3.29.2012

This is How You Do a Wedding in 5 Weeks

The day after Valentine's Day - this year - my little (and only!) sis got engaged. We all knew it was going to happen, but not quite that soon.

Then we learned they wanted to get married a lot sooner than we had originally thought - instead of planning for November, we now had to plan for the end of March, as her fiance would be leaving for the Navy on April 10th and they wanted to get everything legalized before he left. They tried for March 30th, but couldn't get any of the places they preferred booked, so they settled on the 24th instead. So inside of 6 weeks, we now had 5.

And we did it.

The Bride with some her bridesmaids chillin' before the ceremony
Family photo op!
I was Matron of Honor, Jay was the ring bearer... hubby wasn't in the wedding party but I went out and found him a tie that matched my dress. I'm in another wedding this summer that uses the same blue (Malibu) as an accent color in my dress so he can rewear the tie at that one too!
My dress, which I blogged before about the David's Bridal drama over it.
This photo of Jay cracks us up - he's making THE EXACT SAME puzzled look his daddy often makes! LOL
Unity Candle and Pillar arrangements.
My mom and aunt once again did all the flowers and decorations.
Me and the Best Man.
My bouquet was a thing of calla lilies.
Daddy walking sis down the aisle.
Still hasn't fully set in for me yet that my baby sis is now married.
Full shot of wedding party (minus Jay as daddy took him).
Lighting the unity candle
Vows
Bubbles!
This dress was quite a change from what my sis normally goes for (ie: big ballgown type dresses),
but she rocked it!
Jay sitting like a big boy with daddy while we were taking photographer photos
Jay decided to stand on the chair - my cousin, next to him (she was a Jr. Bridesmaid), keeps a watchful eye! She was supposed to walk him down the aisle with her, but we learned at the rehearsal dinner that Mr.-Almost-14-Months-Old had other plans so she was supposed to carry him instead... which would have been fine, except just before the ceremony started he lost his footing and whapped the back of his head on the floor, screaming. She got him down the aisle, but he freaked out once they got down front and daddy had to take him for the rest of the ceremony, lol...
He picked her up as we were walking up the path from the chapel to the reception hall
Cake topper - there wasn't time to get a custom, characterized one made like mine made.
Their cake, made by my cake lady
The table arrangements, done by my mom and aunt
The head table
Centerpiece at the head table, again made by my mom and aunt
Me and the Best Man walking in. They had the wedding party enter the reception to Party Rock Anthem - the Best Man and I rocked it out!
Cutting the cake. They were nice - no real smashing.
The wedding party dance was also to Party Rock Anthem and near the end we were supposed to go grab people from their seats to sort of initiate the open dancing part of the night. I obviously got hubby up and while we were dancing, I saw Jay looking like he really wanted to join in the fun too so mommy and daddy got him. After the song, I stayed out on the dance floor with him. Hubby got some video - it was cute... til he noticed the crazy DJ lights and took off running towards them, lol...
My parent's table was the only table that got alcoholic champagne for their toast (however there was a cash bar). When I learned of this I started filling my champagne glass from their bottle (I got 2 full glasses from it). Towards the end of the night, their table was empty, however the bottle was still there... but the catering staff already cleared away all the glasses. The bottle had a good 2-3 sips left in it, so hubby dared me to just drink it from the bottle. And I did - I don't let good champagne go to waste!
Jay kept falling asleep, eventually settling on mommy. Little Man was catching a cold too so was a bit out of it.

Overall everything went pretty well. There were several goofs with the DJ playing the wrong songs at the wrong times, but nothing major. Jay smacking his head on the floor just as the ceremony was about to start... Thursday her fiance had to ask his sister-in-law to step out of the wedding party, thus removing one of his brothers (whom she was paired with) as well. It was a tough decision, but was necessary. And then Friday, after she showed up to the rehearsal dinner with a mean look on her face the whole time and said some things to my sister that really upset her, they had to uninvite her to the wedding altogether and we ended up blocking her number from my sister's phone so she wasn't texting or calling her all night and on their short honeymoon, causing more problems. She admitted, she doesn't do well with weddings and we think she was trying to be strong for my sister's sake as they had become close friends, however her antics and what she's said this past week have put a damper on that. We did have the ushers act as bouncers, just in case she showed up and had campus security (as the wedding was at the local university) on speed dial in case they were needed.

Other than that though, everything seemed to go off just well, despite us only having 5 weeks to plan and prepare!

My tasks included helping get the dresses picked out and ordered, hosting & giving her a shower, planning a bachelorette party/outing, being prepared for anything last minute the day of, putting together their photo slideshow, designing the ceremony programs and creating/designing any other little informational materials (such as registry info cards and maps with info of hotels we had rooms blocked at). 5 weeks was a short amount of time, and it was a bit busy for me, juggling all the stuff I had to do, along with occupying Jay, working 2-3 days a week, and family time. But it all turned out so well!

So don't stress over this detail or that detail - if we can get a nice, traditional wedding done in 5 weeks, you can definitely get yours done in 5 months. Or 8. Or 9. Or longer than a year.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What's your thoughts?