One Month Married

Remember when I posted that I ran around telling people I was getting married soon and nobody cared? Well, a month in, I found them: health insurance and car insurance. That's the sum total of who cares who cares (ex-significant others not withstanding). Life is largely the same. I've been sporting a shorter haircut post honeymoon which Mike surprisingly liked right away. I've yet to check off all my "it can wait until after the wedding" to dos. All of our wedding gifts (expect the frames because we're waiting for pictures) are in use. I did manage to finish my thank you cards even if it took an additional week to get the stamps to mail the last batch. I feel good about that. Today I even got my vendor reviews down to the final 3. As far as post wedding goals go I took a schedule for sewing classes, but haven't signed up yet. In a week or two I should be able to see my professional wedding pictures and video. I can't wait. The wedding is getting a little hazy.

I've yet to check the Mrs. box on a form or call Mike my husband to a stranger. I have gotten my first "just because" flowers as a married woman. Also with the recent news that Isaac's mother is expecting (number 7), I cling to my now legal stepmother status. Some more pictures have trickled in from friends and family which is super exciting. Including this proof that I wasn't exaggerating about packing up two carloads of stuff at the end of the night. After a month it's finally amusing what a disaster the end of the night was.

It's nice to have it over and done with. Except I'm not used to not having an unrelenting to do list and a pressing deadline. It can be down right disorienting after years of planning a single event. Overall I really enjoyed planning, but I'm glad it's over. Planning events is fun, but the added emotional intensity surrounding your own wedding makes it...well less fun. I want to help other people plan. I learned a lot from my experience and I think I'd be a huge help to other brides.

In the meantime I have the kids' birthday parties to start thinking about. They'll be 3 and 10 this year. Whoa. This is one of my favorite guest photos with Riley throwing the petals in great bursts. Flower fireworks. She did such a good job. Standing on the stool turned out great. We use it all the time now. Riley's uses it as a little desk or to climb into her highchair by herself. It really is pretty much back to normal around here, except I don't worry about ring checkers or dread explaining our relationship status to those I don't know very well. Now I can sum it up in one word, married. Anyone who probes deeper will surely be confused by us being together 5yrs and having a 9yr old and 2yr old having only just been married, ha, ha!.

One Week of Marriage

Ok, time for some recaps. I remember having a nightmare the night before and waking up in a cold sweat about the gosh darn missing tie. It was 5am and I knew I had to go back to sleep, but now my stomach was churning. I sent a slue of texts and tried to go back to sleep. By 8am I was wide awake and there was a text that the tie had not been found. Now, I gave up sleeping anymore and checked emails to make sure I hadn't messed up the order. Guess what, I had. There are two things to be learned from my mistake: 1)Count them out before the day you intend to pass them out, just in case. 2) No one dies (or is any less married with the incorrect number of ties.

After way too many moments of worry my dad surrendered his tie to the groomsman who was lacking. Problem solved. I took the attitude that I'd screwed up early in the day and so now that part was done with. We also didn't end up with a unity ceremony due to technical problems with the glow liquid, again no one died (or is any less married).

The ceremony was beautiful electrons and neutrons, eternity, love, the symbolism of rings (which it took me two tries to get on the correct hand). There were sprinkles of rain during pictures and I couldn't remember any of my “must take shots” I was so amped up by the time Mike finally got there. Riley's flower crown fell back on her head and no one fixed it. I wish her hair was fixed for our family picture, but she was an AMAZING flower girl.

She walked around with her basket of petals for the 30min before the ceremony like she was transporting gold bars. Her counterpart put on her dress, but didn't want anything else to do with this flower girl business. It's good to have a spare. When it was her turn Riley walked right up and tossed her petals straight up in the air like bursting fireworks! It was wonderful. Our ring bearer was no slouch either.

We were announced into the reception and since I'd seen it the day before the room had transformed. Not only had the fabric covered those ugly frames it had also defused the light from the wall fixtures. It was so pretty. Our dinners were waiting for us. I hear the kids were fed first as I instructed and that they were happily occupied coloring until the dancing got underway. What a dance floor we had, full of gleeful pint sized party animals. I got several compliments on my play list too (I was so glad). As far as compliments go though the most buzz was over our beautiful and delicious cake. The kids were chanting "Cut the Cake" when we arrived, but we waited until dinner, toasts and first dance concluded. Riley kept asking if she could open the tiny door. Mint flavored white cake with chocolate ganache between the layers like a Milano cookie. It was so good. We didn't feed each other tiny bites we grabbed huge fistfuls.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. The toasts were wonderful. I felt so loved. One or two people told me they enjoyed the slide show too. I regret not just taking scissors to the too long lining on my dress after all it was my dress. The double sided tape lasted a few steps before I was catching my foot in it. The sneakers were the best idea ever. Also, it would have been smart to hand a few extra strips of stylist tape I had on the top of my dress to my bridesmaids. It would have held if I wasn't stepping in the dress.

My other hindsight flash of brilliance was this: I should have designated one single person to be the liaison between everyone else and the groom. Poor guy got multiple phone calls for every problem, question, etc all day. I wish it had occurred to me to instruct everyone to contact say his dad and let him decide when things warranted stressing Mike out.

In the last moments we went out to take a picture under the lit sign in front of Sunken Gardens and the sky opened up on us. I was worried because my photographer had a big metal pole out there too, good thing there wasn't lightening. It turned into a mini trash the dress session. It might even have resulted in cooler pictures. I found it refreshing.