pre-party

Okay. I'm ready. I was cool as a cucumber throughout the whole wedding planning process. I knew what was important to me and I absolutely didn't care about the rest. It wasn't until the day before the wedding when I started feeling worried and guilty, for the most ridiculous reasons.

You see, this winter has been one of the craziest and most unpredictable I've ever seen in California. As soon as the 10-day forecast began to include our wedding date it read rain. rain rain crazy thunderstorm showers rain. All along I totally knew that this was a possibility and though to myself "so what, I love rain! we could take fun umbrella pictures! it'll be so cozy!" So we had the rentals delivered and tent set up thursday before the wedding. Thursday night was an out-of-control rain/wind storm. When we arrived at Husband's (!) parent's house Friday morning to start setting up, we discovered that the tent had shifted about a foot away from the house (despite the multiple 55 gallon drums full of water that it was staked off to), away from the overhang and the wind had pushed the rain in and the entire ground (and all of the tables) were soaked. It was freezing cold and wet still. We had rented a heater, but it only had 10 hours worth of propane that needed to last through the end of the day saturday so we didn't want to exhaust that one. We pulled the tables into the garage and wiped them down. We brought out a space heater and a professional grade steamer to begin steaming the giant round table cloths that we had purchased...thinking that maybe we should have started doing that sooner. And then we blew the circuit in the garage. twice if I'm not mistaken. meanwhile the bulk flowers were brought in and were beginning to be arranged, linen napkins were being folded, vases and centerpieces assembled. A few of my bridesmaids showed up to help, which was wonderful.

No one was letting me do anything, which was fine because I had started freaking out that all of my guests would be soaked and frozen the following day. I drove to Sacramento to pick up my aunt and cousin at the airport, where it was sunny, and got a text from my parents that it had begun to hail and then snow. perfect.

I get back to the reception set up chaos to find out from Husband that one of his best friends and one of our supplemental photographers, who lives in colorado, told him the night before, after avoiding Husband's calls for about a week, that he "couldn't afford the trip". Which is totally understandable in and of itself, but c'mon dude, you JUST figured out you couldn't make it?? a little notice would've been nice. Also his bachelor party the night before ended in a bit of drama... So husband is pissed. yay wedding...

Out of the whole day I had maybe folded one napkin and moved one candle. People kept telling me to eat and not help. All the while my family members are freaking out, being impatient, snapping at each other. (we don't do well under pressure and time constraints...)  So I decided to go to the hotel to check in for the night. My mind was still freaking out so I decided to just hang out at the hotel until the rehearsal dinner. So I call one of my bridesmaids at the reception site to tell her I wouldn't be coming back, and she tells me "actually I'm at an urgent care right now, I started feeling dizzy and having shortness of breath and I've been sick on and off for a few months now and I just really needed to get checked out." turns out the poor thing had bronchitis! so I told her to skip the rehearsal and she could take her antibiotics and pass out in my hotel room and we'd see how she was feeling in the morning.

By this time I'm not doing so well. I text Husband to tell him about bridesmaid, turns out he's in the hotel too, hanging out in his friends room. So he comes up and we just sat and he told me that everything will be alright (that is totally his catchphrase). It completely calmed me down. And it reaffirmed that he's the one I'm supposed to be married to.

The rest of the evening zoomed by. The rehearsal went well, Husband's film school directorial training totally came out as he began ordering people about. Lots of laughing and it was so fun to finally get all of our family and wedding party into the same room. (fun fact, this was the first time my parents met Husband's dad and step mom, even though they live approximately 5 miles away from eachother and we've been dating for 5 years. weird huh?). Dinner was delish, pretty sure I don't have a single photo, but we ordered approximately 12 large chicago style pizzas and had lots of leftovers!

Next up: Bridesmaid bonding!