WOW! It has been a fantastic month! I'm not really sure where I should start, etc., so I will try my best to pick out the highlights of the wedding, honeymoon, and newlywed life in Tulsa. Shall we begin?
Wedding:
Our wedding was perfect! And by "perfect" I mean, we had an absolute blast and what mattered most happened: at the end of the day, we were married. Other than that, NOTHING went perfectly but it came together beautifully! The day before the wedding, several of us had pedicures and then most of my bridesmaids met up for lunch at In the Raw. Afterwards, a few went to have their massages (bridesmaid gift) and the rest of us went to decorate the Gilcrease. I was a bit nervous when we arrived, it was pretty desolate. But! The decorations, table linens, seat covers, etc., all made it look very pretty. The rehearsal was at 5:30p and everyone was there and on time (minus Annie who met up with us later). Dr. Miller was very friendly but to the point and we were on our way to the rehearsal dinner at Polo Grill! It was delicious!! My dad put together a video montage for us and it was fabulous. Michael and I have watched it several times since. :) After the dinner, pictures, and hanging out with friends, Michael and I went over to Justin and Michelle's hotel room for a bit so they could give us their wedding gift. It was good to have a few minutes with them before I attempted to go to bed. And that is the best word I can use because I ended up lying in bed wide awake from 1:30a to 5:30a. Ugh. Regardless, on to the WEDDING DAY!!!
I'm not going to lie, I did not bounce out of bed and sing with the birds the morning of my wedding. Instead, I felt like I did in college when I stayed up too late and had to go to class the next morning. Let's call it the most exciting class ever, but it was still a feeling of utter exhaustion. Michael and I met for breakfast at BBD and I managed to eat a few home fries and half of one pancake. He ate his entire meal and was ready for some more. You know that feeling you have when you're about to speak in front of a bunch of people and it's that sudden jolt of butterflies that makes you nauseous? I had that feeling in my stomach for about 7 hours straight. He, on the other hand, looked like he got married every day. The JERK! :) Regardless, it was great to see him. We had not had a chance to practice our first dance the entire week leading up to the wedding so when I dropped him off at the hotel, we practiced a bit in the parking garage. It was one of those moments where we felt absolutely ridiculous but we knew we'd remember it forever. :)
New paragraph! Kait and Melissa soon arrived at my apartment and ran in the room singing, "It's your wedding day! Hoooooray!" I love them. The 3 of us went and had our hair done at Iidentity Salon (my photographers met us there) and then came back to meet the girls and the makeup artist at my apartment. Several of the girls had their makeup done as a bridesmaid gift and they all looked beautiful. We shared some sandwiches for lunch (I had a piece of bread... yea I was still nervous) and then most of them took off to finish getting ready. I'd asked that we all meet at the church at 2:15 and everyone was there on time... except for me. I'm not sure what mom, dad, and I were doing but it was definitely not paying attention to the clock. So I arrive at 2:30 and decide it is TIME to put on the dress! Unfortunately, my photographers did not think it was time as they wanted to take several pictures of the dress BEFORE i put it on. So I sat. And waited. At 2:45, they finally decided it was time for me to put on the dress! I quickly did and mom had just started to zip it up when she yelled, "Oh no, it broke!" and then quickly followed it with, "It's ok. We'll fix this." What?! I kept asking what was wrong but she wouldn't tell me. I kept telling her "Mom, you keep secrets from the bride when she has no idea, but I already know something happened so there is no use in hiding it." Regardless, she wouldn't say a word. Long story longer, after 15 minutes of trying to decide what to do (the zipper was indeed broken and useless), my wedding coordinator at the church and my photographer ended up sewing me into my dress. Yes, that is what I said. One started at the top, the other started at the bottom, and they met in the middle. I kept it together pretty well, just got very quiet. I'd had full plans of sitting before the wedding with my dress unzipped to stay as comfortable as possible. Instead, I stood the entire hour before the wedding and was told not to move. The dress was finally completed at about 3:50, which was a good thing since the wedding started at 4p! Dr. Miller came in and prayed with the bridesmaids and then it was go time!
I'm not sure what I can say about the wedding except that it was fantastic. There were a few mess-ups, Dr. Miller started to call me Heather (Michael and Heather work at our church and are good friends of ours) and he also told everyone the wrong hymm. But other than that, it was beautiful. I loved every minute of it, especially when our parents stood next to us and promised to support us and welcome us to their family. It was very moving for Michael and I, and I think the entire congregation as well. :) Michael Homan and Julie sang "The Prayer," which was gorgeous, and Michael and I NAILED our vows (we said them from memory). All in all, we felt SO GOOD when we walked back down the aisle!!
Gosh this is getting long. I really don't expect anyone to still be reading this except for my dad, so HI DAD!!! Moving on to the reception. It was a blast! We had about 200 guests and as soon as we got there we sat down to dinner. The few mishaps (because those are always more exciting than mentioning everything that went RIGHT): When we got to the cake, we noticed there were no utensils to CUT the cake. So we stood and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally we were able to cut the cake. A bit later the photographer tried to take Michael's and my picture and Michael accidentally stepped on my dress and broke the bussle. Leslie Horn and a safety pin to the rescue! And when it was time to eat the cake, we noticed that there was a strawberry cake--it was supposed to be chocolate! Other than that, I can't think of anything in the 4 hours we were there that was less than extraordinary. The food was great, the dancing was a blast, and we were able to walk to each of the tables and mingle with the guests, which was also fun. The only problem is that I had told myself, "Meredith, you can't go to the bathroom so just deal with it" (due to my dress) so I never went to the bathroom to check my makeup, hair, anything. And let me tell you, I should have! I've seen a few post-dancing pictures and they aren't pretty... :)
One of the great things about the reception is people STAYED! At 10:30p when we left, there were still a ton of people there! It was fantastic! Michael and I had our friendly limo driver take us to the Philtower loft, which was amazing. The view was great and we'll just leave the rest alone.
I was going to include the honeymoon but I'm starting to feel the beginning signs of carpal tunnel. I'll either continue this afternoon or perhaps tomorrow! :)
