** We never had a wedding rehearsal. The Reverend was not available the night before and our parties were not available two nights before, so we would dry-run with the parties ourselves at the Rehearsal Dinner, and the Reverend would rehearse with our parties at the Chapel at noon for our 12:30 ceremony-
except people started leaving the Rehearsal Dinner early,
and it rained, hard, on the day of our wedding in the one-room, vestibule-free chapel,
and lots of guests mis-remembered the time and showed up at Noon,
and our Reverend got stuck in weather and traffic and arrived at 12:15.
So my mother and one bridesmaid left the Chapel directly after the ceremony and missed that photo session,
and John and I were standing freshly married in the back of the Church talking to family members for a good 15 minutes before we looked at one another and said,
"Oh CRAP! Our guests are all still in their pews waiting! How do we get them out of here?",
and finally I whispered to a photographer,
"Go let the first pew out! Everyone else will get the hint!",
and John and I looked at one another the next day and said,
"Umm, what happened to our marriage license application? Do you know where it is?",
and my uncle forgot his glasses and felt awful for stumbling through his reading,
(we did not mind a bit),
and lots of guests used flash photography, having not been told not to, when our photographers had been asked not to use flash,
and when I got to the door of the Chapel, I had to suck my butt in out of the rain and linger undramatically while someone realized the paper runner had to be unrolled over the footstep dampened wooden floorboards, and then stand and cut it before the Chapel assistant snuck behind me to untie my bustle....
while I stood in the doorway sucking my tush in out of the rain ;-)
And John and I had a blast. When the ceremony was all over, and we were standing in back of the Chapel while our guests lingered helplessly in their pews, my mom said to me,
"I loved the laughter. It was wonderful."
Because there was lots of laughter:
From me as I stood half-excited, and momentarily petrified, at the door of the Church with my butt sucked in out of the rain while the runner was cut haphazardly with scissors at my feet and the Chapel assistant had his hands up my skirts untying the bustle;
from the gathering of 120 guests, our parties, and us, when I paused in the very middle of my vows to say, quite loudly,
"I keep waiting for John to say, 'Speak up, Damnit!' "
Because I did. I kept trying not to laugh mid-vows as his facial expression contorted and I could just hear him thinking to me, "Karen- Speak up!!!"
And there was laughter from us as we stood tied together at the wrists with a handfasting cord and John's very classy and very down-to-Earth aunt slid by us to do her reading and whispered just loudly enough,
"I like the bondage thing! ;-) "
I had a lot of cold feet in the weeks just before our wedding, and I was not one bit excited.
But on our wedding day John and I agreed we would not see one another at all until I walked up the aisle,
and so I sat in the limo while the rain came down all around and guests filed in under football umbrellas,
and groomsmen filtered in and out of the door,
and my mom made me a nervous wreck checking her watch every two minutes and fretting out loud upon whether or not the Reverend would arrive,
and my father slipped into the limo and my parents who have hosted Holy War size battles amongst themselves for 20 years spoke kindly to one another,
AND THEN.....
John arrived and through the reverse-tinted limousine windows I saw him in his single-breasted black tux with his white vest and his bow-tie of Celery green and I simply melted and live-wired all at once.
We had an absolute blast all the way through and I am so anxious to see our video, and see my groom in his tux, and hear our ceremony second-hand, and hear that laughter all over again.
** Reception story to follow.
