clicks on her computer, she told us that our reservation had been cancelled and they were out of rooms for the night except for ones that had two double beds in them. You guys, I have to be honest; after a physically and emotionally draining day like our wedding day had been, it took everything in me to not break down right there in front of her. With her basically saying there wasn’t anything else they could do since the manager wasn’t answering her phone*, we left, climbed back into the car, and drove to our apartment. (Not exactly the way I envisioned my wedding night going, but it’ll make for a good story later, I guess.) I was too exhausted to fight or demand some kind of compensation, but I was particularly peeved since many of our out of town guests were staying at that exact hotel and Hampton Inn was greatly benefiting financially from our wedding weekend.
By the next morning, though, I was completely over what little damage the hotel had managed to do to muff an otherwise problem-free evening. Mr. A and I put on some comfy clothes and headed over to our parents’ house, where we ate leftover wedding cake for breakfast, watched a few snippets of the reception my dad had managed to capture on video, visited with some out of town family, and opened our wedding presents! I packed up a bag, bid adieu to my family, and we hit the road for Hill Country luxury.
On the way there, I got a phone call from my mom, saying she couldn’t find her engagement ring. Our photographer had borrowed it for a few photo ops and afterwards I had put it in a ziploc bag with some other jewelry and took it back to the apartment on our wedding night, so I thought I had left it on my nightstand, which is where I told my mom I had put it. When she called saying it wasn’t there like I had anticipated, I started to panic. I dug through all my bags, racked my brain for where it could possibly be, and a two-hour event ensued. My mom continued to call my phone in tears, asking me if there was any other place she should look for the ring, but I was at a total loss. I started crying (I felt truly awful, y’all,) my dad called me from his cell and talked me down so I could speak rationally, but I seriously couldn’t remember what I’d done with it and was beginning to fear the worst. The entire 4 and a half hour drive to Fredericksburg was spent in panic and helplessness, until the minute we arrived at our bed and breakfast, my mom called me to let me know she’d found it! Turns out I had stuck it in the same jewelry box I had put my wedding earrings in, which had been sitting in my parents’ living room the entire time. Crisis #2 averted!
Much better!!
By that time, I was more than ready to start to enjoy our honeymoon, and after I wiped the tears from my face and took a deep breath, Mr. A and I checked into our room at the Hoffman Haus. You guys, this place was heaven. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself:
Mrs. Armadillo, Houston, Texas Age and Occupation: 23, Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Armed Security Officer Engagement Date: September 28, 2011 Wedding Date: March 2013 Venue: First Presbyterian Church/Bay City Civic Center About Me: I’m an oldies-loving, board game-playing, coffee addicted fine arts junkie from Southeast Texas in pursuit of her master’s degree in communication studies who met the goofy, strong, artistic, and unexpected love of her life in the beautiful piney woods of East Texas. Serendipity threw us together again and again (and again) on our college campus before we eventually stuck, but when we finally did submit to destiny, we hit the ground running and never looked back! We’re planning a religious, small town, budget-friendly, DIY-infused “winter becomes springtime” ceremony and reception to celebrate the beginning of our lives together with the people we love the most, and are pouring our hearts and souls into making sure our wedding represents us as a couple down to the nitty gritty details and balances tradition with the quirky individuality that is uniquely and unequivocally “us”!
