Friday, June 29, 2012

The Wedding Day

My MOH's and I woke up around 7:30 on the morning of the wedding. We were all very excited to start getting ready and just enjoy the events of the day. Everyone had told me that the day went so fast, so I was trying to soak up every moment of the entire day.

Around 8:30, Kelly and I headed out to Enterprise to swap out the regular rental car for the luxury rental. We hopped in the Jag and took off.......into the ghetto. Okay, so maybe it wasnt really the ghetto because Lex doesnt really have one, but still, we ended up in a very shady part of town. I looked at her and said "We are seriously drving a Jag through the ghetto." We both began dying laughing as I was picturing a shoot out occuring outside as we drove a $65,000 car past (because with everything else that happened pre-wedding, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary by that point), but we managed to get back into the part of downtown where the hotel was located. Then, in true *my wedding has been one crazy event after another* fashion, the roads leading to the hotel were blocked off due to a race. We circled, and circled, and circled, and there was absolutely no way to get into the hotel, unless we drove the wrong way on a one way street.....so, we did.....with a policeman seeing the whole thing and pointing his finger and yelling at us. Kelly was like, "You're going to go to jail on your wedding day." Ha! He saw us turn into the hotel so I'm sure he realized that we only went the wrong way out of sheer despiration and must've had sympathy for us. Thank you, Mr. Policeman.

When we got back into the hotel my hair and make-up girl, Amanda was already there working on Em's hair and the girls had fresh Starbucks  waiting for me. Is anyone else addicted to iced skinny carmel machaittios? I think I had one per day the week of the wedding :) Anyway, shortly after we arrived back, the hotel had the suite cleaned and ready, so we packed up our items from our regular room and moved over to the suite. M and I had planned months prior to stay in the suite for our wedding night, so they went on and let us move to the bigger room around 10 that day. It was great because it was much larger and had a seperate sitting. Once she was done with Em's hair, she did my hair and make-up and then did the other 2 girls. During this time, my mom and Kelly's mom and daughter (flower girl) arrived. Despite as crazy as it may sound, it was such a "chill" environment. Everyone was so relaxed, happy, and we were all socializing and soaking up the moments. Around noon, we ordered Jimmy Johns (Yum!) and our photographer arrived and began doing some of his artsy shots of the rings, shoes, etc.

LOVE the one of us jumping on the bed! Childhood memories

Wearing our matching robes, and the girls in their wedding jewelery.

We then headed down to the hotel lobby and began taking my bridal portriats. The hotel is very old and historic, so their lobby is perfect for those mansion style pictures. Again, the hotel was beyond amazing, letting us move furniture etc so we could score the perfect picture. We moved outside to take some more pictures for about 45 mintues until my honorary bridesmaids arrived and then we took some more pictures with them. It was a BEAUTIFUL day- 72 and sunny...quite rare for this time of year.


After our pictures were done, I actually got out of my dress and back into my "Future Mrs. Kinney" robe to relax for a bit. By this time everyone was at the hotel and I had each girl sign the bottom of my shoes with a silver sharpie. We relaxed, touched up our make-up and then headed over to the chruch around 4:30. At the church, we snapped a few more pictures with my nephew, grandparents, etc and then we headed to the bridal area to wait for the ceremony. During this time, I got handed a little teal box with a white ribbon (Helllloooooo Tiffany and Co) and a letter from M. I opened the box to find the heart tag toggle necklace with my new monogram inscribed on it. His letter was sweet and reading it made me even more excited to know that we were just moments away from being Mr and Mrs.
My dad walked in shortly after I opened my gifts and we got to spend some QT before he walked me down the aisle. Around 5:30, they moved me up to the hallway and I was listening to the music and such from the stairwell. My legs were shaky so my dad got down on one knee and let me sit on it like a chair (a special moment that will forever be etched in my mind). After one song ended and before the video was supposed to play, I heard Cannon in D being played. I was like "No, no, the video! The video!" He said "It wouldn't work. Something is wrong with the system. We've been trying for 2 hours to get it to work and it just wont. It's okay. It's okay. Just enjoy it and don't worry." I went through a few moments of sheer heartbreak as I worked on that video for weeks. However, as I walked up to head down the aisle, I forgot all about it. The doors opened, Clocks by Coldplay began playing and I saw my man- for the first time :)




I remeber seeing a few faces as I walked down the aisle-not many, but a few. I kept focusing on looking at M and not tripping over my large and in charge dress. As we made it to the front, I felt so calm and relaxed. I had both my dad and M there with me, my friends in front of me and family behind me- what more could a girl want?! My other uncle prayed and then M and I moved up to the stage. Having one arm hooked in M's and the other holding my boquet presented a problem since I needed to hold up my dress to make it up the stairs. I looked up at Jules and was like "You've gotta take these." She took my flowers, we made it up to the stage and my uncle began by saying "Just breathe. You made it" M and I took deep breaths and I scanned the audience to see everyone during this moment. I kept telling myself to soak it all in and.....I did. I enjoyed every moment of our ceremony and surprisingly, we both made it through our vows sans tears. One of the sweetest moments during our ceremony was when we took communion and then prayed together over our marraige. Right then and there, we gave our entire marraige to God-what a comfort and no better way to begin our new life together :)
After the ceremony, we walked out and headed downstairs to wait until everyone lined up for our flower petal toss. After about 10 minutes, everyone was out and we came out, down the stairs, and into the car.

I had petals EVERYWHERE- I mean EVERYWHERE. My train caught them all and M and I spent the 3 min ride to the park picking out petals and laughing. As we arrived at the park another wedding was taking pictures under the archway we got engaged under, so we headed to another area and took some pictures while we waited for them to be finished. We snapped our pictures and headed back to the chruch to meet back up with everyone. At the church, we spent a few more mintues taking pictures and then we headed to the reception.



We arrived at the reception and we had a little wedding party toast and then we walked in the reception to "Forever" We immediately had our first dance and then we began socialing with our guests. We sat down for about 5 minutes and grabbed some food and then we cut the cake and my dad and I had our dance. And thats when I lost it. I cried like a baby the whole song. I just couldnt help it. I was overcome with emotion throughout the entire song.
Crying. Of course :)

We LOVED our cake!!! Notice the chalkboard cake topper? 2 teachers :)
We headed out to the runway to take some more pictures as the sun was setting. Because of TSA laws, we could only have so many people out on the runway at a time and we had to be quick. We snapped some family pictures and then we took some more with our wedding party. The sky was beautiful and our runway pictures are some of our favorites.


Taken from Tiff's iPhone. We cant wait to see Nelson's pics!
The rest of the night was spent dancing, socializing and photo-boothing! We had a blast, especially with the old school dance party the wedding party had (I cant wait to see the pics from it) and then around 10:30, we had a sparkler send off and we headed out....as husband and wife :)

With my silly parents
      



If you read this far, congratulations! Ha!
Honeymoon posts coming next......

4 comments:

  1. Well aren't you a beautiful bride!

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  2. Congratulations! Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness.

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  3. Just stumbled across your blog, Oh my goodness, your wedding dress is STUNNING!!!!!! Love all your pictures and congrats on your new marriage! Your blue shoes are to die for! I love the pop or color (I had hot pink shoes with my wedding dress!)

    I like that you educate the youth of america as well :) I guess i'm not the only one who says that! I also do that :)

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  4. gorgeous gorgeous! oh everyone and everything is beautiful. good for you!!
    congrats!!!
    I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can.

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