A blog about Disney, Musicals, Weddings, My Disney Musical Wedding, and life.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Wedding Day!!! July 29th, 2017
Journal for July 29th, 2017 - Wedding Day, Tina’s Memories First, here is our Highlight's Video, done by the amazing Lee.
I woke up next to Julie on my wedding day. I hugged her for a while and we woke up slowly. When we finally did wake up, we took a selfie--I felt this was important because it was my last morning as a single girl and my sister was there with me. I was so happy she slept over with me.
Good morning! It's Wedding Day!
When I got up to look in the mirror, I was expecting to see some sort of miracle had occurred, since Nadia had used all kinds of stuff on my little monster the night before. To my shock and horror, it was actually worse. It looked like the whole crater had scabbed over with that fresh new scab skin, and low and behold, the tiny pimple was still there, nestled safely in the new booboo. UG!
I couldn’t help thinking of Tula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and wishing I had just put some Windex on it.
I had to wait in the room till the gang got Josh out of the house. The guys were going off to a shooting range for the morning, so that we could hang out and start the getting ready process.
The night before, my girls had asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I had said French Toast, and they said they would see what they could do. Nadia had made breakfast again that morning, she wasn’t able to do French Toast, but she did do a good egg breakfast, which I went down and had some of.
Dad was there bright and early that morning, hanging out, wanting to know what he could do. Both Mary and Dad had offered to get me coffee, or whatever drink I wanted that morning. Of course, I wanted Boba Tea, my favorite, Super Large Lychee Green Tea with boba and lychee jellies from #1 Boba Tea. Dad was the one going out first, so he got it for me.
Dad was such a huge help the morning of the wedding! He ran so many errands, and even got me Boba Tea, my favorite!
Dad was a super champ that day--he kept running errands for everyone, bringing back anything and everything that everyone needed. He even brought the girls room (we turned the Master Bedroom upstairs into the “Girl’s Room.” The guys had to stay in the lower, lower level of the house to keep Josh and I away from each other) fruit.
I had told people to come around noon to start doing hair and makeup. That was when Lynese and Lynessa were coming over to help with hair and makeup.
Before noon, I wanted to play some Dominion, so I sat down with Gage, Dashae, Cheyanne, and Susanna for some Dominioning. We had to teach Dashae, but he caught on.
Chilling out, wedding morning, playing some Dominion!
Nadia called from out running errands telling me she wanted me to stick my face in a bowl of ice to help minimize my pores. I did that after the Dominion. It wasn’t pleasant.
Trying to shrink the monster on my face...
Josh’s Aunt Janelle brought his cousin, and our flower girl, Madison over around noon. Lynese and Lynessa weren’t there yet, so I asked Susanna to play with her, since I was busy.
Susanna playing with Madison, before the hair and makeup girls get there!
I had to pack Josh & I’s overnight bag for our wedding night, and start to get the “Back to Arizona” bag together.
Lynese and Lynessa got there and started working on hair and makup. They did Madison first. I wanted to get some music playing in the bathroom where they were working. I wanted to listen to the “Perfect Day” station on Pandora, since that station has all the songs I loved growing up on it, and I’ve been obsessed with it recently. Susanna wanted to play a Disney station. I got to play mine for a bit till my phone died, then Susanna got to play the Disney station.
Lynessa doing Julie's makeup.
There had been a crisis the night before with the flowers because Mary had dropped off everyone’s bouquet’s, the corsages and boutonnieres, but we were missing several bouquets. I had a brief freakout, worrying that maybe I hadn’t given her all of them when I had originally dropped them off a month before. Everyone said “Don’t worry, it will be ok, we’ll figure this out!”
Mary said she may have left several at Teresa’s house, where she had picked them up from and that she would check. She had managed to find them and bring them over in the morning, so I was so grateful.
A few flowers had fallen off, so I asked Dad to pick up a glue gun. Since Gage had been the one to help put them all together with me initially, I asked if he wouldn’t mind fixing them up and fluffing up all the bouquets and stuff. Him and Dashae went straight to it and did an amazing job!
I remembered that on the assignments list I had made for the wedding, I had assigned either Tommy or James (two of Josh’s teenage cousins who were groomsmen, they were brothers) to make sure everyone got their proper bouquets/corsages/boutonnieres. I couldn’t remember which, so I called for one of them to come upstairs (the guys were home at this point) so that I could instruct them on the flower assignments.
Tommy came and we sat down and I made a list for him of all the flowers and who each went to--who should get a boutonniere, who should get a corsage, ect. He paid very close attention, took the list, and went off to do his job. I was not sure if everything would turn out perfectly, but I couldn’t be the one to do it, and he seemed to have it handled, so I was grateful.
I don’t know why, but in my memory, I was expecting the girl for my hair and makeup, the one I was paying $180 for, to arrive around 3 pm, but she came around 1 pm, which was fine. We ended up needing the time anyway. It was hard for me to just sit down and do nothing, especially because I hadn’t finished my wedding day letter to Josh yet, but I sat down.
I ended up writing it as she worked on my hair.
I was wearing my special “Bride” robe that Nadine had bought me for my bridal shower. It felt like I had waited my whole life to wear one of those robes, so that felt special.
I told her about the monster on my chin, and asked if she could do anything about it--she sounded confident that she could, so I felt a little better.
Lee arrived soon after that processed started (Lee was our videographer.) Our photographer, Scarlet arrived a while later.
We had had an ordeal about two weeks before. Our wedding planner, Gloria, had e-mailed me the Wedding Day Agenda and had advised that I forward it to our photographer and videographer, so I forwarded it to Keith, the guy who I had spoken to in December and had thought I had booked to do photography and videography for our wedding.
Well, it turned out that he didn’t have us on his calendar and wasn’t able to do the wedding. Apparently, he had sent us a form to fill out that we never filled out and got back to him. I remember waiting for the form, and e-mailing him several times to get it. He finally sent it apparently, and I never sent it back, so… great.
That was a little crisis, but fortunately, Kyle, Josh’s brother, had a friend who had done some videography, so we hired him.
My cousin Mary was able to get someone she knew to do the photography. She said that this girl, Scarlet, was an event photography student. I checked out her portfolio online, and it looked reasonable. The price was right, so we booked her too.
I wrote Josh a beautiful, heartfelt letter on this cute card that said “To my Husband on our Wedding Day” on it. I sent it with my gift to him, a personalized Monopoly board game with pictures of us on it with Julie to give to him.
He sent his gift up to me. Lee filmed the whole thing of each of us opening our letters and presents and reading our letters aloud. A bunch of people, including a lot of my bridal party, my cousin Liz, my mom, and others, were in the room for the opening of the presents and the reading of the letters. Everyone was super touched by Josh’s letter and present to me.
When I read the first letter that Josh had written me, it said something like “Don’t let Daniel break this one.” I was a little confused till I opened the present. It was a beautiful little fairy princess wand, much nicer than the singing cheap plastic one Daniel had smashed against a tree when we were little. It was beautiful and was very special! I cried when I read Josh’s letter to me.
There was also another present, a box of my favorite chocolate from my favorite candy store in the world, Mids. I was very excited by both presents.
The makeup package that I had purchased included airbrush makeup. This makeup was supposed to stay, even if I cried. The girl applied it with a brush, not a spray machine, because she said the brush was better.
The stuff she put on my lips was “Lip Stain”, though when I got up to look in the mirror, it had already rubbed off. She applied it again, but once again, it was already rubbing off. I was rather worried about the lipstick, but instead of mentioning something again, after she had left, I asked the people in my room if anyone had a lipstick that might work that I could just reapply throughout the evening. Julie had one that worked, so that’s what I did.
She was very nice, and did a pretty good job. Though, I did feel like my chin monster was still looking as monstrous as ever. It was in a protruding state, with skin colored makeup on it. Tiny flecks of red stood out, and I felt disgusting. I asked people if they could tell I had a chin monster and they said “Only if you point it out.” So I felt a little better.
When my mom saw me, she was like “You look beautiful! But… what is that on your chin?” I looked at her petrified. People jumped in and said it was nothing. I explained to her what was going on, and that her pointing that out to me was very upsetting. She was sorry, but the damage was done.
I had given all the bridesmaids a key chain for their birthday with a picture of the two of us together. Before we left, I called them all together and asked who had their key chain on them. I had planned to give the first two who could present it a prize. The only person who had it with them, at the Bridal Party house was Julie, so she got both the prizes. They were candles.
We gather up everything. We believe we got everything we need. On the car ride over, Julie remembers something that was forgotten and asks one of the groomsmen to go back to the house and get it--they do.
When we get there, Julie makes sure I’m not looking out the window in case I accidentally see Josh.
I was ushered into the Bridal suite to finish getting ready--I was still in my robe.
My awesome cousins, Austin, Kathy, and Chad, surprised me by coming to the wedding dressed as "The Villains".
As I'm walking back to the Bridal suite, I cross Jafar, the Wicked Queen, and Captain Hook. I think "Wow, those are incredible costumes... the other wedding going on today must be a Disney Villains wedding..." Then I do a double take--they're not there for another wedding (besides, the chances of that being what was really going on are insanely small), they're there for MY wedding, and it's actually MY COUSINS! It's Kathy, Chad, and Austin! I couldn't believe it! I tell them how good they look before I finish heading back to the room. With the help of my mom and sister, I got into my dress. The rest of my bridesmaids did as well, since they weren’t wearing their dresses yet either. Julie had a hoop skirt to put on, and Michael needed a whole other room to himself to do his drag thing.
My beautiful cousin, Mary, was Mulan.
We had a signable picture frame that we asked our bridal party to sign.
Josh's sister, Katelin, was a beautiful Snow White.
Julie helps zip up my dress.
Julie slides my garters on.
My cousin Liz helps put on my veil.
My cousin, Nadia, is Rapunzel.
Cynthia puts on her Anna shoes.
My friend, Michael, was Ariel.
Scarlet and Liz took a bunch of pictures of us as we got ready. Julie put my garters on me.
Julie and I had a hugging moment where she cried. It was very special. I don’t think I cried because I was happy and excited.
Special sister moment.
Daniel goes over a few last minute details.
We finally reached the moment where my people were all ushered out of my room, leaving me alone in there. I practiced my song for a bit, but the waiting felt like an eternity.
We had originally had no song planned for the guys to walk out to--I just thought it would be the Disney Wedding CD I had given the DJ to play before the ceremony, but he came to be earlier when I was in the room and told me he had it figured out and was going to play “Someday My Prince Will Come” from the cd for the guys walking out. I heard this song play and started to get excited.
Here is the Live Stream of the wedding:
My cousin, Joey, was one of the ushers, and he walks my mom to her seat.
Josh emerges, the handsome prince.
Josh's cousin, Tommy.
Josh's cousin, James.
Our friend, Gage.
Josh's cousin, Zach.
Josh's brother, Kyle.
Josh's friend, Joel.
My brother, Daniel.
Josh's brother-in-law, Adam.
Josh's cousin, AJ.
My heart was pounding so hard. I knew my song, but I didn’t know if I would actually sing it. I have no problem performing in front of people, but this was such an epic moment, I didn’t know if I might suddenly freeze or not. Was this actually happening? Was I actually finally getting married? How would my life change after this? There was no going back after this--no more would I ever get to go on a first date and feel the flutters of a new romance. Was I ready for all this? Was I ready to be a wife? What if I just didn’t do it. What if I didn’t walk down the aisle, or what if I just said “No.” and left when it came time to say “I do.”?
Everyone would hate me. That was the answer. This wasn’t like one of my many wedding nightmares, where if something goes wrong, I could just tell everyone to “Scrap it, go home. I will contact you when I’m ready to try again.”
This was really it. This was really happening. It was terrifying and exciting all at the same time.
“Chapel of Love” started to play and I really hoped that the girls were singing and dancing down the aisle. If not, well, there was really nothing I could do about it at this point. I wouldn’t even know about it until much later, after it all had happened, and I watched the video of the whole thing, so hopefully, they were doing it right.
Josh's sister, Katelin.
My cousin, Susanna.
My cousin, Nadia.
My cousin, Mary.
My friend, Michael "Hummingbird Meadows".
Josh's sister, Joelle.
My friend, Cynthia, sister, Julie, and Josh's cousin, Madison.
My sister and beautiful MOH, Julie.
Josh's cousin, Madison.
It was getting to be about halfway through the song and no one still had come to get me. Why!? Had they forgotten about me?
I started to venture out, there were just two security guards in the hall, and they didn’t seem to know what was going on, so I ventured forward into the reception room.
It was the first time I had seen it fully decorated, and it looked beautiful, but I didn’t have time, nor the concentration to focus on this.
I saw Gloria and Claudia motion for me to stay away from the door. They told me they were about to come get me. My dad was standing there, ready. He looked good in his white tux.
I don’t fully remember everything. I probably greeted him, and he probably said “Hi girl.” He probably asked if I was ready, and I probably said some form of affirmative, or something. He told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him.
Before I know it, “Getting Married Today” has started playing, and Michael is singing. We step out the door, nice and slowly, as we had practiced. Right together, left together. Right together, left together.
Here is the video of the performance.
Hummingbird Meadows starts to sing the opening to "Getting Married Today".
Josh was standing at the front, grinning. He wasn’t supposed to be grinning, he was supposed to be crying… that’s what all the grooms on youtube do. Oh well, at least he’s happy. I hope he didn’t see the program before he saw me, because I drew my dress onto the program cover… I told him not to look. Maybe he had, and that’s why he wasn’t surprised and crying?
But then, it’s almost getting to the end of Michael’s intro, and I have to sing! I didn’t realize how long this aisle was. “We need to speed up a bit, dad.” I whisper to him.
We step it up a bit, but barely. I’ve accepted we’re not going to make it to the planned drop off point, where dad is supposed to have a seat waiting for him towards the front on my left. We make it just to the beginning of where the guests are standing. As Michael sings the words “Golden Day.” (which somehow, I feel, was supposed to last longer), I turn to hug my dad. The moment is over far too quickly, and I hand him my enormous bouquet.
Then, I race up the aisle to meet Michael, who is handing me the mic. Honestly, right up to the moment that I actually started singing, I still didn’t know if I was going to sing or not. Then, at the right moment, I opened my mouth, and the words came out. And they were in the correct tempo, and the right ones. It was just like I had practiced, and it was going well!
Everyone’s eyes were on me, they were all standing, filming me and taking pictures. Someone shouted that they couldn’t hear, so I tried to hold the mic a little closer (it was hard to with the veil.) I hoped they could hear me. I tried to project.
I picked different people in the audience to look at as I sang different parts, and I utilized the entire aisle, going back and forth throughout the song. One person I picked to look at was my little cousin, Gracie. I sang a brief line to her, since she was right on the aisle, and when I did, the poor thing got scared and scooted back. I didn’t want to scare her, so I looked at someone else and kept going. People seemed to be having a good time, so that was good!
I finished the song, and hadn’t really practiced how I was going to pose for the ending, so I did the slow hand raise, then did a “gather in” kind of thing with my arms (hard to explain.) It was alright though.
I couldn’t find my dad. I thought I had seen him go backwards, towards the door, and I was afraid he might have left. “Where’s my dad?” I asked (I wasn’t sure what else to do, so why not ask?) “Bring him back, of course I’m getting married.”
Turns out, he was waiting for me at the front. He handed the bouquet back, and we hugged for a nice long moment. I handed my bouquet to Julie, and Daniel was there, as Gandalf, to marry us.
I wasn’t sure what to do with Josh, and with my hands. We’d never practiced the “standing at the front” part. Daniel was definitely a site to see in his Gandalf outfit I had made him, and I didn’t want us to obstruct anyone’s view of him, so Josh and I just stood apart, hands together in front of us. In hindsight, I probably could have still held my bouquet, but Julie was holding it, and that was ok.
Daniel and I had planned this great opening to his appearance, where I say “You’re late.” and he says “A wizard is never late, but always arrives at the time he is meant to.” or something like that, the line from the movie, but that didn’t happen. I guess I forgot in the excitement of the moment. Anyway, he started.
He did his funny intro, then explained about how “I understand weddings often begin with a reading from a sacred text.” He went back to his book and started reading the passage from LOTR. I know my part at this moment, and after a bit, I come back and interrupt him. He invites Z. and R., my cousins, up to read the “Love is patient, love is kind” verse from I Corinthians. They do a good job and I’m proud of them--I know them must have been excited for their moment!
Daniel does his speech wonderfully. It isn’t too long, or too mushy, but talks about important stuff, about why we’re together, and how we are choosing for everyone to view us as one now.
The exchange rings moment arrives, and Adam pushes Josh’s cousin, AJ, forward to give us the rings. He stands there a moment, then Adam unties the rings from the pillow and hands them to Daniel. Daniel pretends to read the inscription on Josh’s ring. “It’s Elvish--’One ring to rule them all; one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.’ How appropriate!” This got a few laughs.
Daniel introduces Josh’s moment with my ring, then Josh takes the mic from Daniel. This was not something I was expecting… “I want to make sure I do it right this time.” I have no idea what he’s talking about, but then he gets down on one knee. I am so surprised and overwhelmingly happy. I can’t believe he’s doing this! I know I can never give him any trouble for forgetting to get down on one knee when he proposed to me ever again, because this is such a perfect moment. I am so happy with him, he did such a good job! I loved that moment.
Then, the moment where I give Josh his ring. Daniel introduces Josh’s ring as well, only his is funny because his is The One Ring. “And you, Josh, remember what your ring symbolizes: Unlimited power and a darkness that stole the heart of Isildur.” This was very funny, but the audience might not get it if they aren’t LOTR fans.
Poor Josh was so hot during the entire ceremony, I mean we all were, but he must have been super hot in that wool prince jacket he was wearing. I loved him so much for doing that for me! At one point, Adam, his best man, gently dabs the sweat off his forehead, and I think how clever that was, and how I wish I had had the foresight to have Julie do the same thing. As it was, I had sweat dripping down my arms, and I was just praying no one noticed.
We get to the moment in the ceremony where we do the Unity Ceremony. I had purchased this really nice, glass picture frame that you can put a photo in and fill with sand for your Unity Ceremony. It almost hadn’t gotten to us in time, but it did, and I was glad about that.
Josh had the royal blue sand and I had the white sand. We take turns filling this thing. One moment, Josh did too much, so I did a little to compensate. We get through it and I try to put the lid back on, but it wasn’t going. Daniel said to leave it. I don’t see until later that we somehow managed to completely cover the photo we had put in there of us… I wasn’t happy about that. My mind keeps going over ways that we might be able to fix this without messing up the sand, but we’ll have to see.
We come back out, and Daniel introduces us as husband and wife. It was at that moment that “Kiss the Girl” was supposed to start playing, with our bridal party singing and dancing along, right before we kiss, but no music is playing.
I feel a little panicked--I don’t want us to kiss without the song playing, we had planned this. It’s a musical, there’s supposed to be music! If they don’t play music, I hope my bridal party gets the hint and just starts singing and dancing anyway, acapella. I turn around and look at Michael, trying to psychically convey to him to do this. “Michael, you are the only one who I have any hope of understanding this since you are theatre trained, but when something goes wrong in theatre, you keep going. Please just start singing and dancing, and get the rest of them to follow you!” I plead with him with my eyes. I’m pretty sure this message doesn’t go through, however, since he just kind of shrugs back at me, looking just as confused as the rest of the bridal party.
Daniel saves the day though, when he says into the mic “Cue the music.” “Kiss the Girl” starts playing, the bridal party starts their singing and dancing, and Daniel says the rest of his intro, leading into: “You may kiss the bride!”
Josh takes me in his arms and dip kisses me. It is an awesome moment, but my veil falls off. He keeps me down there a bit, and I start to feel my crown tipping backwards, off my head. I reach up to stop it, and hope that the photographer got a good picture before that happened.
He pulls me up, and there it is: we’re married! It doesn’t feel any different! It feels like everything that was supposed to happen did happen though, and it seems to be going well, so I am happy.
Daniel introduces the reception, and the Star Wars Theme Song starts to play and we head back down the aisle.
We are rushed into the Bridal Party room, where Daniel, sopping wet with sweat, joins us shortly. We were both so happy with him, and loved Daniel so much. We told him so, and tried to help him get cooled down.
It was another five to ten minutes before we were allowed out of the room. We talked a bit about the wedding, and how we couldn’t believe we were married. We talked about our upcoming dance together, and how Josh wasn’t allowed to see me the night before.
Our favors were a soundtrack to our wedding, featuring the songs that were played at the wedding and reception.
Since the wedding was a musical, we though it would be cool to have a real Playbill as the program.
Cynthia & I painted the card box (right) with Disney Couples, and with Josh & I on top.
Finally, we were allowed out, to join our line of bridal party couples waiting to do their grand entrance. They are all wearing their sunglasses, and I think “Thank God they all remembered them!” They look super cool, and I see a few of them practicing their “Little dance” that I told them they could do when they came out. This makes me happy and excited!
Finally, the moment has arrived and “I’m Sexy and I Know It” starts to play. The couples do their entrance, pair by pair, and I think about how I’m going to have to wait till I see the live stream videos later to see what they all did for their dance.
Finally, Madison and AJ exit, the doors shut, and it’s just us. We hadn’t practiced any special dance for our entrance since we were supposed to be doing our first dance right away right after that. We quickly decided we would enter big, me putting my bouquet up in the air, and then do another dip kiss. “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” (Julie’s pick for our entrance song) starts playing, the DJ introduces us, and we come out as planned.
The DJ calls for everyone to gather around in a circle around the dance floor for our first dance. We walk over to the side of the dance floor for our entrance and the slow, acoustic version of “So This is Love” from Disney’s Cinderella starts to play. We start our Foxtrot around the dance floor, we’re smiling at each other, happy, feeling like it is going well.
I worry that Josh is going to miss his cue to lead me back to the middle of the dance floor for the transition, but he doesn’t--we get there and start our swaying as the song transitions to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” from Jersey Boys, one of the shows we saw on our first date to Broadway. We start to Rumba to the song and we’re having fun. He gets a few turns in, and a few of those other moves we learned as well, whose name I can’t remember.
Then, we start to rock back and forth to prep for the final part of our dance, the chorus of the song. Suddenly, and perhaps a little roughly, Josh pushes me back to initiate the swing dance part. Though it was a little rough getting into it, we have so much fun with the swing as Josh twirls me about, and we spin and rock. “Bell turn?” one of us whispers, and the other agrees. I can’t help but feel that it looks good!
I’m proud of us, we incorporated both Disney (for the Disney Musical Wedding theme) and one of our favorite songs, a song from our first date, and how special it was.
We took our bows before quickly heading back outside, to the ceremony site, for pictures.
Full Bridal Party
We took several group photos with the entire bridal party, then we took the “Tina & bridesmaids” pictures and the “Groomsmen with Josh” photos, then the “Groomsmen with Tina” pictures, then the “Josh with Bridesmaids” photos.
Us with the Groomsmen
Josh with the Groomsmen
Us with my dad
Me with the Groomsmen
Us with my family - Dad, Josh, Me, Daniel, Julie, Mom
We took a few more family photos, Daniel and Cynthia wanted a picture of us with them, and I’m so glad we took one with them. In hindsight, I wish we had gotten pictures like this with more of the bridal party. I have no one-on-one photos with any of Josh’s siblings, nor most of the bridal party, nor most of our guests for that matter. This makes me sad. If I could do it over, I would have taken photos with everyone.
My cousin, Christy’s small daughter, Emma, was very eager to be in all our pictures. When she wasn’t in the pictures, she was holding all the bridesmaid’s flowers. She was so excited to be a part of everything, I’m pretty sure she thought she was the flower girl. She was so cute, we even took pictures with her, like she was the flower girl. I think she loved it, and I certainly loved it as well.
Julie & Emma
The signing of the Marriage Certificate.
Everyone was taking off left and right to get back inside to the air conditioned reception (It was 106 degrees that day, in the hot, Las Vegas outdoors), and it was finally Josh and I’s moment for our pictures. I remember only 3 poses for our photos of just Josh and I. Thinking back on this, this is a little concerning--3 is so few and what if I’m not crazy about any of them? I haven’t seen the official wedding photos yet, but I am praying that they are good.
We finally go back in and Adam and Julie have made us each a plate of food for us to eat at our special “Bride and Groom” table. On either side of our center table is an additional table for Julie and Lynae (Lynae is Julie and I’s good friend since childhood, and Julie’s “date” to the wedding. She even Disneybounded as “The Beast”, wearing Blue and Gold to go with Julie’s Belle dress!) and Adam (Josh’s brother-in-law) and Joelle (Josh’s sister.)
People urge us to eat, and eat quickly, because we will be hungry, and we won’t have much time, so we get to it! It looks like my plate had much more food on it than Josh’s plate, but we start to chow down as quickly as we can without looking like food goblins.
People start to come up to us, asking to take photos, and trying to talk to us. We speak and smile between mouthfuls of food, but we are happy to see them all! Honestly, in hindsight, I wish more people had done this. I would have loved to have a chance to talk to more people. There are people who came to our wedding that I didn’t even get to see. Someone said that people just needed to “Get in there!” if they wanted a moment with the bride and groom and a picture, and I believe this is true! It was so nice to get to talk with the people who came to say “Hi!”
Josh's Aunt Anne & Uncle Dwight
Josh's Cousin Danielle & her then fiance, Cameron
Josh & his cousin, Rebecca
My brother, Daniel, and I.
Spinning like princesses with Emma
We rushed through our food so that we could begin our rounds. Josh wanted to spend more time talking with some people that were very special to him, and I understand that urge, but we really didn’t have a lot of time for this, and he kept getting distracted. I tried to keep him moving along, but it was hard to keep getting him and pulling him forward. At one point, he disappeared all together, and I was making rounds alone!
Soon, we were pulled back for cake cutting. This was our moment! I was hoping people would get some good photos! We had a gorgeous, many level cake, with three cake toppers, Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella and Prince Charming, and a White Castle. The flavors were chocolate cake with raspberry filling, white cake with strawberry filling, and banana cake with caramel filling. We weren’t sure which cake to try cutting, and someone said to cut the bottom one, so that’s the one we went for.
The cake was a little difficult to cut, but we pushed through the actual cutting part.
We each took a fork, and someone had showed us how we’re supposed to feed ourselves the cake. We weren’t sure if it was each other, or ourselves, but they said we should wrap our arms around each other, and feed ourselves the cake, so after a moment of struggle and confusion, that’s what we did.
We took our thin slice of cake and sat down. I think one of us got another thin slice or maybe we didn’t, I’m not sure, but we started eating. I honestly only barely got a few bites in before we were up, trying to make rounds again.
During this dance, it should be noted, that my father also looked down at my chin and asked "What's that on your chin?" Great. I love that the two people who pointed out my chin monster were my own parents. I expressed frustration at this, and he apologized. We enjoyed the rest of the dance together and it was still special.
Before I knew it, it was the Father Daughter Dance. Dad and I took center on the dance floor, and everyone gathered around to watch. The DJ starts playing “My Girl”, and Dad starts to lead me in the rumba he had practiced so hard the night before. He has this smile on his face and I just know that this moment is super meaningful for him, as it is for me. I’d always known that “My Girl” was our Father Daugher dance. He always calls me “Girl”. He’d been so busy in the weeks and months before the wedding and he never had time for dance class, but he was doing really well with the basic rumba rotation and turn he had learned. He was doing a great job leading me, and even if there was a moment where we missed a step, we kept going, and it was wonderful. I always thought I would cry for my Father Daughter Dance, but I was just having such a good time, it didn’t happen.
There were, however, so many moments during the night that I did tear up, during the ceremony and reception, but I never hit full on water works.
After the Father Daughter dance, the DJ started playing “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon. I love this song so much, and I knew it had to be played at my wedding.
In the show “The Mindy Project,” there is an episode where there is a wedding for one of the doctors, and at his wedding, he had a “Best Man Dance.” Well, after seeing that, I kind of wanted the equivalent--it felt appropriate considering it was a musical wedding! I tried to get Julie to do it, but she wasn’t down--she felt she was doing enough musical stuff already. My friend Gage is musical, and he also took dance classes (he even grew up dancing, since he’s Mormon, and that was a big thing for his family). I thought it might be fun to do a “Tina & Gage” dance, so I told him about it. We even practiced dancing to that song, but ultimately decided to leave the special dances for Josh and my dad.
We had told the venue about the “Tina & Gage” dance however, and they already had it on the list to play “Shut Up and Dance.” At the dress rehearsal, I let Claudia know that it wasn’t going to be a “special dance” anymore, and to not announce anything before the song, but I’d still like the song played.
So “Shut Up and Dance” started playing, and Julie grabs Elle (Patrick’s daughter, who I babysit), and I was right there, and we start dancing together. We form a little circle, and start dancing in a circle. Soon, Nadia joins the circle, and Emma does too. Others start to join as they notice the circle getting bigger--Joelle, Katelin, Cynthia, Daniel, Michael, too many to name, but we were all dancing around in a circle. We do some light grape vining, we try doing the wave with our arms, dancing around in a circle, but just generally having fun. Our circle gets so big, and we’re having so much fun, the DJ loops the song a couple of times.
Soon, we’re throwing people into the center of the circle for mini solo (or duo) dances! I get in there and spin for a moment. Everyone “Woo!’s” when someone goes in the center. It was an unplanned masterpiece and one of my (albeit, many) favorite moments of the night.
“Uptown Funk” was on my “Must play” list for the DJ. This song had played at Teresa’s wedding and had been one of my favorite moments of that night. It was absolutely epic--so many of us got out there and danced to it, and it was awesome. It played at Nadine’s wedding too. I wanted to recreate the epic moment at Teresa’s wedding, but that ended up being kind of a disaster for me sadly. They did play it at my wedding, and it was fun, people came out and danced to it, but it wasn’t as epic as it was at Teresa’s wedding, just a fun moment. What really was the epic dance moment that I will always remember for our wedding was “Shut Up and Dance.”
We had a whole list of songs we wanted the DJ to play at our wedding, 15 specific ones. We had some of these on our Wedding Soundtrack, the awesome favor that we gave out at our wedding, but the DJ actually didn’t end up playing most of our “Must Have” songs, so when people hear them on the soundtrack, they may be a little confused. I guess you could just say that they’re epic songs we wanted at our wedding. I’ve gotten good feedback on the soundtracks in any case.
Finally, the Bouquet Toss rolls around. I’ve been super excited for this moment my whole life, but even more excited in recent times--I guess you could say ever since I put the bouquets together. I had something special planned for this.
A bunch of girls gathered together for the toss, including the little girls. This is always fun for the girls who stand up for this. I imagine myself being among them--I was many times. I imagine their excitement and hope to catch the bouquet, and I secretly wish that each of them does. I imagine the results of different ones catching it.
The DJ tells the girls that they need to dance before they can try to catch the bouquet and he plays “Single Ladies.” They dance a little, and it’s fun. Then, it’s finally my moment! He does the countdown and I… fake them out. I do this twice, it felt right. I’ve seen lots of fake out bouquet toss moments, so I figured I’d do it too. I actually do toss it on the third one, but my bouquet toss fears are realized as I see that I did a terrible job--I barely threw it, and it landed on the ground. I imagine the sinking hearts of all the marriageable age women as adorable little Emma seizes the bouquet off the ground. Emma, of course, is in four year old heaven. I’m happy for her and kind of resigned--”Oh well, at least I made Emma happy.”
Someone tells Emma to give it back though, so I can try again. I appreciate the sacrifice she made and take the bouquet back for my second attempt.
This time, I throw immediately on the countdown. I try to throw high (someone had warned me not to throw too high, so that’s probably how the first mishap happened.), and low and behold, someone has caught it--it’s Shelly, Josh’s brother Kyle’s girlfriend. She seems really happy, and who knows, she may get to be the next bride. Her and Kyle have been dating for years now, so maybe.
I feel bad for all the girls who didn’t get it. I wish they all could have caught it, but that’s just not realistic. I’m happy for Shelly!
The Future Brides.
It was now the special, additional moment I had been planning. The DJ gave me the mic, as planned, and I asked for everyone’s attention. Before that moment, I wasn’t sure how much of a story I should tell the audience, but since it was my moment and all eyes were on me, I decided to just go for it and tell the whole thing. It went something like this:
My cousin, Teresa, & I.
Josh, Me, Teresa, & John.
“Last November, my beautiful cousin, Teresa, married the love of her life John, and Josh and I had the honor and privilege of attending their wedding. There was a bouquet toss at her wedding, but I didn’t catch the bouquet, in fact, I’ve never caught a bouquet--always wanted to, never have, but my beautiful cousin Madison did. She gave me the bouquet though. She said she’s not ready to get married and doesn’t want to be the next bride because, well, she’s a teenager, and that’s respectable, but I really was the next bride. This made me feel so special, and so happy, I decided to use some of her flowers in my bouquet that I used today.”
“In preparing the flowers for my own wedding, I know that there are several women out there who actually are the next bride--these women are actually engaged and planning a wedding. Jenn, Marissa, and Danielle, can you come up here please.” Slowly, the three of them came up and stood by me.
“You guys really are the next brides, so from an old bride, to the new ones, I thought it was appropriate that each of you have a bouquet.” Joelle handed me the “future brides” bouquets I had put together. (I had put Joelle in charge of this because she was my only married bridesmaid, and I knew she wouldn’t be in the group of girls trying to catch the bouquet.) I handed each of them a bouquet. Marissa hugged me as I handed her hers, then I hugged each one again. They all said thank you, and I think I made them feel special, which made me happy.
Little Emma had run up, thinking that this was her moment, and that she was getting a bouquet as well. Someone called her back and she ran back, but I had actually made four “future bride” bouquets. I had been anticipating another friend of mine being in the group, but she had actually upped her wedding date and had gotten married two weeks before, which took her off the list. I had thought there might be someone I didn’t know was engaged in the audience, but we only ended with three, so I had an extra one anyway.
“Wait, it’s ok, bring Emma back, I have an extra!” So Emma came back and got her “future bride” bouquet as well. “Future bride, right here ladies and gentlemen!” I told everyone. She was so cute! Emma was a little scene stealer the whole evening, but that was alright, she really made the wedding more fun! We weren’t going to allow small children at our wedding at first, but we decided to a few weeks before, and I’m so glad we did.
Next is the Garter Toss. At Teresa’s wedding, the DJ had John (Teresa’s husband) do a sexy dance for her. He really hammed it up and did an excellent job.
Well, this DJ did the same thing for Josh, only Josh wasn’t expecting it. He told me later that he thought that was just something John had arranged with his DJ. Poor Josh was super uncomfortable, but he did his best. I couldn’t help but laugh. There was even one moment where he asked me if he should take his shirt off. The DJ jumped in and said “The groom has asked if he should take his shirt off--no let’s keep our clothes on for this.” It was pretty funny.
After Josh’s “sexy dance,” he had to take my garter off w/o using his hands. He used his hands a little to begin with, to get under my dress. Adam was allowed to kick Josh if he used his hands at all, so Josh got a few (light, I’m sure) kicks. Somehow, Josh managed to get up under my beautiful wedding ballgown and, using his teeth, take the bottom garter (I got a two pack of special Cinderella garters from Etsy) off and pull it down my leg. He had some trouble getting it over the shoe, but he somehow managed.
It was then his turn to toss something. The guys gathered up, and the DJ made them dance as well. They got to dance to a few songs, one was Gangnam Style--I liked that one a lot. Then, it was Josh’s moment. Without turning around, to my minor agitation and sticklerness for the rules, he shot the garter into the group of guys like a rubber band. Kyle’s hand reached out and grabbed it and I, and everyone who knows Kyle gasped in surprise!
Kyle, Josh’s brother, and Shelly, Kyle’s girlfriend, had caught the garter and the bouquet! They were actually a couple! Anyone who knows them began to talk.
The DJ came up to me and asked if they knew each other. I told him they are together! He said to me “Even better!”
He then made the announcement that “I love when this stuff happens! Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a couple who caught the bouquet and garter!” He brought a chair out and explained that now, Kyle has to dance for Shelly, since they were the next couple who was supposed to get married.
Us with the next bride & groom: Josh's brother, Kyle, and his girlfriend, Shelly!
Well Kyle, like John, is kind of a ham, and he really got into it. He took his vest off and slid it over Shelly’s face. Shelly sat there, probably feeling a little weird, but she had to know what she was getting with Kyle. :)
Before we knew it, it was Honeymoon Dance time. Josh and I got on either side of the dance floor, with Julie and Adam holding the special satin bags I made for them. The DJ made the announcement and people lined up to dance with us. It was awesome to dance with so many of our guests! As it was happening, I realized how few people we had actually gotten to talk to, and how happy I was to have my moment talking to our guests through this dance. It really gave me time to talk to people I hadn’t gotten to spend much time with, and I was grateful for that.
Ready for our Honeymoon Dance!
Josh & his cousin, Tommy.
Me dancing with Josh's Dad, David.
Dancing with my cousin, Matthew.
Dancing with my good friend, Gage.
Dancing with my cousin, Susanna.
Josh dancing with my cousin, Nadia.
Josh dancing with his sister, Joelle.
Josh dances with my cousin, Mary, and I dance with John, my cousin Teresa's husband.
Josh dances with his grandma Shirlie.
Me dancing with my dad.
Josh dances with my mom.
Dancing with my Aunt Joyce and cousin Gracie.
Dancing with my Uncle Jim.
Dancing with my mom.
It wasn’t only guys in my line--I also got some girls too, and that made me happy. When it was guys, I let them lead, like a lady should. If they wanted to two step, we two stepped back and forth. If they wanted to spin me, we spun and it was fun! Some, like Gage, and Josh’s Grandpa Voil really know how to dance and spun me all over the dance floor!
“I know that’s how you and Grandma Shirlie got together!” I told Grandpa Voil as he spun me before heading off to let me dance with the next person.
I danced with Josh’s dad, (David), my mom, my dad, my brother Daniel, his girlfriend Cynthia, and many others.
Josh also had some gentlemen in his line that he got to dance with, so that was fun too.
Honestly, I think Josh’s line had more people than mine did, which is fine, but a little surprising! At weddings, I’m generally more interested in the bride, but he’s a prince! I guess it makes sense that everyone would want to dance with him--I would (and did!)
Julie really wanted to dance with Josh, but sadly never got a chance since she was taking money from people, and right as the line finished up, the DJ ended it, so they never got to. She was really disappointed about that, but Josh says he owes her a dance now. After the Honeymoon dance, we tried making our rounds again. We missed most of the awesome group dance moments I was really looking forward to. I would have loved to have gotten to participate with those (I specifically requested them!), but our guests came first.
Some of my Fetterman cousins came dressed as "The Villains", so here we are doing a "Princesses and Villains" picture. :)
With the best MOH ever.
Before we knew it, it was time for the final dance, and it was perfect timing, since our limo had just pulled up. We had arranged with the Dobbins and my Dad to make sure all of our stuff was packed up and taken away from the venue for us, since we were being wisked away to our wedding night hotel.
Finally dancing to "The Way You Look Tonight."
Josh and I take the center of the dance floor and the DJ calls for all our friends and family to gather around us for the last dance. He then plays Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” and it is just a perfect moment. It had been such a long day, we just let loose and danced. Unlike our carefully choreographed first dance, this one was just casual fun as Josh spun me around the dance floor doing all the awesome moves we had learned in dance class over the past year. It was largely rumba, with a few bachata moves thrown in. My mom told me later that she thought this was the better of our two dances. It makes sense I guess, we weren’t caring about getting anything right at that point, we were just having fun after a long, wonderful, exciting day. Several years ago, we had been at a fancy hotel/resort we had gotten discount tickets for on Groupon and we were out to eat at the fancy restaurant that the hotel had. While we were eating, that song had come on and I had tried to get Josh to dance to it with me, but he hadn’t wanted to dance right there, in the middle of a restaurant--he’d felt weird about that. I told him that I loved that song and that I wanted him to dance with me to it. Instead, he said he would dance with me to it at our wedding. It felt special that this moment was finally coming true.
Josh’s dad had gotten us the limo, and the hotel room as part of their gift to us.
We get into our limo, take a few pictures, and have a few moments with a few people before we leave. Julie was one of them. It was so amazing and special that I had Julie as my Maid of Honor. I didn’t want to get married if she wasn’t going to be my MOH. She did so much to make my special day special and I was so grateful for all she did. We let her into our limo for a moment and told her that before we left. When it was finally just us in the car, we were both so grateful to have a water to drink--having a wedding makes you thirsty! It’s about a 30 minute drive, and on the drive over, it starts to rain! After such a long, hot day, this was a funny thing to have happened. I take off my shoes and as we drive, Josh lets me lay in his lap and we talk about our memories of the evening.
At the hotel, we exit the limo and take our bag. It’s midnight, but there are still a few people walking around and we get a few glances and comments, which makes me feel special. We finally get to our room and it is ENORMOUS! It’s bigger than our apartment--it has an entrance room, two bathrooms, a beautiful, large, living room, an enormous bedroom, and an enormous bathroom with a huge tub and beautiful shower.
Someone did this for Josh's parents for their wedding, then they used it for Josh's sister, Joelle, for her wedding, and now it's our turn!
Josh's parents got me my favorite treat, Baklava!
Throughout the room, Josh’s parents had set up special surprises for us. In the refrigerator in the front, they had gotten me my favorite dessert, baklava (so that’s why they asked me about my favorite dessert the week before!) They had also gotten us campaign (for Josh) and sparkling grape juice (for me--they know I don’t like alcohol).
In the living room, they had gotten me an enormous, Star balloon with “Dance Star” on it, and a beautiful vase of red roses. In the bedroom was another beautiful vase of flowers, these ones purple, and an adorable little sign decorated that said “Just Married” and had a picture of two people kissing.
Beside the bed was a basket of treats for us, including Josh’s favorite treat, pistachios. They really went all out to make this special for us! I took a bathroom selfie and then, with Josh’s help, somehow managed to get out of my dress and take the million and one hair pins out of my hair. After a long and wonderful day, it was nice to settle in for the night and finally rest.It was a wonderful wedding day, after all.
Here is the full video that our videographer, Lee, put together for us of our wedding:
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