Here Comes The Bride

Yesterday I saw a couple getting pictures taken for their wedding.  The groom was handsome and the bride was stunning and I can only imagine that the pictures will capture the love that they have for one another.  Seeing them made me think of my wedding 14 years ago and our wedding pictures that showed the detail of my gown, the rings we exchanged, the church we married in, and the beauty of the Mystic River where our reception took place.  But, there is always some details or back-story that the pictures don't tell...

As I said, I have been married for 14 years as of May 10th.  All weddings have some little something go wrong but I had a torrential downpour of misfortunes leading up to and on the day of my wedding.  It started when I got my dress.  I had looked in every magazine and bridal store in Rhode Island and Connecticut until I found the dress of my dreams.  I tried it on and I started to cry tears of joy because I knew that this was THE dress for me.  The price was in my budget and I ordered it in plenty of time (one year before the wedding date) in case there were any problems.  Good thing I gave myself a lot of time because when the dress came in there was a black grease stain on the skirt the size of a dime and they had to send it back to be re-made (luckily at no extra cost to me).

Keeping with the theme of making plans well in advance we reserved the church in Olde Mistick Village as the wedding site.  I did this roughly 16 months in advance because I know how quickly things get booked up in Mystic for the summer.  I gave the woman my date and she assured me that the date was mine.  Six months before the date I called to ask if I could go in and measure for the flowers and I was informed that I was lucky because that date was open.  I reminded her that the date, in fact, was NOT available because I had already booked it and she quickly wrote my name down in permanent marker.

I tried to keep costs down not only for myself, but also for our wedding party.  Having a wedding can be extremely expensive but it can also be expensive to be in a wedding.  Knowing that my girls would NEVER wear their bridesmaid dresses again, no matter what every magazine and bridal consultant will tell you, I wanted to find something nice yet inexpensive.  I was able to find a dress that fit the bill and all of my bridesmaids since they ran from small to plus-size.  They were in a mail-order catalog but, again, I had given myself plenty of time.  The story on these dresses is too long to print but let me just say that they were literally delivered the morning of the wedding.  Thankfully they had something to wear because if they didn't it could've turned into a whole different party!

The big day finally came and since the bridesmaid's dresses came in I thought I was in the clear.  Think again!  It was raining and I would have to wait outside the church until it was time for me to go in and I couldn't very well do that in the rain!  After all I'd gone through to get to this day how could it be raining?!?  I got in the shower and cried and when I got out the clouds had parted and the sun was shining.  Hallelujah, my luck was changing.  But wait, there's more!  The limo picked the guys up to bring them to the church and then would double-back and pick up us girls.  On our way to the church the limo broke down and the driver had to call for another one to come and get us.  He finally got there and drove 95 down the highway to get us to the church but we were still about 30 minutes late.

The ceremony was beautiful and went off without a hitch.  We took pictures around the duck pond in the Village and a gorgeous horse and carriage drove us to our reception at the West Mystic Yacht Center.  When we arrived we were greeted by all of our loving friends and family.  Finally, we were going to relax and have a great time with everyone because nothing could possibly go wrong now.  I was wrong.  I was approaced by the head catering server who told me that the food for dinner had not arrived yet and we were supposed to be eating in 20 minutes.  After asking what the E.T.A. for the pork loin was I pushed my friends out of the way and made it over to the bar and had a drink to calm my nerves.  There was plenty of appetizers set up for the cocktail hour, our guests could eat that until dinner was served...almost 2 hours late.

We ate and drank (and drank some more) and had a wonderful time.  It was time to cut the cake and I had threatened my new groom that if he shoved cake all over my face I would, indeed, be a young widow.  He acknowledged that and lovingly placed a delicious, albeit small, piece of cake in my mouth.  That was the only piece of wedding cake I got that night.  By the time we made it back to our seats the staff had started cleaning up and had taken our pieces of cake off the table.  No worries, my mother had asked them to bring the rest of the cake back to the hotel since in our catering contract we also received a room for the night and our guests were coming back to meet us at the bar.  The cake made it back to the hotel but apparently the kitchen staff ate it and not us or our guests.  I guess my mother should have specified that she wanted us to get the cake, not the employees.

We left for our honeymoon the next day.  My wonderful husband had booked a cruise to Bermuda and I couldn't wait to FINALLY relax.  That would have to wait a little while longer because our departure was pushed back 4 hours.  Our ship had stopped to help a ship in distress on its way back in to port.  No problem.  This gave us some unexpected time to visit a while longer with friends and family visiting from out of town/state.  After getting lost on our way up to the port terminal in Boston and punching my husband in the nose when I went to put my hand behind his seat to put the car in reverse we had made it on board.  Drink please!

I couldn't wait to get my toes in that pink sand and lay on the beach in Bermuda!  The trip down was a bit rocky but since this was my first cruise I didn't know what to expect.  When we pulled into St. George the sky was gray and within minutes the rain came...and lasted the entire week we were there.  I still haven't sunk my toes in the pink sand.  I have no pictures of our honeymoon because I didn't have a water-proof camera and it was too nasty to really do anything outside.

So as I watched that beautiful, newly married couple getting their pictures taken yesterday in the park I couldn't help but wonder what had happened leading up to that moment with them.  Was it smooth sailing from the get-go or did they experience some hiccups?  Was their food waiting for them at their reception or were they hitting the drive-thru on thier way out?  All I know is, if we can last 14 years after everything that went wrong with our wedding, there's hope for everyone else out there!  I don't know who that couple was but I wish them a lifetime of happiness together.