Tony and I defied tradition by staying in the same hotel the night before we got married, so we definitely saw each other ahead of time on the wedding day. We also defied tradition by moving in together before the wedding, but let's not quibble over details. We were staying at the Commando Inn on Hurlburt Field, along with a good chunk of our guests. We didn't realize the Inn had multiple buildings, one of which was across a highway, so that was a bit of a headache. After a quick breakfast of a super healthy chocolate-chip granola bar and banana, I think, and of course a leftover ginger cookie (thanks, Mom!), I headed over to Eglin to set up the venue. Jennifer, Mom, and Nicole came with, and we had no issues on our trial run of bringing guests onto the base. Yesss! One source of stress eliminated.
Well, when we got there, the building was locked, even though we were assured it would be opened for us bright and early. One source of stress, found. We waited out front for a few minutes, hoping that our point of contact was just running late, and I called every phone number on the contracts. No joy. At that point I started walking around the building and opening doors, and luckily found one unlocked. Crisis averted! I had a hair appointment at 11, so we were in a crunch to set up though. Thankfully, I had an awesome assistance crew, even though Nicole was feeling under the weather. We decorated all of the tables in record time, but I was still running late to my hair appointment. Fortuntely, the lady was very understanding when I called and said it was no problem.
Mom and Jennifer dropped me at the salon and left to run some mysterious errands. I have a confession to make: I hated my hair. I brought several pictures to show the lady, and it ended up not being what I had in mind at all. She tried a few times to do it that way (I'd requested some braids) but gave up and started curling. I get it; my hair is very fine and sometimes braids aren't the best, but even my back-up pictures didn't seem to get the message across. I like how my hair looks in some of the pictures, but from some angles I really just want to cringe. Oh well. C'est la vie. It was fine, just not what I had envisioned. Thankfully, when Mom and Jennifer came back to pick me up, they said they really liked it, which cheered me right up! I think a girl is entitled to be vain on her wedding day.
We went back to Hurlburt and...I'm a little fuzzy on what happened next. I must have eaten lunch in there somewhere. There was some confusion in getting my grandparents on base, so I met them at the gate and escorted them over to their building. Joey was delivering Emily to do my make-up, and they ended up picking me up on one side of the highway and then bringing me back to my room. I did not anticipate all the logistical issues when picking that hotel and venue, let me tell you! But Em did a wonderful job, as I of course predicted, and I really love how my make-up looked. I'm not just saying that to be nice, either. It held up great (as did my hair) throughout the evening and I think I'm just glowing in all the pictures. I was a little sketchy on the plan from there, but Em and I ended up riding with my dad over to the other hotel to lead a caravan, and Tony took our rental car to another meeting place to lead a separate caravan. It was like a little reunion in the parking lot! We also met the photographer there, and she rode with us, too.
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| Dad leading the caravan |
I'm not sure how many vehicles we ended up leading, but I think it was about 8. No problems getting anyone onto the base! Woohoo! I think it helped that the vast majority of our guests were on a pre-approved list, and there was another larger wedding the same day. That was really the only thing that truly caused me stress in the few days leading up to the wedding. We had so many guests traveling from out of town that I would have been crushed if any of them couldn't be there to celebrate with us.
We arrived at the venue on Eglin right around the same time as everyone else, maybe a few minutes earlier, so it was like another little reunion in the parking lot. I remember walking across the parking lot in my loafers and zippy sweatshirt (can't mess up the hair!) and watching an old lady approach my high school friends. It looked like they answered a question for her, and then she went on her merry way. She was cute and tiny, but not part of my group, but I didn't think much about it at the time. I remember watching my mom hug everybody and being so happy about it. Anyway, then I scootched into the ladies' room to finish getting ready.
Party in the bathroom, whoop! It was basically all my high school girls, and mom, and my cousin Chantal, and a few other people passing in and out. I had about 5 different jewelry options and I made everybody vote. And then I needed help getting into the dress because of the silly slip, and Sarah tied a very lovely bow on the back of the dress for me. It was about 5:05 or maybe 5:10 at that point, and we were running late. We joked ahead of time that we were starting at 5 sharp, threatening people that we were on military time and if they were late, on their own heads be it. Everybody vacated the bathroom except me and my mom, and we had a couple minutes to ourselves. She commented that I didn't seem nervous at all, and I just smiled because all I felt was assurance. Well, and happiness and excitement but mostly just a calm conviction that I was absolutely walking on the right path. We hugged, and I asked her to give me a minute to myself and go let everybody know I'd be out shortly.
I looked at myself in the mirror, took a deep breath, and told myself I was a smoking hottie! Ha ha, not really, but I should have. I just did a mental once-over to make sure I had the bouquet and ring and the bow was still tied, my shoes were buckled, I didn't have lipstick on my teeth or anything, and then I walked out. It was a very short walk to the ballroom doors, and when I walked through I could tell nobody was ready yet. I hovered there for a moment and made eye contact with one of the djs. They scrambled a little bit and I debated turning around and going back to the bathroom for a few more minutes, but at that point Tony saw me. He started walking toward me and everyone noticed I was there. We ended up walking toward each other and meeting at the top of a little ramp, which was totally unplanned but worked out perfectly. One of my favorite pictures is of us smiling at each other at the top of the ramp. We made our way to the dance floor and I gave my mom my bouquet.
I'd never met our minister before, but we had corresponded via e-mail a few times. He did a really great job for us, and I'm glad he was our officiant. He sent us a few sample "scripts" for his message and our vows, and we picked a few that we liked and combined them. We specifically asked him to talk about surrounding ourselves with people we love, and to thank everyone for traveling so far to be with us. When we exchanged rings, Tony put mine on my hand first and when it was my turn, the minister made a little joke about "with this much larger ring" and got a good laugh.
Next up, the vows.
Hey, remember that little old lady from the parking lot? If you were there, you know where this is going. If you weren't, I bet you never thought she'd play a bigger role in our story, did you? Anyway, I happened to be facing the water and Tony was facing back toward the parking lot. Our ballroom was glass on two sides, with a view of the water and a field and woods behind us. The shades were halfway down because of the sun, but you could still see outside quite clearly.
As Tony was saying his vows, I got distracted by a motion behind him. This is terrible, but I wasn't really listening to what he and the minister were saying. I was too busy trying not to bust out laughing. You see, the little old lady was slowly, methodically making her way across the field behind us! I was literally biting the inside of my cheek and saying over and over to myself, "Pay attention to Tony. Pay attention to Tony. Don't laugh. What he's saying is actually pretty important to your future, you should listen. Don't laughdon'tlaughdon'tlaugh!" I was nearly shaking, and I knew Tony knew something was up, but he couldn't see the little old lady! I knew better than to look at anybody in the audience either, because I surely would have lost it. Regardless of the distraction, we got married, the minister said we could kiss, and he said to the crowd something like "I am now happy to present Mr. and Mrs........"
He forgot how to pronounce our name!!!
We laughed, Tony turned around and reminded him (because he specifically told him how to pronounce it just before the ceremony started), and we were properly introduced to the crowd.
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| Tony reminding the minister how to pronounce our last name |
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| You thought I was kidding about the little old lady, didn't you? |
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